| Author: | Dean Hall |
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This document is a response to Andrew Burleson's Cable-Propelled Challenge. In this document, I describe an installation of two gondola segments at Reliant Park, a multiple-use stadium in Houston, TX, U.S.A.
The Reliant Park Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT) is a gondola-style transit system with west and east terminal stations and a central exchange station. The west station is located beside a thoroughfare between two massive parking lots that are accessed from S Main St between Murworth Dr and McNee St. All parking stalls of both lots are within a quarter-mile of the western terminal. The central exchange station is located about 200 feet (60 meters) North of the Northwestern corner of Reliant stadium. The east station is at the Northwest corner of a parking lot accessed from Fannin St. near Holly Hall St. The east station is also just 200 feet (60 meters) from a Houston METRO light rail (LRT) station.
The West segment connects the West station to the central station and is roughly 1940 feet (590 meters). The East segment connects the East station to the central station and is roughly 2570 feet (780 meters). The combined length is about 0.8 mi (1.4 Km).
The Reliant Park CPT has uses both on weekdays and during special events. On weekdays, the CPT moves people from four very large parking lots (labeled 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the map) to the LRT station. This turns lots that are normally only used during special events (football games) into frequently used park-and-ride lots that can be entered from S Main St, Kirby Dr or Fannin St--three heavily used feeder roads. The transit passenger rides the gondola one or two hops to the eastern terminal and walks a short distance to the LRT platform. Most passengers will probably proceed North to the Texas Medical Center or beyond.
Reliant Stadium also hosts special events like the Houston Texans football games, international soccer matches, the 2011 NCAA Basketball Finals and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo during which tens of thousands of people concentrate into the stadium. The CPT will help convey these people from the remote parking lots and from the public mass transit to the stadium in a quick, enjoyable and memorable fashion.
I would suggest Houston METRO build, own and operate this CPT line, as opposed to the Reliant Park owners because a CPT ride should blend with the local public transit and it will showcase the convenience of Metro to event goers. How users pay for the gondola ride is another matter.
For the weekday park-and-ride scenario, the user pays a $2/day parking fee to Reliant and then uses his/her Q card to ride the gondola to the LRT station. This makes the CPT a part of the city's transit system from the user's perspective.
During special events, a person parking his car has to pay the event parking fee and may optionally pay for a gondola ride at that time; maybe $2/person. At the end of the special event, when over 70,000 people are leaving the stadium, demand for the CPT will spike and lines will form leading many people to walk back to their car. This makes moot the point of charging 1-way versus 2-way fares.
One special case is when a METRO passenger rides the light rail to Reliant Park to attend a special event. In this case, the gondola ride should be a seamless part of that person's transit experience, so a free Q Card transfer should be offered.