This clever Japanese invention puts an end to terrible traffic jams and overcrowded public transport

Traffic jams are a big problem in the Netherlands and there is currently no solution. However, a smart and cost-effective Japanese invention could end congestion on roads and public transport.

Busy and expensive. These two negative terms apply to both public transport and driving in the Netherlands. But it is not only in our country that there are problems with the infrastructure. In Asian megacities, too, they struggle with crowding on public transport and traffic jams on the streets.

A tram

Zip Infrastructure, a five-year-old company that can no longer be called a start-up, has an ingenious solution to public transport crowds and endless traffic jams: a cable car as a kind of monorail.

The company wants to get the first project up and running in 2027 and later focus primarily on countries such as the Philippines. In fact, this form of infrastructure will make public transportation in countries like the Philippines as good as it is in Japan, the company said.

The cars are equipped with an electric motor and can be moved on steel rails or ropes. The advantage is that cheaper cables can be used where this is possible, but the gondolas can also be used as carriages on rails if a track is unavoidable.

Interesting for the Netherlands?

“Good for the Philippines,” I hear you thinking. But how can the traffic jams and crowds in public transport in the Netherlands be put to an end? The uniqueness of this project lies not so much in the technology but in the price.

According to the Central Planning Office from 2016, one kilometer of ground-level motorway in Europe costs around twenty million euros. A kilometer of track is even more expensive. There are examples where the construction of a railway or highway costs almost 100 million euros per kilometer.

The point is clear: highways and rail are expensive per kilometer. Japan’s Zip Infrastructure states that a kilometer of cable car construction costs only 1.5 billion Japanese yen (around 9.2 million euros) per kilometer. So much cheaper. The system works completely autonomously and so a cabin never has to stand still because there are not enough staff.

No more traffic jams and overloaded public transport

This idea of ​​putting an inexpensive end to the horror of traffic jams and crowding in local public transport is, for now, a thing of the future. Would we ever swap the electric car and train for a cable car?