It’s like a moving High Line, and is still a very good idea.

Moving sidewalks are a form of mass transit that work well when the walking distance and time is just a bit too long; they are most common in airports, but could be useful in cities too. A problem with them is that people can only get on and off them safely if they are slow, and making them multi-speed is a technical challenge. Handrails are problematic as well. We have shown a modern solution from ThyssenKrupp, but engineers have been working on the problem for over a century.

1900 World’s Fair Marvel

A Lumiere Brothers film recently restored by the Guy Jones History Project shows new views of an amazing 2-1/4 mile long moving sidewalk that was built for the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, near the end at 4:48. Matt Novak of Paleofuture found a description of it in a book about the fair:

Paris Exhibition via Paleofuture/Public Domain

Note the round sections connected to straight sections, which let it go around corners and curves. Matt Novak says it was nicknamed “the wooden serpent.”

Solving the Multi-Speed Problem

Section through moving sidewalk/Public Domain

The Paris sidewalk solves multi-speed problems by having two sidewalks; you first step onto the narrower, slower sidewalk and then transfer to the faster one. It solves the handrail problem by not having one; there are posts you can hang on to, but most people seem to be ignoring them.

A View as Well as a Trip

Apparently getting there was half the fun, putting the sidewalk up high and outside so that you get a view as well as a trip. It is like the High Line in New York City, providing a different perspective.

Really, transportation should be about more than just getting from A to B; it should be a pleasure as well. Going five miles per hour through Paris was probably a joy. They kept the Eiffel tower from the exhibition; it is too bad they didn’t keep this, a sort of moving High Line that is both transportation and entertainment.

A few years ago we showed a not nearly as good video of the sidewalk filmed by Thomas Edison: