A moving walkway or moving sidewalk (American
English), known in British English as a travellator or a travelator
(and colloquially known by some as a flatalator, transportalator,
displacalator, horizontalator, straightalator, movealator,
walkalator, autowalk or movator) is a slow moving conveyor
mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a
short to medium distance. Moving walkways can be used by standing or walking on
them. They are often installed in pairs, one for each direction.
History
The first moving walkway debuted at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893,
in Chicago, Illinois. It had two different
divisions: one where passengers were seated, and one where riders could stand
or walk. It ran in a loop down the length of a lakefront pier to a casino. Six
years later a moving walkway was also presented to the public at the Paris Exposition Universelle in
1900. The walkway consisted of three elevated platforms, the first was
stationary, the second moved at a moderate speed, and the third at about six
miles an hour. These demonstrations likely served as inspiration for some of H.
G. Wells' settings mentioned in the "Science Fiction" section below.
The Beeler Organization, a New York City consulting
firm, proposed a Continuous Transit System with Sub-Surface Moving Platforms
for Atlanta in
1924, with a design roughly similar to the Paris Exposition system. The
proposed drive system used a linear induction motor. The system was not
constructed.
The first commercial moving walkway in the United States was
installed in 1954 in Jersey City, NJ, inside the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Erie station) at the Pavonia
Terminal. Named the "Speedwalk" and built by Goodyear, it was 277 ft (84.5
m) long and moved up a 10 percent grade
at a speed of 1.5 mph (2.4 km/h). The walkway was removed a few years
later when traffic patterns at the station changed.
The first moving walkway in an airport was installed in 1958
at Love Field in Dallas,
Texas. On January 1, 1960, Tina Marie Brandon, age 2, was killed on the
moving sidewalk.
Designs
Moving walkways are built in one of two basic styles:
- Pallet type — a continuous series of flat metal plates join together to form a walkway - and are effectively identical to escalators in their construction. Most have a metal surface, though some models have a rubber surface for extra traction.
- Moving belt — these are generally built with mesh metal belts or rubber walking surfaces over metal rollers. The walking surface may have a solid feel or a "bouncy" feel.
Both types of moving walkway have a grooved surface to mesh
with combplates at the ends. Also, nearly all moving walkways are built with
moving handrails similar to those on escalators.
Pallet-types consists of one-piece, die-cast aluminium pallets.
Example dimensions are: widths (between balustrades): between 32 inches
(800 mm) and 56 inches (1200 mm), with a speed of 100 feet per
minute (.5 metres per second), powered by an AC induction motor.
High-speed walkways
In the 1970s, Dunlop
developed the Speedaway system. It was in fact an invention by Gabriel
Bouladon and Paul Zuppiger of the Battelle Memorial Institute at their
former Geneva, Switzerland facility. A prototype was built and demonstrated at
the Battelle Institute in Geneva in the early 1970s, as can be attested by a
(French-speaking) Swiss television program entitled Un Jour une Heure aired in
October 1974. The great advantage of the Speedaway, as compared to the then
existing systems, was that the embarking/disembarking zone was both wide and
slow moving (up to 4 passengers could embark simultaneously, allowing for a large
number of passengers, up to 10,000 per hour), whereas the transportation zone
was narrower and fast moving.
The entrance to the system was like a very wide escalator,
with broad metal tread plates of a parallelogram shape. After a short distance
the tread plates were accelerated to one side, sliding past one another to form
progressively into a narrower but faster moving track which travelled at almost
a right-angle to the entry section. The passenger was accelerated through a
parabolic path to a maximum design speed of 15 km/h (9 mph). The
experience was unfamiliar to passengers, who needed to understand how to use
the system to be able to do so safely. Developing a moving hand-rail for the
system presented a challenge, also solved by the Battelle team. The Speedaway
was intended to be used as a stand alone system over short distances or to form
acceleration and deceleration units providing entry and exit means for a
parallel conventional (but fast running) Starglide walkway which covered
longer distances. The system was still in development in 1975 but never went
into commercial production.
Another attempt at an accelerated walkway in the 1980s was
the TRAX (Trottoir Roulant Accéléré), which was developed by Dassault
and RATP and whose prototype
was installed in the Paris Invalides metro station. The speed
at entry and exit was 3 km/h (2 mph), while the maximum speed was
15 km/h (9 mph). It was a technical failure due to its complexity,
and was never commercially exploited.
In the mid 1990s, the Loderway Moving Walkway company
patented and licenced a design to a number of larger moving walkway
manufacturers. Trial systems were installed at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne and
Brisbane
Airport Australia. These met with a positive response from the public, but
no permanent installations were made. This system is of the belt type, with a
sequence of belts moving at different speeds to accelerate and decelerate
riders. A sequence of different speed handrails is also used.
Experimental 185 metre long high-speed moving walkway on the
Paris Métro, France
In 2002, an experimental high-speed walkway was installed in the Montparnasse—Bienvenüe Métro
station in Paris.
At first it operated at 12 km/h (7 mph) but due to people losing
their balance, the speed was reduced to 9 km/h (6 mph). It has been
estimated that commuters using a walkway such as this twice a day would save 15
minutes per week and 10 hours a year.[
Using the high-speed walkway is like using any other moving
walkway, except that for safety there are special procedures to follow when
joining or leaving. When this walkway was introduced, staff (seen here in
yellow jackets) determined who could and who could not use it. As riders must
have at least one hand free to hold the handrail, those carrying bags,
shopping, etc., or who are infirm, must use the ordinary walkway nearby.
On entering, there is a 10-metre acceleration
zone where the 'ground' is a series of metal rollers. Riders stand still with
both feet on these rollers and use one hand to hold the handrail and let it
pull them so that they glide over the rollers. The idea is to accelerate the
riders so that they will be traveling fast enough to step onto the moving
walkway belt. Riders who try to walk on these rollers are at significant risk
of falling over.
Once on the walkway, riders can stand or walk. Owing to Newton's laws of motion, there is no
special sensation of travelling at speed, except for headwind.
At the exit, the same technique is used to decelerate the
riders. Users step on to a series of rollers which decelerate them slowly,
rather than the abrupt halt which would otherwise take place.
In 2007, a similar high-speed walkway was opened in the
newly opened Pier F of Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Canada. This
walkway is of the pallet type rather than the belt type. The pallets
"intermesh" with a comb and slot arrangement. They expand out of each
other when speeding up, and compress into each other when slowing down. The
handrailings work in a similar manner. The walkway moves at roughly 2 km/h
when riders step onto it, speeds up to approximately 7 km/h for the bulk
of the length, and slows to 2 km/h again at the end.
In May 2009, it was announced that because of its
unreliability and the number of users having accidents, in 2011 the Parisian
high-speed moving walkway will be replaced with a standard moving walkway.
Inclined moving walkways
An inclined moving walkway is used in airports and supermarkets
to move people to another floor with the convenience of an elevator
(namely, that people can take along their suitcase trolley or shopping
cart, or baby carriage) and the capacity of an escalator.
The carts have either a brake that is
automatically applied when the cart handle is released, strong magnets in the
wheels to stay adhered to the floor, or specially designed wheels that secure
the cart within the grooves of the ramp,
so that wheeled items travel alongside the riders and do not slip away.
Some department stores instead use shopping cart conveyors to transport
passengers and their carts between store levels simultaneously.
Applications
Moving walkways are frequently found in the following
locations:
Airports
Moving walkways are commonly used in larger airports, as
passengers – often with heavy luggage in tow – typically need to walk
considerable distances. Moving walkways may be used:
- in passageways between concourses and the terminal
- within particularly long concourses
- as a connector between terminals, or
- as access to a parking facility or a ground transport station.
Of particular note is the Charles de Gaulle International
Airport in Paris,
France, which
has several moving walkways inside a series of futuristic suspended tubes.
Museum exhibits
Moving sidewalks may be used:
- to ensure that a museum exhibit is viewed in a certain sequence
- to provide a particular aesthetic effect
- to make sure the crowd moves through at a reliable pace.
The 1975-76 American Freedom Train did this; they had a
moving walkway inside each successive railroad car, thus maximizing the number
of people who could view the interior exhibits in the limited time the train
was stopped in each town
The National Gallery of Art in Washington,
DC uses a moving walkway to connect the two main galleries.
The Tower of London in London, UK,
uses a moving walkway where visitors are passing the cabinets which contain the
Crown Jewels.
Zoos
Similar to museums, some zoological
park exhibits have a moving walkway to ease guests through an animal
display or habitat. An aquarium at the Mall
of America does this with a moving walkway made up of specially rounded
pallets that enable it to change directions en route. The San
Diego Zoo uses moving ramps to help guests ascend steep grades.
Theme parks
Some amusement park rides, such as continuous-motion dark rides like Disney's Haunted
Mansion, make use of a moving sidewalk to assist passengers in boarding and
disembarking rides and attractions. Some examples include:
- the Ultra Twister, a roller coaster at the now closed Astroworld in Houston, Texas. (It had a moving walkway with no handrail for passengers to step on prior to boarding their car. The walkway would move at the same speed as the approaching cars, allowing passengers completing the ride to step off and for boarding passengers to enter the car. A loudspeaker announced "Moving conveyor, please watch your step" to warn of the moving walkway.)
- the exit from the Space Mountain attraction at Walt Disney World has a long moving walkway which changes inclination multiple times.
- the exit from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Walt Disney World has an inclined moving walkway leading towards a gift shop.
- the exit from the Haunted Mansion attraction at Walt Disney World has a straight moving walkway which leads to the ride's exit.
Theatre
The Phantom of the Opera
by Andrew Lloyd Webber uses a travelator in the
number 'The Phantom of the Opera' (act one, scene six), to give the illusion
the Phantom and Christine are traveling the catacombs below the Paris Opera
House a great distance to the Phantom's lair on the subterranean lake.
Public transport
Moving walkways are useful for remote platforms in
underground subway/metro stations, or assisting with lengthier connections
between lines, for example Waterloo Underground Station in London, United
Kingdom, and between Central and Hong
Kong stations on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong,
as well as between Tsim Sha Tsui and East Tsim Sha Tsui stations in Kowloon, Hong
Kong.
Similar walkways exist in Singapore's Bugis
MRT Station, Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station and Serangoon MRT Station. In Glasgow, Scotland's
Buchanan Street subway station a
moving walkway is used to connect the Subway
station with Glasgow Queen Street Station.
In Toronto, Canada, a moving walkway existed between Spadina
station on the Bloor-Danforth subway line and Spadina
station on the Yonge–University–Spadina line. Installed
in 1978, this series of moving walkways has since been removed (2004) and
patrons are now required to walk between the stations.
Urban areas
Hong Kong is one of the world's most heavily populated
cities, and has public escalators that connect many streets.
Skiing
Moving walkways known as Magic carpets are also used in ski resorts.
Skiers can place their skis
on the walkway which is designed to provide a strong level of grip. Since the
walkways cannot be too steep and are slow compared to other aerial
lifts, they are used especially for beginners or to transport people over a
short uphill distance, such as to reach a restaurant or another lift's station.
Moving walkways can also be found at chairlifts'
entrances to help passengers in the boarding process.
Supermarkets
Science fiction
The concept of a megalopolis based on high-speed walkways is
common in science fiction. The first works set in such a
location are "A Story of the Days To Come"
(1897) and When The Sleeper Wakes (1899) (also
republished as The Sleeper Awakes) written by H. G. Wells,
which take place in a future London. Thirty years later, the silent film Metropolis (1927) depicted several
scenes showing moving sidewalks and escalators between skyscrapers at high
levels. Later, the short story "The Roads Must Roll" (1940), written by Robert A. Heinlein, depicts the risk of a
transportation strike in a society based on similar-speed sidewalks. The novel
is part of the Future History saga, and takes place in
1976. Isaac
Asimov, in the novel The Caves of Steel (1954) and its sequels in
the Robot series, uses similar enormous
underground cities with a similar sidewalk system. The period described is
about the year 3000.
In each of these cases, there is a massive network of parallel
moving belts, the inner ones moving faster. Passengers are screened from wind,
and there are chairs and even shops on the belt. In the Heinlein work the fast
lane runs at 100 mph (160 km/h), and the first "mechanical
road" was built in 1960 between Cincinnati and Cleveland. The relative
speed of two adjacent belts is 5 mph (8 km/h)[6]
(in the book the fast lane stops, and the second lane keeps running at
95 mph (152 km/h)). In the Wells and Asimov works there are more
steps in the speed scale and the speeds are less extreme.
In Arthur C. Clarke's novel, Against the Fall of Night (later
rewritten as The City and the Stars) the Megacity of Diaspar is
interwoven with "moving ways" which, unlike Heinlein's conveyor
belts, are solid floors that can mysteriously move as a fluid. On pages 11–13
of the novel, Clarke writes,
An engineer of the ancient world would have gone slowly mad
trying to understand how a solid roadway could be fixed at both ends while its
centre travelled at a hundred miles an hour... The corridor still inclined
upwards, and in a few hundred feet had curved through a complete right-angle.
But only logic knew this: to the senses it was now as if one were being hurried
along an absolutely level corridor. The fact that he was in reality travelling
up a vertical shaft thousands of feet deep gave Alvin no sense of insecurity,
for a failure of the polarizing field was unthinkable.
In his non-fiction book Profiles of the Future, Arthur
C. Clarke mentions moving sidewalks but made of some sort of anisotropic
material that could flow in the direction of travel but hold the weight of
a person. The fluid would have the advantage of offering a continuous gradient
of speed from the edge to edge so there would be no jumps, and simply moving
from side to side would effect a change in speed.
In the Strugatsky brothers Noon
Universe, the worldwide network of moving roads is one of the first megaprojects
undertaken on newly united Earth, before the advent of FTL
starships and its consequences turned everybody's attention to the stars. These
roads there are quasiliving organisms similar to Clarke's description and were
used for both local commuting and long-distance non-urgent transport until
their use was eclipsed by an instant teleportation
network.
The animated TV series The Jetsons
depicts moving walkways everywhere, even in private homes.
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