Is the answer to traffic jams over our heads ?

Traffic congestion in Bath has long been a problem discussed by businesses. It’s a complex issue and a lot of time and energy has gone into improving matters, for example by enhancing public transport provision. It’s a similar story in Cities all around the world, but I was struck recently with a story from Paris, which has just opened France’s first urban cable car, a 4.5km service with five stations, which links southern suburbs with the main transport network.

They went for the imaginative solution of a cable car because it had a very small ground footprint, just 30 towers, didn’t take long to build, is very clean and it can carry up to 11,000 passengers a day on a journey of 18 minutes, less than half the road time for buses or cars. The cost was around £120m, which sounds a big number, but it’s a fraction of building an alternative such as an underground metro.

The reason my ears pricked up when I heard about the Paris story was that a few years ago some business people were mulling over the issue of traffic congestion and the proposition of a cable car emerged. It would have taken people down to the City centre from a hilltop development, vastly reducing the number of car journeys.

Such a cable car could have been run quickly at commuter time but then more slowly during the day to allow tourists an incredible view of the City and provide visitors with a real wow factor. Sadly, in my opinion, the scheme did not come to pass, but it would have been a real game changer.

There are many cities around the world who have adopted the urban cable car, especially some in South America where a topography featuring very steep hills make it a challenge to get around by road. La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, has the world's most extensive system, with ten lines spanning nearly 20 miles and carrying an incredible 160,00 people every day.

I am not advocating criss-crossing the whole of Bath with cable cars, but I do think it may be instructive to look at how other cities are coming up with novel ideas to tackle similar problems to our own and maybe adapt them to local conditions.