Residents and visitors could one day be using cable cars to cross rivers in two central Alberta cities.

A 350-metre urban ropeway, also known as a gondola, has been proposed to connect Red DeerB次元官网网址檚 business district with the Bower Ponds recreation area.

B次元官网网址淚n Red Deer, itB次元官网网址檚 really simple. There are two stations. It crosses the Red Deer River,B次元官网网址� said Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson, president of Prairie Sky Gondolas, which has said it would invest $25 -million in the project.

Prairie Sky also wants to string cable cars across the North Saskatchewan River between downtown Edmonton and Whyte Avenue, a popular street with bars, restaurants and stores. Geotechnical and environmental assessments are being done and public input is being gathered through meetings with Indigenous communities and others interested in the project.

The projects are two of many proposed across North America as a way to move people across waterways or get tourists up mountainsides.

Steven Dale is an urban planner who created The Gondola Project website and has consulted on many proposals. He said interest in urban ropeways has been growing steadily.

B次元官网网址淔ive years ago, the vast majority of my business was outside of North America,B次元官网网址� Dale said. B次元官网网址淭oday, itB次元官网网址檚 probably 85 to 90 per cent in North America.

B次元官网网址淏eyond the systems you have heard of, there are numerous other cities that are looking at this and discussing this very seriously.B次元官网网址�

Dale said cities have started to realize gondolas can be cheaper than other transit, can be built over less time and can be used to quickly move people from one spot to another.

B次元官网网址淣o one likes to do a commute B次元官网网址� so the shorter and more predictable it is, the better.B次元官网网址�

Toulouse, Grenoble and Paris in France are fully integrating gondolas into their transit networks, Dale said.

A similar idea is being considered in Burnaby, B.C., where city council in January endorsed a gondola connecting the rapid-transit SkyTrain lines to Simon Fraser University.

B次元官网网址淭he B次元官网网址� gondola project will create a safe and reliable transit option for Burnaby residents travelling to and from Burnaby Mountain,B次元官网网址� Mayor Mike Hurley said in a news release at the time.

The project is part of councilB次元官网网址檚 10-year vision that guides priorities and investments in transit.

Dale said gondolas in Latin America B次元官网网址渟pread like wildfireB次元官网网址� once the first integrated ones were built.

B次元官网网址淩ight now, North America is starting to pick up on it and itB次元官网网址檚 starting to spread hereB次元官网网址�

SJC Alliance, the company where Dale works, is involved in a gondola project in Los Angeles and in a study for another one in Tampa Bay, Fla.

B次元官网网址淭hink about the absurdity of this. We are talking about using a ski lift as public transit in Florida,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 totally ridiculous, but thatB次元官网网址檚 actually a good thing, because the ridiculousness of it gets peopleB次元官网网址檚 attention.B次元官网网址�

Ironically, Dale said, itB次元官网网址檚 only Canadians who say: B次元官网网址淲e have snow. We have ice. We have wind. We have winter. How does it work in winter?

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a ski lift. How do you think it works in winter? You take it out of the mountains and put it into a city and peopleB次元官网网址檚 minds go screwy.B次元官网网址�

There are already gondolas in Western Canada for tourists and skiers, but others are being considered in the Alberta mountain towns of Banff and Canmore. Developers want to build cable cars that would carry people to the tops of mountains from the townsites.

In Canmore, a proposal for a gondola at Silvertip Resort is before the public until the middle of June to set the terms for an environmental review. The project would connect the resort to the summit of Mount Lady MacDonald.

A gondola to take skiers and hikers from the Banff townsite to the summit of the Mount Norquay ski resort was rejected in 2019 by Parks Canada. The resortB次元官网网址檚 owners, however, told Banff town council last August that they still hope to build a smaller version from the town to the mountainB次元官网网址檚 base.

Back in Edmonton, Hansen-Carlson said an urban gondola can be a tourist draw, but it can also be a transportation solution.

B次元官网网址淎s a piece of infrastructure, simply moving people, its day has come,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淎round the world today, there are about 200 urban ropeways successfully operating.

B次元官网网址淪o, we are not a pioneer globally, but we definitely are in the North American context.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址擟olette Derworiz, The Canadian Press