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A comment on How ski lifts are installed: Vail's new Chair 5 (2011) [video]. Parent comment

Re:How ski lifts are installed: Vail's new Chair 5 (2011) [v... by Fezzik on Sunday April 09, 2017 @08:06PM (#14075041)
A slight modification: though slow, they can have multiple un/loading points. The main gondola at Whistler has a mid-mountain loading point along with a top and bottom un/loading point. The Peak to Peak Gondola only has a loading point at each end because it's crossing a giant chasm.

Your point stands though: gondolas are probably not a great form of transport. That said, I have no idea what the speed limits would be for a gondola that was designed for speed.

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Re:How ski lifts are installed: Vail's new Chair 5 (2011) [v... by pcarolan on Sunday April 09, 2017 @09:26PM (#14075369)
They have those unloading points because they are able to take them off of the cable while loading and unloading. We don't design these for cities, but we could. This means loading/unloading could be coordinated across multiple nodes and you could even switch tracks which takes care of the fixed distance problem. Detachable chairlifts can do 12mph which is faster than many city buses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detachable_chairlift
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