Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

Reactions to the Film and Era

• Viewers fixate on the kid who gets slapped off the walkway: was he misbehaving (spinning on a pole) or just a lower‑status child being pushed aside?
• The clip triggers reflections on mortality: every child in such films is almost certainly dead now, maybe killed in WWI given their age cohort.
• Personal anecdotes about family home movies from the 1920s emphasize how moving and intimate such old footage can be.
• People note period details like universal hat‑wearing and discuss hats as both social norm and practical necessity (sun, dust).

Mechanics and Design of the 1900 Sidewalk

• Commenters admire that the fence/rail moves with the walkway, feeling more “complete” than modern drop‑in airport installations.
• The Expo system used parallel tracks with different speeds, akin to coupled train cars with distributed motors; Disney’s PeopleMover is cited as a descendant.
• There’s technical discussion of why handrails often drift relative to steps: friction‑driven belts wear over time, changing speed.

Attempts at Faster Moving Walkways

• Multiple real‑world experiments are mentioned: Paris Montparnasse’s 12 km/h “trottoir roulant rapide,” a variable‑pitch “Never Stop Railway” (1924), accelerating walkways in Canadian airports, and theme‑park loading platforms.
• Reports highlight mixed experiences: not especially scary but unreliable, high maintenance, and often eventually removed or slowed.

Why Moving Sidewalks Aren’t Common Today

• Main constraints cited: safely getting people on/off at higher speeds, accommodating toddlers, elderly, and luggage, and very high maintenance in public, outdoor settings.
• Cost–benefit is questioned: they’re space‑hungry, block cross‑flows, and are slower and less flexible than buses, trams, or bikes for most urban trips.
• Some see them as gadgets valuable mostly in special cases (airports, steep malls, Hong Kong hillside escalators).

Science Fiction and Cultural Imagination

• The Expo walkway is linked to a long sci‑fi tradition: Heinlein’s high‑speed “Roads,” Wells, Asimov’s Caves of Steel, Niven’s “slidewalks,” Ellison, Clarke, and others.
• Commenters debate Heinlein’s politics (progressive vs libertarian) and how his imagined transport systems tie into broader themes of socialism, libertarianism, and union struggles.

Urbanism, Cars, and Alternative Transit

• Some argue that early 20th‑century cities were walkable and transit‑rich until cars and highways displaced trams and ideas like elevated moving sidewalks.
• Others counter that pre‑car walkable cities limited access to niche goods and jobs; today’s debate pits dense, transit‑first cities against car‑centric sprawl.
• There’s discussion of “efficient but pleasurable” transport, from roller‑coaster‑like systems to e‑bikes, versus purely utilitarian commuting.