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A NEW INFRASTRUCTURE
INNOVATIVE TRANSIT SOLUTIONS FOR LOS ANGELES. COMPETITION
Los Angeles, CA

"A New Infrastructure: Innovative Transit Solutions For Los Angeles" was an open international ideas competition sponsored by SCIF at SCI-Arc and the Architect's Newspaper in response to Measure R.  The goal was to create solutions for innovative transit solutions that address the role of new technology and sustainability in the realm of infrastructure. 

Los Angeles Skyway. Competitioon Board
Los Angeles Skyway. Competitioon Board
 
LOS ANGELES SKYWAY

Transit is generally perceived as a necessary evil that needs to be dealt with in a fast and efficient way.  Therefore, infrastructure has been designed to take a maximum amount of people from home to work and back home in the fastest and most efficient way.  Most large cities feature a system of underground or fast-moving light rail systems in a star shape whose center lies in the center of the city.  Lastly most transit systems studies consider the commute between home and work only. 

 

The Los Angeles Skyway, an aerial cable transit system, offers a new kind of transit that:

 

  • Enhances quality and joy of transit experience;

  • Floats silently over the rooftops of the City;

  • Occupies a minimal footprint on the land;

  • Provides equal access for all portions of the City whether affluent or poor, dense or sprawl;

  • Provides transit opportunities for pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles;

  • Bridges the divide in the car vs. mass transit discussion by providing transportation for both;

  • Utilizes existing automobile related infrastructure as feeder to the system;

  • Creates a non-hierarchical field of access point that covers all densely populated areas;

  • Crosses hills and other natural and man-made obstacles in straight lines without difficulties;

  • Limits environmental impacts: Only little space required for towers and guide way;

  • Reduces capital cost per mile to less than half of traditional fixed guide way technologies;

  • Does not depend on fully developed system to reach 100 percent functionality;

  • Minimizes operating and maintenance costs.

 

The proposed aerial ropeway system is a FUNITEL, a dual cable system with detachable cabins.  The maximum spans between towers are 1,500 yards while the maximum single conveying length is about 6 miles.  The Los Angeles Skyway would have access points every 4 miles.  At these points the detachable cabins are transferred by an additional conveying system from one cable to the other. The system capacity is about 3,600 persons per hour with a carrier capacity of up to 8 people. 

 

In addition, the system technology has also been adapted to provide transport of vehicles (such as in a VW factory in Slovakia).  With the technology in existence, we propose that the Los Angeles Skyline is a dual system in which the aerial ropeway carries palettes for vehicle transit as well as cabins for personal transit.  We propose that the network of access point be configured such that personal access points occur at intervals of 4 miles in all directions while vehicle access points occur every 8 miles.  This provides a network of access points that would be strategically connected to other existing modes of transit such as Metro, light rail, Metrolink, buses, freeways and streets.  This means that the maximum distance to a Skyway station for non-motorized traffic would be 2 miles while the maximum driving distance equals 4 miles.

 

At local level, stations should be connected to a feeder system of linear public parks and commercial zones that make non-motorized traffic easier and more enjoyable.  An electric golf cart taxi service would augment the capacity of the feeder system as well as provide service for the disabled.  As the station network is organized as a non-hierarchical field to cover the entire densely populated area of the city, transit-oriented developments are limited to public amenities, linear parks and commercial opportunities around the system’s access points.

INNOVATIVE TRANSIT SOLUTIONS  FOR LOS ANGELES

Scope: competition design

Organizers: SCI-Arc and the Architect's Newspaper

Year: 2009

Project Type: urban

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