The ‘windy city’ otherwise known as Chicago is considering whether to introduce a network of aerial cable cars feeding around the city like a river of running through a valley. The idea is the brainchild of Davis Brody Bond (no we haven’t heard of him either). But if you took the time to find out DBB is an architects firm based in New York. Like all architects Davis Brody Bond has high-minded ideas of how much more functional urban planning could be. To improve the lives of people, that sort of thing. Sometimes these high-minded ideas don’t work out as they intended and like the 1960’s high-rise building in the London suburbs, these ideas can fall into social and physical decay. But without ideas for a better future nothing would ever change, and besides architects have exceptional drawing skills and like showing off their latest sketch or 3D visualisation. This particular visualisation is for the Skyline Cable Car concept that would connect the city’s Navy Pier with other down-town networks. The Skyline would be suspended about 17 stories high and naturally give people and unfettered view over the city of Chicago. The transparent Skyline pods are designed to accommodate 3,000 people and hour (not at the same time) and a typical journey would be around 30 minutes long at a cost of $20 per ticket. The cost of building the Skyline is estimated at $250,000 dollars. However one issue we have is that Chicago isn’t called the windy city for nothing. And in the winter Chicago gets severe snow storms, so would this public transport hub be open all year round? That’s urban planning for you.