Toronto is rightly a city of transit skeptics, but we shouldn’t let that get in the way of a good idea, like gondolas. That’s right, gondolas, cable cars, aerial tramways, that sort of thing.

Last week, a private company proposed building a gondola from somewhere on the east side of the Don Valley down to Evergreen Brickworks, which, we are told, attracts 500,000 visitors annually.

Tweeters responded with derision, but what’s wrong with cable cars? They might not move as many people as a subway, but if the view counts, they are clearly the better way. As it is, for most people, the only practical way to travel to the Brickworks is by car, more than a little ironic for an urban environmental centre located in the heart of the city. There’s a private (non-TTC) bus that goes from the Broadview Station, but you can wait a long time for it to appear.

But why stop at Evergreen or one line? When you think about it, gondolas could open up vast swaths of Toronto, not only for tourists but locals as well. Just imagine how cable cars could change life in, say, Scarborough. Forget all the palaver about subways (which cost billions), LRTs (fancy streetcars), SRTs (never works) and buses (exhaust-spewing and hardly ever on time). What Scarborough needs is gondolas, gondolas, gondolas.

Consider the convenience, not to mention the sheer pleasure, the thrill, the rush, of riding a state-of-the-art cable car from Kennedy Station to Scarborough Civic Centre, Town Centre and beyond. Sailing over the sea of parking lots, the highways, arterials, driveways, the cars, congestion and pure mind-numbing awfulness of it all . . . . But no. Looking down on the fray in your free-wifi climate-controlled cabin chatting with a group of American tourists from South Carolina – big fans of U.S. President Donald J. Trump – the struggle below seems miles away, meaningless, silly even.

In a gondola, you’re not just another earthbound commuter fighting to get to work; you become a spectator, almost god-like. People look up to you. Residents of the surrounding towers watch you go by and wish they were having as much fun.

And let’s not end there. Some see gondolas on top of the Gardiner Expressway, on either side of it, under it. What about running a line down the Don Valley Parkway to the waterfront, where there’s huge potential? Can a Downtown Relief Gondola be far behind?

The wide open spaces of North York are also rich with opportunity. Picture Mel Lastman Square as the hub of a network of express cable cars connecting landmarks such as Fairview Mall, Black Creek Pioneer Village and The Peanut. In Etobicoke, especially the south end where navigating the spaces between condos can be tricky, gondolas could be the answer.

We shouldn’t forget other cities. Mississauga, for example, could install gondolas to help shoppers traverse the distance between the mall and where their cars are parked. Very handy for sightseers, seniors and soccer moms. Gondolas running between Square One and Mississauga City Hall would also eliminate the need for pedestrians to cross the multi-lane highways that divide and circumscribe both precincts.

Downtown could also benefit from cable cars. No doubt Porter Airlines would demand a fixed gondola link to the Billy Bishop Toronto Island Airport. It would extend to King and Bay to serve the busy business executive market. Dedicated gondola lines on King, Queen and Dundas could help make rush hour less unpleasant.

Except for Mayor John Tory, city officials haven’t taken the concept seriously. But that’s never stopped a planning process that reaches out to consult Torontonians about proposed transit schemes, even ones that won’t be built for decades, if ever.

Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca

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