Jarrett Walker rides on the Wellington Cable Car, giving him the opportunity to explain the four conditions for when a funicular is a sensible transit solution.
The Wellington Cable Car meets Walker's 4 requirements:
"...it's a straight line, running at high frequency, through high density, where competitors are at a disadvantage."
So what is a funicular, anyway? Walker explains:
""Cable car" generally means any vehicle attached to a cable that provides the locomotion. The car has no engine, but an engine of some kind is moving the cable. The cable can be aerial (gondolas, aerial trams) or underground (San Francisco cable cars) or it can just lie on the surface in a special guideway, as in most funiculars."
Read Human Transit for more on this cable car and when they're effective.
FULL STORY: wellington: a sensible tourist on the cable car

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