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A comment on Paris Had a Moving Sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison Film Captured It. Parent comment

Re:Paris Had a Moving Sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison ... by tensor on Monday November 03, 2025 @12:15AM (#45796058)
Pearson airport in Toronto has ones that accelerate up to a fast speed. People who can’t use them can either walk beside them or hire a small electric golf cart. There is no reason to ban them just because a small portion of the population can’t use them.
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Re:Paris Had a Moving Sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison ... by tomatocracy on Monday November 03, 2025 @08:48AM (#45798901)
Not sure but I think I read a while ago that they were removed due to unreliability (it's a while since I've been there myself).

It was very clever how they did the acceleration/deceleration - the "tiles" of the walkway fit together in such a way that each could slide on top of the next one, and at the two ends the tiles would gradually slide closer together (decelerating) or further apart (accelerating).

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Re:Paris Had a Moving Sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison ... by tensor on Monday November 03, 2025 @12:12PM (#45801471)
They were still there pretty recently when I was there. All escalators are a pain for maintenance though. Sure it's cheaper to force people to walk but that's not the point.
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