Essay Example on Ropeways in Tourism: An Overview

Introduction

1.1 Background

For most countries in the world, their urban areas represent the backbone of their economy. It is not a surprise because most of the economic activities take place in these urban areas. Urban areas thence contribute immensely to a country’s GDP. According to Frick & Rodríguez-Pose (2018), any economic activities occur in these urban areas, including manufacturing and the service industry, among others. These industries and sectors lead to the formation of other service sectors, such as banks, schools, health, and infrastructure. The population in urban areas then ends up increasing because people are drawn to these employment and business opportunities, support services such as schools, or a combination of the two. Whereas 50% of the current world’s population lives in urban areas, this figure is projected to grow to 70% in the next generation (TRB, 2020). Whichever the drawing factor is, the high population leads to the phenomena of unintended consequences. One such consequence is the transportation problem. This transportation problem, which will be expounded further below, has then led to an increase in interest in the use of Aerial Ropeways.

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The exploding population in the urban areas has created many problems, some to do with the transportation system. Gately, Hutyra, Peterson, & Wing (2017) explain that one such problem is that of pollution and the lack of sustainability. The fumes that are released by the vehicles are toxic to the environment, and they are not sustainable. These fumes are mostly released by the vehicles when employees commute to and from work and access the essential services within the urban centers. These fuel emissions are toxic to the environment, and they pose many challenges to humans living in these urban centers. In some of India's urban centers, it has caused visibility issues. With the current Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown restrictions that have been imposed, fewer cars are on the road, hence fewer fumes (Sicard, De Marco, Agathokleous, Feng, Xu, Paoletti, & Calatayud, 2020). These fumes also affect health, especially causing issues of the lung, which may deteriorate individuals' health in the long.

Another transportation problem caused by a massive population in urban areas is traffic. It is common to witness long traffic snarl-ups in urban areas. Traffic is not a respecter of the level of economic and infrastructural development that the country has. Even countries with the most developed urban road transportation system still have problems with long traffic snarl-ups. For example, substantial traffic volumes are the norm in downtown Bangkok, Manila, and Shanghai. Ten kilometers per hour is the average speed on weekdays in these traffic jams. The net economic effect of these traffic snarl-ups has been hard to quantify, but estimates have put the effects on the billions. Employees get late to work, deliveries are late, among many others, hence limiting the velocity of the circulation of money, which then depresses the efforts to optimize the addition of value and the creation of wealth. Also, traffic snarl-ups affect other non-economic societal issues such as emergencies to hospitals, going to school, accessing tourism & recreational sports, among others.

1.2 Statement of The Problem

With the background of the urban transport challenges having been discussed in-depth in the analysis above, it then automatically leads to trying to find a solution to the problem. Many solutions have been implemented in the past to solve this urban transportation problem. These solutions vary according to the city or urban center in question. One such approach is expanding the existing road transport network (Jiang, Kang, Li, Guo, & Havlin, 2017). This is an expensive approach and has sometimes only worked for the short run because cities and urban centers continue to expand, with others expanding in an unplanned and sophisticated manner. There have also been many cases where many topographic obstacles such as rivers, landmark buildings, even hills, or valleys within the urban centers make it complicated to expand the road system. Other options that have been applied include the railroad system, subway system, among many others. Most of them have ultimately failed to solve these urban transportation problems because of the challenges and the weaknesses that they have. One such challenge is that of sustainability. With increased cases of global warming and climate change, governments, especially in developed countries, have been the strongest advocates of sustainable development. With the transportation system being at the forefront of the pollution, it is incumbent on urban authorities and governments to lead by example.

Consequently, governments all over the world have been looking into alternatives to implement sustainable transport systems. The sustainability of the transport system has to balance its social and environmental impact, while also proving as being the value for money. The latter is related to the first two aspects of sustainability in that public resources are limited and should be spent in a way that is not wasteful to the public resources to optimize and maximize its benefits. The urban area authorities have also been grappling with an urban transportation system and network that is not affected by topography, among many other problems that are specific to an urban area.

All these have then pointed to the viability of Aerial Ropeways to solve the persistent urban area transportation problems. Defined simply, a ropeway is a rope-assisted means of transport. By being rope-assisted, it is more times than not suspended in the air. Aerial Ropeways as a method of transportation is not a new phenomenon, and it has been a concept that has been around for a while. Its development and mass roll-out has, however, been slower than expected. This low uptake is a surprise due to the perceived and alleged advantages and benefits that come with it.

One of the Aerial Ropeways projects that have been used as a yardstick internationally is in Medellín, Colombia. The ropeway was a project completed in 2010, and it has acted as an essential point of reference and a crucial learning curve. It is from the outcome of this project that some of the European countries, including Germany (TRB, 2020), are looking into the modalities of implementing similar projects.

1.3 The role of ropeways

On the face of it, Aerial Ropeways are viewed to be a sustainable model and means of transportation in the urban areas. The importance of this Aerial Ropeways transport system should not be underrated or underestimated given the massive transport problems faced in urban areas. These problems include congestion, traffic jams, unsolvable topography issues, and pollution, among others specific to an urban area/city. By being suspended in the air, Aerial Ropeways solve many of these problems in a feasible way. The Aerial Ropeway form of transport uses electricity as a source of energy. Fume and other resultant forms of pollution are then decreased to a great extent or even eliminated if the Aerial Ropeways can be implemented successfully all across an urban area.

Despite all the above obvious and explicit benefits, Aerial Ropeways are more complicated than they may appear. This study aims to unravel and explains some of these complications and complexities, revolving around the challenges, benefits, and solutions that it gives. One such area is complex and needs to be unraveled in the form of financing in these projects. Since it is an infrastructural project, its financing can follow these trajectories taken by the infrastructural projects undertaken by governments. The form of financing should consider many factors, and this study aims to research these factors that should be considered. Building an Aerial Ropeways transportation system should also be considered how it will be managed. In contemporary times, many approaches to the management of public infrastructural projects such as roads, railroads, and Aerial Ropeways systems are available. It could follow the traditional approach where the government or municipal authority is entirely in charge of the management. More recently, there has been an increase in public infrastructure projects, which are managed using public, private partnerships (PPPs).

1.4 Research Aim

His research aims to evaluate the benefits of Aerial Ropeways as a sustainable form of transportation in urban areas in terms of their ability to provide a sustainable transport solution and a positive cost-benefit.

1.5 Objectives of the Research

The objectives of this research are:

Analysing-depth the technical solutions that a Ropeway can provide within an urban transport system

Evaluate:

The cost benefits that may be derived from an Aerial Ropeways transport system