Fast moving walkways could move 7,000 people per hour

EPFL researchers have been studying futuristic transport solutions for car-free urban centers. They have come up with an optimal design for a network of accelerating moving walkways. Could moving walkways help people get where they want to go in cities' This is not a new idea. The first moving walkways were seen in Chicago in 1893, and seven years later they were used at the world's fair in Paris. Since then, the idea periodically resurfaces in sci-fi books, but also in the minds of transportation engineers and urban planners in search of eco-friendly transport solutions. In a breakthrough study, EPFL researchers have analyzed the feasibility of fast moving walkways in an urban setting. Their results are encouraging.