[wazoox]

There was a fast (10 kph) moving sidewalk in the Paris metro station "Montparnasse" for 12 years or so. It never worked out. You can't easily step on it; for years they had to have employees helping people stepping on the fast lane without falling down. And the thing broke down all the time, it was barely available half the time. Finally they replaced it with a good old fashioned 4 kph moving sidewalk.

Faster isn't always better. Moving faster is overrated.

[CydeWeys]

They've solved the boarding/debarking issue by having variable speeds, but maintenance still seems like it's going to be a huge problem. Escalators/moving walkways are always having maintenance problems. It's a simple result of how many moving parts and rubbing surfaces are involved. Think of a car moving on a road -- you've got four tires and two spinning axles. You can easily go many tens of thousands of kilometers without needing any servicing, and when you do finally need servicing, it's just a quick tire replacement. Fixing walkways/escalators isn't nearly so simple, and if there's any problem, it takes down the entire span.

[shawkinaw]

This article is about a walkway that moves slower at the ends, like a ski lift.

[wazoox]

The Paris metro one was slower at the ends. The ends were made of gradually faster rolls, so you had to let your feet flat on the ground and dont try to walk until on the main, faster part of the sidewalk. Trying to walk on the gradually accelerating parts was a sure way to fall.

[masklinn]

I wouldn't say that moving faster is overrate, but folks can't go from 0 to 10 in an instant, and partial variable speed is an absolute engineering and maintenance nightmare.