TARGET 150225

A Little Help, Here, Please!!!

photo credit: FamilyRide.com

Remember riding your bike when you were young? There was always a hill somewhere, wasn't there. This is what it was like.



but this is how it felt.

Since the bicycle was invented (in Germany in 1817), there have been many improvements and innovations, but there was always "that hill" that gave bike riders such trouble. Bicycles were fitted with gears to make the climb easier. All kinds of inventions have been made to ease the climb, but it was still tough.

Until recently, though, nobody had ever thoght of an invention that changed the hill. Then, along came the innovative thinking of Trampe division of The POMA Group, a French cableway company. The invention has become known as "The Cyclocable".


^{The Cyclocable}

An especially steep hill in Trondheim, Norway became their first testing ground. The climb is 130 meters (426 feet) long, and will cause even professional racing bicyclists the embarrassment of having to dismount and walk their bikes up the hill.


Its use is very simple.

You wait until the elevator pad is at the bottom,
Then press the green button,



Put your foot onto the elevator pad,



And up you go.






The first prototype was installed in 1993. Since then, it's become a popular tourist attraction that's powered more than 200,000 cyclists up the hill, with no accidents recorded.

The original lift was dismantled in 2012, and replaced a year later with CycloCable, an industrialized version upgraded to meet new safety standards.

And, of course, the convenience it offers has not been lost on the local people who live on or over the hill, either.



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Since the Cyclocable has been so successful in this one place, and has lasted for 22 years without a single safety incident and very little maintenance, other cities are looking at the idea. City planners in Montreal, Canada, San Francisco, USA, and other cities around the world which are built in very hilly locations, have been seriously considering the installation of Cyclocables. The initial cost is the same as building a bike path, with the only difference being maintenance. The Cyclocable consists only of an elevator-like control box, a motor, and a cable that needs to be greased and cleaned now and then, so is therefore a very economical alternative to the accidents which happen between motorists, pedestrians, and bikers on steep hills in the cities.

Feedback map



If you got impressions for which this feedback is insufficient, more information,
pictures and videos can be found at the following web sites:

Trampe Company (the manufacturer)
CityLab web site
MTL Blog site, Montreal

Many thanks to Family Ride - U.S. and The Daily Mail (UK) ("Return to cobbled hill") for the first two pictures of this target feedback.