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Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

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Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#181

Post by tim333 »

bluGill wrote: post #81
jazzyjackson wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with a job I'd rather spend an hour on a train than 35 minutes in LA traffic. (30 minutes... I guess I'd prefer the stress + a little more time for breakfast. But I'd put a 2x multiplier on not having to drive myself)

Your goal is still being there though, not riding the train. After a few trips you have seen the scenery out the window and just want the trip over with (though maybe you can enjoy the book you are reading most days or whatever you are doing and call it relaxation)

I ride the train kind of recreationally. Not just to ride it but to go into town, have a coffee and check the scene, then go back, so basically recreational.

I think a lot of the non rush hour usage is like that.

The train itself is pleasant off peak - table, wifi, I drink coffee and websurf. It's a bit squished in during rush hour though.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#182

Post by slightwinder »

randomtoast wrote: post #147

Does anyone know why we don't have these anymore, except in buildings like airports and shopping malls?

Probably because for most locations, they are actually not very useful, but quite expensive and just cumbersome. They take up space, and create artificial travel-zones, and at the same time they don't even enhance the flow, because most people tend to stand still on them. For safety-reasons (and probably costs) they are usually just around walking speed. So it's overall just a fancy gadget which is only beneficial for heavy luggage or people with special demands. For those situations, we often have better and cheaper solutions.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#183

Post by tim333 »

econ wrote: post #67
bluGill wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is stupid. people have places to be. Only a tiny minority are on transit for fun. Everyone else just wants to be there. you do these people a massive disservice by not making their ride efficient. and the minority who are for the ride will figure out how to make it work.

I'm not sure. I want to see public transport in a city done with rollercoasters. The amount using it for fun would go up dramatically. It would change overnight from just another utterly boring city not worth visiting into a tourist hot spot. Similarly, people who need to be places will make it work. Life is about the journey. All those roads and other boring means of transportation are just places no one wants to be…

A roller coaster would be fun. I've always kind of wanted a city to city flight that you could just jump out of with a parachute and land at your destination without the airport faff.

On the more realistic end of things, ebikes are fun.

>e-biking over a bridge, preferably at night — has developed its own ardent following. Liberated for the most part of any physical exertion, e-bikers can instead focus on the texture of the road vibrating up their arms, the wind streaking across their cheeks, the speed heightening their consciousness. “You do it in the evening, with the sunset — hell yeah,” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/nyregion/eric-adams-nyc-s...

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#184

Post by elboru »

gcanyon wrote: post #166

Anyone have info on how energy-efficient moving walkways are on a person-mile basis? I'm guessing not very, but I'd love to be wrong. Taking a moving walkway instead of a subway would be awesome (assuming you could figure out the speed aspect, obviously).

Previous comment thread has an interesting conversation about why it hasn’t became a thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45793466#45793922

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#185

Post by slightwinder »

joshdavham wrote: post #95

Somewhat off-topic, but why are all the men in the film wearing hats? Was this some sort of dress code?

Men wearing hats is still quite common today. But the style has changed to baseball caps and similar forms. Most of those "dress codes" usually also have a more practical origin. So it's less of a code, and more a practical benefit.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#186

Post by bluGill »

thrance wrote: post #173
moritzwarhier wrote: post #32

Modern urban car infrastructure is neither space- nor energy-efficient, but urban planning is long-term, and decisions shift all efficiency considerations in the long-term in a way that's hard to undo. For example, transportation of people with the modern extensive net of streets would be most convenient and efficient if there was some kind of public transportation in small buses, available on demand and price being…

As far as I'm concerned, transportation is solved. I live in Paris, there are 14 (soon to be 15) metro lines covering the city in a dense underground mesh, and you never have to wait more the 5 minutes to hop into one.

Paris doesn't have the best transit in the world, but they get credit for being very good and useful. Most of the world has a lot to learn from them. Most people don't live in places with transport anywhere near that good.

Don't get complainant. There is still a lot Paris needs to improve on. Please show the world what the next level looks like.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#187

Post by bluGill »

randomtoast wrote: post #169
laurent123456 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because in airports people are sometimes required to walk long distances to go from one point to another, while in a city there are public transport, bicycles, taxis, etc. plenty of other options so walking long distances is usually not required.

I think moving sidewalks could be more suitable for shorter distances than public transport or taxis. In many situations, it doesn’t make sense to order a taxi for a trip of less than 1,000 meters, or to walk to the nearest bus stop, then wait for the bus, just to travel a single stop. There are many people with disabilities who may struggle to walk these distances and would benefit from such an option. Additionally,…

The problem is cost/benefit. most places just don't have enough people walking far to make them worth it. They cost a fair amount to install/run, and so when few people use them they are not worth it. They also block people who are trying to cross the street (to get to the next store) instead of going down the street. They they are common in airports rare elsewhere - they don't make sense for most locations.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#188

Post by josefx »

narag wrote: post #179
delichon wrote: post #3

I'd guess that Heinlein was aware of it and scaled it up in his imagination. The Roads must roll — they are the arteries of the nation. When they stop, everything stops. Factories idle, food rots, men starve. The nation cannot live without its Roads. A thousand feet wide, level as a floor, strip after strip moving past in ordered procession. The slow strips on the outside moved at five miles an hour; the inner ones f…

The slow strips on the outside moved at five miles an hour; the inner ones faster and faster... Not good enough. The same strip should go faster and faster over time and decelerate near its end. It sounds impossible, but I can think of a few ways to make it work.

One of the videos in the article mentions an accelerating moving walkway: https://youtu.be/CMlLPgAL2h0?t=240

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#189

Post by bluGill »

wordpad wrote: post #90
cogman10 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Romanticizing horses, specifically, is a very rose colored glasses situation. Apologies, I wasn't trying to romanticize the horse aspect. Rather, the public transit and train shipping aspect. In the US, at one point trains were so popular that even rural farms would have small train depots to load up crops on and ultimately ship goods wherever they need to be. You'd even find stores with train station docking. In f…

Rail can't take you to suburbs is basically the main reason this happened.

The suburb was invented by/for the train. We called the first ones "street car suburbs" for good reason - the rail was why they were even possible in the first place. Cars work better than rails in suburbs (no congestion) and so rails have mostly disappeared, but rails absolutely could work in suburbs again if we invested in making them fast and frequent (which is expensive so we won't)

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#190

Post by tcfhgj »

lan321 wrote: post #135
tensor wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is absolutely nothing less pleasing than sitting in traffic in a major North American city with aggressive drivers all around you constantly breaking laws because they think they are more important than everyone else. In contrast European trains are down right relaxing.

Until you see the expected delay going up and you have to start doing the maths of whether you can run from X to Y in under a minute, frantically googling for a second connection and how much a taxi would cost.. (my DB experience since I usually travel by train for flights)

googling? how about just letting your app (e.g. db, öffi, ...) show all connections to the target form the updated place.
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