[SoftwareMaven]

I think Gondolas would be great, but accessibility seems problematic, and that would likely kill it for any US public transport system. With constantly moving cars, getting a wheelchair or a person who has difficulty walking on would be quite a challenge. Do you know how that gets addressed?

[oceanic]

I wondered about wheelchair/disabled access too, having never seen a wheelchair-bound person on one. Apparently it's a solved problem though – at least one gondola manufacturer (CWA [0]) explicitly states that their cars are wheelchair (and stroller) accessible, and their cars have been installed in the USA – the Texas Skyway at Fair Park, Texas [1], where I imagine it was probably a requirement. Another system which advertises its accessibility is the Seilbahn Koblenz – “all visitors can easily get in and out of cabins… including wheelchairs, pushchairs, bicycles and dogs(!)” [2].

As long as the doors open wide enough, and the car is able to have floor-level loading, it shouldn't be a problem. Cars are able to be brought to a complete stop if needed. AFAIK, the only reason gondolas currently slow to “crawl” pace inside stations at the moment is that keeping some momentum means they require less acceleration to get back up to travel speed.

[0] http://www.cwa.ch/en/ethos-_content---1--1049.html

[1] http://www.fairpark.org/index.php?option=com_content&vie...

[2] http://www.seilbahn-koblenz.de/buses-and-groups.html