No such system anywhere in world
Wear
sengers, floating around Austin.
Hey, at least McDaniel isn’t suggesting a system of flume rides. I asked if he was making a serious policy proposal or just being provocative.
“Both,” said McDaniel, a graphic designer by training, not an engineer. The map, with its dozens of miles of lines, was mostly a provocation, he said. But the idea of using gondolas as a Central Austin circulator system, he said, “is not only feasible, but it just makes a whole lot of sense.”
Building a light rail or streetcar system, on the other hand, while it might be worthwhile in the long run, McDaniel said, would be disastrous for businesses along a line during construction.
“We’re trying to make (the gondola proposal) uncomfortably visible, just to show people there’s an alternative out there,” he said.
Although McDaniel said he’ll be hosting Round Rock officials at Frog Design this week to talk about gondolas, he hasn’t set up any meetings with Austin officials.
Rob Spillar, Austin’s transportation director and an enthusiastic proponent of the city’s $1.3 billion urban rail initiative, was polite but not especially interested in the concept.
“I really appreciate people who think outside the box,” he told me. “A lot of good ideas spring from that type of thinking and that approach to the world.”
He said that overhead