Officials may have found a solution to ease North Texas traffic: gondolas.
Whoosh®, an elevated cable and rail system, is looking to set up a pilot program, and city leaders from Dallas, Plano, Arlington, Frisco, and DeSoto have expressed interest, according to the Dallas Business Journal.
The transportation resource will work as an on-demand ride-hailing experience similar to Uber.
“Whoosh creates personalized, point to point transportation for passengers or goods traveling in autonomous electric vehicles on a light and flexible elevated cable and rail guideway,” per the company’s website. “Whoosh networks are modular and can include small pull-off stops, larger hub stations or combinations of both to create a variety of journey options across a region.”
The company touts that its technology is “flexible and easy to implement in tight spaces” and decreases construction costs that would otherwise be used on roadway construction.
Additionally, Woosh claims that the gondolas would reduce CO2 emissions, allow for more green space below, and make travel safer by mitigating accident risks.
A June report listed Dallas as one of the nation’s most congested cities, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. The Global Traffic Scorecard study conducted by INRIX showed that the average Dallas driver lost 38 hours to congestion in 2023 alone, marking a 6-hour increase from the previous year and costing approximately $658 in wasted time per driver.
Forbes Advisor recently ranked Dallas as the ninth-worst city for driving and tenth-worst for overall safety. According to the City dashboard, as of August 7, Dallas had seen 520 severe and 117 fatal crashes this year.
Notably, Dallas residents have demanded pedestrian safety zones on the streets after an uptick in pedestrian fatalities.
Whoosh is currently operating its first pilot project in New Zealand. Interested cities will have until the end of the year to submit proposals, and the pilot location will be chosen by mid-2025.