Monorail!

Okay, well, not a literal monorail in this case. Instead we have Baton Rouge Civic Leaders talking about an "Urban Gondola." 

Baton Rouge Area Foundation President and CEO John Davies said Wednesday that the solution to the city’s traffic problems is not adding more roads, but exploring new transportation methods ranging from bike share programs to urban gondolas.

Davies, addressing the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, said BRAF is looking ahead to new transportation and mobility solutions. He also highlighted BRAF’s current and past work in filling the city-parish’s void of mental health treatment options and building up downtown.

“We can’t really fix the traffic problems...by pouring more concrete, it just exacerbates the problem,” Davies said. “You just decamp your community further and further and further out into the suburbs.”

He called the urban gondolas — aerial lifts that are similar to cable cars or ski lifts — the most “far-out” idea that BRAF has considered. He said the foundation has already gone through one round of studies on them, and some are pushing for a second round of research with gondola providers.

Figuratively speaking, this is a Monorail! in the sense that it is an attention-grabbing but entirely impractical idea floated by people who are either trying too hard in general or are trying to scam someone.

But we've known this for a long time.  The reason I point it out here is, over the years, we've come to see Monorail! proposals as early indicators that something bad is about to happen. So keep an eye on BRAF.  Also, kudos to the Advocate for including a photo from Aspen with this article. Nice touch.