San Francisco is now officially assessing the possibility of building a gondola airlift from the Forest Hill Muni station to Laguna Honda hospital, a seemingly out-of-left-field idea that would admittedly be fun as heck if they actually went through with it.
We do not write much about the SF County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), which is not the same thing as the SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) that oversees Muni and SF streets. The SFCTA is basically just the SF Board of Supervisors, meeting twice a month to “plan, fund, and deliver transportation projects to improve travel choices.” But some surprising news came out of the SFCTA’s Tuesday meeting, as the Chronicle reports the SFCTA is considering building a gondola airlift between the Forest Hill Muni station to Laguna Honda hospital.
There is a $170,000 Prop L request to study and assess the possibility of a gondola from Forest Hill station to Laguna Honda Hospital. Supervisor Myrna Melgar requested the study. Staff will present the study to the board next year. pic.twitter.com/LeiQc9W52s
— Jerold Chinn 陳景深 (@Jerold_Chinn) October 8, 2024
On Tuesday, the SFCTA merely authorized a $175,000 study to assess the feasibility and usefulness of such a thing. “An aerial gondola has been proposed to help visitors arriving by transit to access the Laguna Honda site,” according to Tuesday’s meeting materials (which are quite lengthy and this is all the way down on Page 105). “This study will review the opportunities, constraints, and costs of such a system for a location at this high level.”
Supervisor Myra Melgar, in whose district this gondola would be built, puts it in plainer English. “It has been a constant challenge to get folks that last quarter mile up the hill” toward Laguna Honda hospital Melgar said at Tuesday’s meeting, per the Chronicle. “We have also struggled getting folks to the top of the Twin Peaks hill both in the District 8 side and District 7 side in ways other than the polluting tourist buses and/or private cars.”
Above we see the distance between Forest Hill station and Laguna Honda hospital, it’s not even a half a mile. But this also represents one hell of a steep hill, so it certainly may be useful for hospital patients or visitors.
The study would also assess the possibility of aerial gondolas in other SF locations. Or rather, as the document says, “the study will generalize findings for application to potential gondola systems in other parts of the city.”
There are a few other gondolas in the Bay Area: a little-used aerial gondola at Salesforce Transit Center, and a very awesome gondola at the Oakland Zoo. And while the idea may sound like a boondoggle, honestly, this would be an absolutely kick-ass thing to have. Though it may be more frequented by tourists and looky-loos, like another SkyStar ferris wheel, than by hospital patients and their visitors.
And notably, there is no price tag on the project yet, just the study that will cost $175,000.
Image: a gondola of the mountain railway in tyrol (Getty Images)
