High Speed Travelator 333
Anonymous Award writes "Remember those old Isaac Asimov tales of cities of the future, where everybody walked along on moving sidewalks, sometimes clear across a country? Today's airport travelators have always been disappointingly pale imitations of these, but now in
Paris we may be seeing the
true birth of this wonderfully dangerous mode of mass transportation. Its
already as fast as a bus, but when they can crank them up to motorway speeds...
well, lets just say this may have a better chance of having cities designed
around it than certain other recent innovations."
Escalators were scary enough as a kid. (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah. (Score:5, Funny)
"How are you getting there?"
"Oh, I'm taking the travelator."
"...."
Very Neat (Score:5, Funny)
I'm just hoping they dont stop you taking skateboards onto this thing!
Cool (Score:3, Funny)
What an accomplishment!
Did they smash a bottle of cheap Champagne [slashdot.org] over it to dedicate it?
Mmm.. lawsuits.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You know... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:You know... (Score:5, Funny)
I loved that old story. I hope this really happens!
Re:Transition (Score:5, Funny)
Strip running (Score:4, Funny)
Say, whats the bandwidth of one of these if you can stack boxes of DVD-RW on one end and take them off the other.
Julian.
Coming Autumn 2003 (Score:5, Funny)
Arnold Schwarzenegger is... "The Travelator".
Damnable Life! (Score:1, Funny)
Curses!
Will it be like... (Score:5, Funny)
A Segway for this sidewalk?... (Score:3, Funny)
Timeline (Score:5, Funny)
10 years: Our legs become strange, archaic appendages that surgeons will handily remove for a small fee.
100 years: Our brains float around in little hovering domes.
I want a cobalt blue dome.
Re:You know... (Score:5, Funny)
Until you fart! "Damn, this smell has been with me all the way from Pittsburgh!".
ObFrance joke... (Score:0, Funny)
Re:kinda silly (Score:5, Funny)
travelator for the brain (Score:1, Funny)
Meet George Jetson (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The problem is for distances _under_ 1 km ?! (Score:3, Funny)
Well, have you ever been in a public space with a large group of people? As simple as the concept is, many people can't seem to understand that there is a reason people go to airports, etc... they are trying to get somewhere! However, throw in a few shutter-bugs taking pictures of everything, or social butterflies that have to stop and talk to every third person they see, and you've got one large fleshy traffic jam. If I could bypass all of the slow, stupid and otherwise unmotivated people by stepping onto a rolling sidewalk, I'm there! At least there would be a minimum speed. Of course, I'd be one of the people still trying to speed-walk while on the thing, but even when stuck behind someone I'd still be moving.
Of course, I can see this invention starting a whole new type of road rage... perhaps I should go to France and try it out before they make laws against bumping someone out of the way "by accident."
Re:And the earth moved beneath us (Score:1, Funny)
How will the Indian version work? Will there be mannequins permanently mounted to the moving surface for the passengers to hang on? [8k.com]
Re:Transition (Score:3, Funny)
No, a better way would the to have the lanes getting faster as you move right. Just as driving on the left is superior, more logical, etc., etc.
Re:Expressways (Score:5, Funny)
---->---8mph->--
---->---9mph->--
That won't work. You'll just get some stupid old lady in the fast lane, walking backwards at 2mph with her blinker on.
~Philly
Re:The problem is for distances _under_ 1 km ?! (Score:2, Funny)
thud.
Re:it's mechanical.. (Score:2, Funny)
We have that. It's called the sea. What you just described is known, in areas where the sea is generally warm enough, as "surfing".
Of course not! Re:Cool (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Escalators were scary enough as a kid. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Escalators were scary enough as a kid. (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, Travelator (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Timeline (Score:2, Funny)
Sure, 100 years from now, they might be able to replicate the chemical feel of sex, but damn, I doubt people would be willing. Sure, I never had sex, but damn, I hear it's great!
turnstiles (Score:1, Funny)
I just couldn't make sense of what the turnstiles do (I must have been like 15), they seemed crude and dangerous. I didn't want to touch those things, so I just leaped over them (still having paid the fare) until the subway cops stopped me and explained how it worked.
I admit I was a bit belligerent with them, because I was used to the honour system, where they pretty much trust you, but they have random ticket inspectors. It saves money to trust commuters!!! I told them that they were barbaric and savage.
Re:Motorway speeds? (Score:5, Funny)
Here's the really cool (and tricky) part: then you put the motors inside the platforms themselves. Then you don't need miles long rubber belts that can wear out. Just replace them with concrete floors. And to keep people from falling out, add walls. If you add a roof, you can operate them outside, even when it's raining! And for more capacity (to make up for having the seats in the first place), you can use more than one platform stacked together.
I think it would look something like this [ucl.ac.uk].
It's crowd-surfing. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:You know... (Score:3, Funny)
Chicken.
Ouch! (Score:3, Funny)
I read that as a part of the rest of the post at first, and wondered if that was how those roads worked...
Re:Quick, someone patent it (Score:3, Funny)
Re:You know... (Score:2, Funny)
You can test your theory by standing up in the back of a pickup truck at various speeds. Since the friction of the belt would be identical to the friction of the bed of the pickup truck it's a good analogy. Anyone have a pickup truck, some open road and a couple of nutty friends to perform the experiment?