NY's Subways Could Have Been Moving Walkways

6 August 2009 - 2:00pm

A century ago there were plans to supplant much of Manhattan's metro system with subterranean moving walkways. This article looks at the history.

"When Paris hosted the Exposition Universelle in 1900, it unveiled its vision for the future of transport. Below ground, the city's stylish new Metro made its debut, while above ground was something more avant garde. The trottoir roulant was a moving walkway that circled the fair in a 3-kilometre loop, its articulated wooden segments "gliding around like a wooden serpent with its tail in its mouth", according to one reporter. Nearly 7 million visitors hopped on. A few even brought folding chairs, which proved useful when one woman gave birth in transit. Her child was promptly christened Trottoir Roulant Benost. A new kind of traveller had been born..."

Source: New Scientist, August 6, 2009

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George Costanza

Isn't this what George from Seinfeld wanted?

"Great, now whenever I'm walking through town, I'll be thinking there should be moving sidewalks. I won't be able to walk anywhere!"

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The areas where we have severe blight and indications of more blight to come are basically the same as they ever were. How in the world are we ever going to move our community development selves into an alternative future that thinks differently about the challenges we face in our cities and low-income suburban and rural communities?