San Francisco wouldn’t be the same without its cable cars, but the SFMTA announces a radical change: the underground cable system that allows these funny cars to climb the hills will be replaced by a combo of solar panels and onboard batteries.
The city center will finally be able to sleep peacefully. No more noisy cables that are not to the taste of local residents.
In service since 1873, cable cars have been and remain a very efficient means of transport, but the noise pollution they generate has long been a matter of contention between the SFMTA and local residents.
This change is one more time consequence of the pandemic; from March 2020 to September 2021, on the three cable car lines, the streets were silent because the cars remained at the depot. The residents were then positively surprised to discover the song of the birds.
Let’s not forget that the controversy has been brewing since the beginning of the 80s. One could already read in the CSMonitor of 1984 ” The hum and the buzz of the constantly moving cable are as familiar as fog horns here. But when it comes to a good night’s sleep, natives have measured the cable noise at 20 decibels louder than city standards permit.”
From what we know to date, cable cars should be equipped with batteries produced by Tesla and offered by Elon Musk.
More about the project here.
