How often do cable car accidents happen?

Cable cars average about an accident a month and routinely rank among the most accident-prone mass transportation modes in the country per vehicle mile traveled annually, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Over the last 10 years, city officials have reported 126 accidents injuring 151 people.



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Cable cars are one of the safest modes of transport in existence. According to a survey, there are 0.35 incidents per billion kilometres. In itself, this figure is already not high, but if you consider only gondola railways used exclusively in cities, then the figure is significantly lower.

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Cable cars average about an accident a month and routinely rank among the most accident-prone mass transportation modes in the country per vehicle mile traveled annually, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Over the last 10 years, city officials have reported 126 accidents injuring 151 people.

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If by “jump on” you mean board a cable car, of course; that's the sole purpose of their existence. Just be prepared to pay ($6.00 adult/$3.00 senior) your fare when the conductor comes to collect, or hop-off if you fail to pay.

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Most aerial cable systems can make turns, although it is difficult, or near impossible, for fixed grip technologies such as aerial trams and pulsed gondolas. (Fixed grip systems, particularly pulsed gondolas systems do sometimes make slight turns along specially designed towers.)

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After an average of 30 years, cable cars reach the end of their life, although some components such as cables have to be discarded considerably earlier. In some cases, legal requirements demand the removal of installations after just twenty years, so it is a good thing that cable cars have multiple lives.

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There's a motor, of course, but it alone can't simply lug the car up as dead weight, so each cabin going up is counterbalanced by one going down. This is done by mounting each one halfway around a loop of steel cable.

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A cable car (usually known as a cable tram outside North America) is a type of cable railway used for mass transit in which rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required.

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Out on the street along their routes, the cable cars travel on steel tracks set above a channel enclosing the cable. At the top of the channel is a slot through which the cable car’s grip grabs the cable moving below.

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Today, San Francisco's cable cars are one of two National Historic Streetcar Landmarks in operation (New Orleans' St. Charles streetcar line is the other), and both the continued operation and minimum level of service of our cable cars are locked into San Francisco's City Charter.

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San Francisco cable cars are the only moving National Historic Landmark, and 9.7 million people take a ride on them each year.

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Many cities once had cable cars, but today, San Francisco's Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde, and California Street lines are the only ones left in the world.

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