Gondola for Auckland harbour crossing, cheaper and faster than walk cycle bridge.

Loading bikes onto a gondola lift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl7N8-xGoVoShow more

Here is an exercise in different thinking: The Greater Auckland Council projects 6,560 daily crossings by 2048 on the bridge path. This is such a tiny number that you could lift half that number per hour in a pod lift, like on a ski field or gondola lift. The sky waka on Mount Ruapehu cost $25 million and is 1.8km long, and they made it pretty - because it's in a national park. You could probably build a gondola line strung under or beside the existing bridge for a third of the cost of the projected cycle walk path, you could build it from Akoranga Drive transport hub to Victoria park for that low price - you get a tourist attraction for a third of the cost. You could charge less than the bus fare for the same distance, to cover power bill and staff pay, cover maintenance and make it attractive to use.

The largest kinds of double wire gondola lifts could transport 5,000 people per hour, the expensive option. A single wire system could carry 2,400 per hour, the budget option. We could just use the budget option. But you could do the expensive option for less than the same price of the bike bridge.

The length of this line would be 6.8km, which is about 1/10th of the length of the longest lines currently in operation, it is technically simple to develop. A two wire lift line would transit Auckland CBD to Takupuna in less than 12 minutes, when operating at full speed, that’s the double wire system, which can run at 40km/ hour, which is faster than the speed that I drove last time I crossed the bridge. Cheaper option pod lifts, a single wire line, run at up to 25km/h, which would make the 6.8km trip in 17 minutes. The cheap option will close in rough weather, the double wire option can run in rough weather.

A pod lift line can run at full speed at peak and slow down for sight seeing tourists off peak. It could be built in two years. It's so cheap that you could build a second (single wire) line Belmont- Bayswater- Devonport- CBD, within the same budget of the cycle path bridge and you can retire a ferry. You could build a loop encompassing both lines. It would probably cost around a billion dollars, but be way more useful than just the walk cycle bridge. If you budget 1.2 billion a double wire loop crossing the harbour Devonport to the Auckland CBD, around to Takapuna and back over the Auckland harbour bridge, this whole thing would dramatically improve traffic and travel times and be a mind blowing tourist attraction. You might need four years to sort all that out.

Advantages: Lifts have a good stable expected speed and time for the trip - no cross traffic. Gondola lifts are 10x safer per passenger mile than cars. Gondola lifts are powered by electricity, so it's zero emissions in operation. Bikes can racked on the outside of the pods. A gondola ride would be more enjoyable in rain and breezy weather rather than being exposed 45m above the middle of a harbour. Also, who would be crossing on a cycle path in rough weather? A dual cable system (which would be more expensive) could run when the Auckland Harbour bridge would close outer lanes due to weather. For a single wire line, there will be about 50 days per year when gusty weather will close the line for a number of hours, mostly in spring, and usually after the morning rush (it is windier at day time in Auckland than night time). A double wire line would hardly ever need to close, they can be operated in winds up to 80 or 100km/h.You don’t have to hire a whole government department of consultants to build a gondola line. You can just go to a commercial company that makes them (ski lift companies) and get them to design a project proposal. They can do the consulting and engineering work when they price the job. It’s all made of standard components, so you can just pick the style off of a parts list.

If you build the single wire bridge line only, the other 2/3 of the money you save, you can put in a fund to provide everyone in New Zealand who wants to buy a bike or an ebike a $200 subsidy every 10 years until the end of time, when invested well, (meaning most kids could have a free bike to ride to school). It gets better with stops on the line. You could also have a station on the line at Point Erin Park and Stratford park which allows for people getting on and off not only at the terminal ends.

If the importance of the bridge crossing is for exercise, customers could run / cycle the majority of their commute, but be lifted from Stratford park to Point Erin park.

It puzzles me why the sky path bridge is so expensive for relatively few people served. Yes, it would be good to have the bridge crossing. It's actually in a sad location for tourism. That is to say, it will be good for commuters but little else. Will it be attractive to use after dark? A lot of commuters take a bus home after work in winter, its not on my priority list to walk over the harbour bridge after dark.