南美洲開箱文 (7) 蛤？纜車也可以拿來當大眾運輸工具？
First time in South America (7) gondola lift as a means of public transit? (English on the bottom)
哥倫比亞的最後三篇，終於可以來寫寫只停留了一天卻讓我回味再三的城市，麥德林（Medellin）。這裡的歷史向所有人證明，即使曾經是全世界最危險的城市，仍然可能因為一群人的努力而改頭換面。
先來談談大眾運輸。相較於首都波哥大早已超過負荷量的系統，麥德林的居民可說是幸福不少。雖然位在地勢崎嶇的山區、而且只有兩條高運量地鐵，卻因為搭配了輕軌、BRT、公車與纜車的無縫轉乘，即使住在邊緣的居民都可以輕易抵達市中心工作——對，你沒聽錯，這裡真的把纜車當成大眾運輸的一環，已經有5條而且正在蓋第6條，而且還可以和地鐵站內換乘。
麥德林過去的都市發展用災難來形容也不為過。由於大量人口湧入，原本就不多的平地很快就蓋滿房子，剩下的人只好沿著山坡一路往山頂蓋，綿延的程度完敗已經超限利用的台北盆地四周，而這些地區大多沒有經過都市規劃，出入只能靠窄小蜿蜒的小巷。這樣的地方無論拓寬道路和鋪設地鐵都不可行，能夠適應崎嶇地形、還可以直接跨越高密度民房的纜車就成了唯一解藥。
問題是，在其他地方通常用來給觀光客看風景的纜車，真的能負荷尖峰時段的龐大人流嗎？那天晚上為了去山上拍夜景，我加入了下班的人潮，親自體驗纜車的極限功力。只見系統把速度調到最快、車廂掛到最密，平均每10秒一車廂，每個車廂可以載12人，換算每小時可以單向載運4,320人；同樣的區間如果換成巴士，至少發100輛車才能載完。
結論：拿纜車來當大眾運輸是可行的，而且運量還不低啊！
In the three final posts of the Colombian series, I'd like to share about a city that impressed me: Medellin. Despite its notorious past, it has proven that a city can change because of some people's effort. Let's talk about its public transit first.
Medellin has probably the best public transit system of South America: two heavy-rail lines, in junction with with light rail, bus rapid transit, regular buses and gondola lifts, makes it possible for even those in the urban margins to get to the center easily. And don't be surprised -- gondola is really part of the system, with seamless transfer directly to subway lines.
The development of metro Medellin was a disaster. It's an over-crowded mountainous city, which forced new migrants to find residence in surrounding hillslopes. Those neighborhoods formed without any planning, and were connected to the city only by some narrow, curvy streets. Gondola, which works on all terrains and can fly over already built houses, became the ultimate solution to the city's mobility issue.
Now you may wonder: so, how many people can a gondola lift carry? Is it capable of handling the rush-hour crowds? While staying there, I joined the rush-hour crowds and witnessed how many people a gondola line can carry: 1 car every 10 seconds, and each car carries 12 people, 4,320 people can be moved on each direction in an hour. It's proven to be a powerful and efficient means of urban transit -- if replaced by buses, you need at least 100 buses to carry the same amount of people.
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