Grand Rapids is a vibrant city where significant investment is spurring development and increasing tourism within the city. As with most growing cities, transportation demands offer both challenges and opportunities. Aerial gondolas are being considered for their transit benefits and ability to link tourist destinations. Downtown Grand Rapids is the home of an arena, a convention center, a theater complex, and the Medical Mile, a concentration of medical and education facilities. With this concentration of activity, parking is at a premium. There is potential to connect Downtown with outlying areas and produce remote parking, freeing up more land downtown for development opportunities.
SCJ’s current work on the Grand Rapids gondola began with a Preliminary Economic & Technical Analysis (PETA) study. Then a feasibility study included validating a number of gondola system alignments from Millennium Park to the City Center. In total, eleven gondola stations and ten gondola segments were considered. This ranging system of gondola segments would connect several tourist attractions, community use areas, and a remote parking area for commuters to form a hybrid transit and recreational system. This unique system would travel through various terrain, from urban city streets to rural areas.