# Moving sidewalks in airports **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 21, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189 "2019-12-21T19:45:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/21 "2019-12-22T00:01:47Z")
I don’t care what anyone does as long as they stand right, walk left. (Or actually, I don’t even particularly care where you stand so long as there’s a lane I can get around you.) I generally (but not exclusively) walk on them. I’ve always assumed they were meant to be used for both purposes: wanna get somewhere faster? Walk on them. Wanna chill for a bit and get moved along? Stand on them. ---
**Author:** ![Tempe\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tempe_jeff/32/7328_2.png) [@Tempe\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tempe_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/22 "2019-12-22T00:13:55Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I have seen a few airports that have a yellow line painted down the middle of the moving sidewalk and stencil “stand” in the right “lane” and “walk” in the left one. I think MSP was one. I wise every airport did that, even though some people still seem to ignore the stand right rule even then. Phoenix Sky Harbor, what a beautiful name for an airport. or, PHX has this in humongous Terminal 4. ---
**Author:** ![steepone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/23 "2019-12-22T00:28:09Z")
> [@JWT\_Kottekoe](#): > > I wish they had multiple lanes, increasing in speed as you go to the left. Like Heinlein’s rolling roads ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/24 "2019-12-22T00:28:43Z")
Never liked the name “Sky Harbor” as it just sounds to me like somebody who had no better idea than to look for synonyms of “air” and “port,” but it is a very nice airport, and the markings on the walkways are nice. Definitely one of the nicer American airports. Free WiFi, too! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/25 "2019-12-22T00:31:10Z")
I use them and walk on them, but mostly because I fly so rarely (like once every 10-15 years) that they’re still novel and fun to use. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/26 "2019-12-22T01:18:09Z")
I always walked on them until I could no longer walk unaided. Now I rely on wheelchair attendants to get around airports and so far they have never taken me in the wheelchair onto a moving walkway. If I could, I guess it would be sit right, roll left. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/27 "2019-12-22T04:53:50Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > (Also, this is a good time to note that if an escalator is crowded to capacity, it’s actually better if everyone stands. A standing person takes less space than a person walking up the escalator, so the total thru-put is higher if everyone stands as close to each other as they can bear. Of course, few escalators are packed to capacity, and normally it’s fine to pass on the left.) I’m not sure about that. Suppose I’m waiting in line for an escalator. If the people on the escalator are standing in place, then I can’t get on until the escalator has moved enough to give me an available step to stand on. Let’s say that takes 1 second. Throughput is 60 people-per-minute. If people continue climbing once they’re on the escalator, they need more space. If I enter that escalator, 1 second later the escalator has moved one step forward, and I’ve also climbed 1 step up. If the person behind me now steps on and continues climbing, there will be an empty step between us, but it’s still one person getting on per second. The people are more spread out, but throughput is the same. > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > And I HATE HATE HATE it when children start playing on the moving sidewalks, doing stuff like trying to walk in the other direction. It’s not a carnival ride. I always have the urge to moonwalk. I’ll try not to do it when you’re around. > [@DPRK](#): > > What about the ones that accelerate you to warp speed, at least enough so that I once saw a sign urging you to keep both feet planted firmly during the acceleration and deceleration zones? I guess the same issues arise, but, since the walkway moves at twice the speed of a regular moving walkway, there is less of a temporal impact if people choose to stand still. I’ve never seen a moving walkway that wasn’t a constant speed for its whole length. How would they even build one that didn’t? When you step on, and the part you’re standing on speeds up, are there gaps opening up between you and the people behind you? ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/28 "2019-12-22T04:58:45Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Ah, like the ones Heinlein envisaged in “The Roads Must Roll.” Man, I was going through the thread hoping no one had thought of that.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/29 "2019-12-22T05:25:41Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Questions: Do they have moving sidewalks at airports in England? Do you stand to the left and pass on the right? Yes, and yes. And in one or two places on the London Underground. The concept and the technology have been around for some time: [https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2010/09/27/50th-anniversary-of-bank-stations-travolator/](https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2010/09/27/50th-anniversary-of-bank-stations-travolator/) In Paris they had one at the 1900 exhibition [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327200-200-how-the-moving-walkway-nearly-overtook-the-metro/](https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327200-200-how-the-moving-walkway-nearly-overtook-the-metro/) and more recently they experimented with one that accelerated as you got on it. Not a success: [https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2009/05/21/paris-experimental-high-speed-moving-walkway-is-abandoned/](https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2009/05/21/paris-experimental-high-speed-moving-walkway-is-abandoned/) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/30 "2019-12-22T06:15:33Z")
I’ll walk on them, but sometimes groups of people blocking the way lead to a holdup. Walk left, stand right (in North America anyway), folks. The shortest I ever encountered, was at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. It was only about 60 feet long. I guess it wasn’t worth having, because the last time I was through there, it had been replaced by a duty-free shop. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/31 "2019-12-22T11:04:32Z")
I walk in them because it’s just too fun. It’s like having a superpower like the Flash or something. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/32 "2019-12-22T11:21:10Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I’m not sure about that. > > Suppose I’m waiting in line for an escalator. If the people on the escalator are standing in place, then I can’t get on until the escalator has moved enough to give me an available step to stand on. Let’s say that takes 1 second. Throughput is 60 people-per-minute. > > If people continue climbing once they’re on the escalator, they need more space. If I enter that escalator, 1 second later the escalator has moved one step forward, and I’ve also climbed 1 step up. If the person behind me now steps on and continues climbing, there will be an empty step between us, but it’s still one person getting on per second. The people are more spread out, but throughput is the same. > … It’s really not possible to follow someone with only one step between. The people following need at least 2-3 steps in between. Science [concurs](https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-why-you-should-stand-not-walk-on-escalators) > [@](#): > > For a pedestrian, the “buffer zone” describes how much space a person needs to feel comfortable, and varies by activity. Someone standing needs, on average, a little over three square feet (0.3m²) of space, whereas a walking pedestrian needs more than eight square feet (0.75m²). > > That means a constrained space such as an escalator can comfortably hold more than twice the number of standing pedestrians as walking pedestrians. > > In London, planners reaped a 27 percent increase in the hourly capacity by switching to a “standing only” policy on a typically congested escalator at a subway station. Amsterdam airport has signs at the entrance and along the moving walkways specifying the lanes for walking and standing. I sometimes have the impression that any certain location with a moving walkway will have at least 1 walkway which is out of service. Same for escalators. We always walk on the left. The biggest “offenders” are groups of similarly aged adults who are too busy talking to watch what they are doing, so they aren’t ready to get on the walkway, block the walkway and then are surprised when the walkway ends. Zurich airport has the bouncy type. Those are fun to walk on. Terminal C in Newark airport has mostly eliminated them. They put more restaurants in the middle instead. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/33 "2019-12-22T12:42:39Z")
Thanks for finding the cite I was too lazy to link. I read about the change in some crowded tube stations, and why they did it. But as i read it, it occurred to me that other than at a few Subway stations, I can’t recall using an escalator where i had to wait to get on. And unless there’s a bottleneck in total thruput, it’s faster to walk, not just stand, of course. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/34 "2019-12-22T13:13:31Z")
I usually walk, but my father finds he is content to stand. Taking them was an excellent idea at the Cincinnati airport; that is a long slog to baggage claim. ---
**Author:** ![as\_u\_wish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/35 "2019-12-22T13:46:15Z")
We recently were in California and took the BART trains several times. Usually the escalators were working and convenient. However, one time we were there during a high traffic commute period - and the first escalator we came to was off. I have a wonky knee so we decided to walk to the next one rather than using the first one as stairs (which was what regular travelers were doing). After getting to the next escalator and finding that it, too, was off, we asked one of the transit cops and he explained it was for safety. Apparently at high congestion times, people would ride the escalator and then slow down or even stop at the bottom when they got off, rather than moving briskly forward at the same rate of speed. The next people would barge into them and there were many accidents. After trying for a while to educate the commuters they finally decided to just turn off the escalators when a high volume of patrons was expected. We don’t travel much, so this was new to us. Is this practice common? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/36 "2019-12-22T16:19:05Z")
I usually walk around them, just because I’m not usually in a hurry and will be sitting on my ass for several hours. I use them if pinched for time, but as an accelerated walkway. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/37 "2019-12-22T17:20:21Z")
I’ve seen these in airports since the 70s. I used to walk fast on them, now I just stand there and give my knees a break. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/38 "2019-12-22T17:26:41Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Never liked the name “Sky Harbor” as it just sounds to me like somebody who had no better idea than to look for synonyms of “air” and “port,” but it is a very nice airport, and the markings on the walkways are nice. Definitely one of the nicer American airports. Free WiFi, too! Oh, poo. I always like Sky Harbor as the name for an airport much better than [Some Dead Politician] Airport. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/39 "2019-12-22T20:11:02Z")
> [@as\_u\_wish](#): > > Apparently at high congestion times, people would ride the escalator and then slow down or even stop at the bottom when they got off, rather than moving briskly forward at the same rate of speed. The next people would barge into them and there were many accidents. After trying for a while to educate the commuters they finally decided to just turn off the escalators when a high volume of patrons was expected. We don’t travel much, so this was new to us. Is this practice common? I hate to sound like one of those people who blames everything on tourists, but… I wonder if it was tourists who were doing that rather than commuters. Commuters, you would think, ride the train every day and know exactly which platform they’re going to and would continue walking in that direction. Tourists, on the other hand, would be the ones likely to pause to get their bearings and look at the signs to try to figure out which platform their train departs from. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189/40 "2019-12-22T21:18:34Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I’ve never seen a moving walkway that wasn’t a constant speed for its whole length. How would they even build one that didn’t? When you step on, and the part you’re standing on speeds up, are there gaps opening up between you and the people behind you? One way is to make the travelator out of panels, like an escalator is made of steps. When you rotate the panels to be fat and wide, they go slow. When you rotate them to be thin and long, they must go faster to get the extra length past each point in the same amount of time. Water does the same thing: a flat slow section of river must be much wider than a fast steep section of river: the river runs down into the slow section, then spreads out so that the same amount of water can move slowly down river: if it didn’t spread out, it would bank up. (It can do that to: when it banks up it’s called a hydraulic jump) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-sidewalks-in-airports/845189.md?page=3)