{"id":32758,"date":"2019-10-14T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T06:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/?p=32758"},"modified":"2025-12-12T00:36:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:36:03","slug":"bullet-pedestrians-the-sidewalks-of-the-future-could-make-it-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/2019\/10\/bullet-pedestrians-the-sidewalks-of-the-future-could-make-it-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Bullet Pedestrians? The Sidewalks of the Future Could Make It Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

“For short-range travel, moving sidewalks (with benches on either side, standing room in the center) will be making their appearance in downtown sections. They will be raised above the traffic.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is how \u00a0Isaac Asimov<\/a> imagined the future of New York City in 1964, a future that would have arrived by 2014. Some of his predictions in that article (such as 3D movies or simple robots) have come true, but most of them have not. Nevertheless, these moving sidewalks could become a reality in the next few years.<\/p>\n

From Medellin to Hong Kong, Lisbon to Vitoria, escalators have become a mobility alternative<\/strong> in many cities. Though there are those that defend and attack them, it is true that they facilitate walking in some urban areas. But could it be possible to turn all the sidewalks in a city into moving walkways where pedestrians can travel faster than cars?<\/p>\n

The dream of moving sidewalks<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The core idea in Asimov’s essay didn’t come out of nowhere. Other authors like Robert A. Heinlein and H.G. Wells had also dreamed up such infrastructure. As early as the nineteenth century, some engineers had dared to make them a<\/a> reality. In 1871, American Albert Speer introduced his “endless sidewalks,” a system of conveyor belts that allowed pedestrians to travel at two speeds.<\/p>\n

In 1889, France\u2019s Eug\u00e9ne H\u00e9nard came up with a similar system at the Exposition Universelle in Paris that year. However, the project did not come to fruition until the 1893 World\u2019s Fair <\/strong>in Chicago. The invention was also on display at the Exhibition in Paris in 1900. They were all a system of parallel lanes traveling at different speeds, up to nine kilometers per hour.<\/p>\n