Moving Sidewalks in Airports
Moving Sidewalks in Airports
(OP)
Seems every airport has them these days.
I think I just want to vent some frustration at something I witnessed / tried to intervene in recently.
After disembarking from a flight, I was walking through an airport's gate corridors when I noticed a commotion on the moving sidewalk beside me. An elderly gentleman had started to walk on to it, but once his walker was on the moving belt and his feet were still on the static ramp, I think you all can guess what happened next. Luckily for him the people right in front of him noticed his problem and tried to catch him. With the walker in the way they couldn't completely prevent him from falling. This was when I decided to try to get the thing stopped and ran over to the stop switch. Quite dismayed when the stop switch didn't work. I nearly broke the thing off the bracket pounding on the poor little button. I even tried the one on the opposite belt, to no avail.
My question isn't about the failed stop switch, really. I reported it to the airport officials and although I had to wait 1/2 hour for a public safety officer to come, it was worth the wait. It actually was a guy charged with the safety of these machines (and the escalators, elevators too). We talked at length, though we couldn't go back to the scene because it happened on the secure side, and I had to meet him on the public side of the airport.
My question is really this: Who thinks these moving sidewalks are a good idea?
Are these kinds of accidents common? Walkers, canes... what else can get people tripped on a moving sidewalk?
I rarely bother with these things. I have only ever seen one long enough to make any difference, between terminals at Heathrow, if I recall correctly. The more typical ones I see at little Canadian airports are hardly 30 meters long! What's the point?
I think I just want to vent some frustration at something I witnessed / tried to intervene in recently.
After disembarking from a flight, I was walking through an airport's gate corridors when I noticed a commotion on the moving sidewalk beside me. An elderly gentleman had started to walk on to it, but once his walker was on the moving belt and his feet were still on the static ramp, I think you all can guess what happened next. Luckily for him the people right in front of him noticed his problem and tried to catch him. With the walker in the way they couldn't completely prevent him from falling. This was when I decided to try to get the thing stopped and ran over to the stop switch. Quite dismayed when the stop switch didn't work. I nearly broke the thing off the bracket pounding on the poor little button. I even tried the one on the opposite belt, to no avail.
My question isn't about the failed stop switch, really. I reported it to the airport officials and although I had to wait 1/2 hour for a public safety officer to come, it was worth the wait. It actually was a guy charged with the safety of these machines (and the escalators, elevators too). We talked at length, though we couldn't go back to the scene because it happened on the secure side, and I had to meet him on the public side of the airport.
My question is really this: Who thinks these moving sidewalks are a good idea?
Are these kinds of accidents common? Walkers, canes... what else can get people tripped on a moving sidewalk?
I rarely bother with these things. I have only ever seen one long enough to make any difference, between terminals at Heathrow, if I recall correctly. The more typical ones I see at little Canadian airports are hardly 30 meters long! What's the point?
STF





RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
Now, in my state of increased decrepitude, I prefer the airline's big golf carts, when they're available.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
I like them a lot. They speed you up in a place that is notoriously large. So long as people actually stay to the side when they're lazily standing there, so that those that still want to walk on it, can do so.
I'd say it is much more dangerous for someone to have to jog/run in a crowded airport than to have a cordoned/walled area designated for rapid movement.
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
"... I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?" - <xterm>
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
I like the moving sidewalks, but I hate it when someone runs through them. I had one guy hurdle over my luggage once.
It seems these days things don't get fixed until several people die first and someone files a lawsuit.
Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks '16
ctophers home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
Whose in!?
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
Today, when we travel via that airport, the slidewalks make the inter-concourse walk a relative non-issue, provided you have some mobility. We've gone through there with kids in strollers. I prefer the option they give, and probably will (if I ever travel through there with a walker, someday, in my 90's?) give them a shot, safety E-stops or no. But, I'll probably also be that whacko grandpa with a motorized walker synched to my heelie shoes.
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
I recall seeing one on "Tomorrows World" - a long running science series in the UK - probably the one dated 1980s as I remember it had some sort of interlinking meshes which changed shape and somehow accelerated you in the middle bit.
Must be either very expensive or they keep breaking down as if they were simple and cheap you'd see them everywhere by now.
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roads_Must_Roll
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
I exaggerate the dimensions, but not the way it feels.
The biggest problem with them was exposed by Ellison in 'Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman."
Other than that, as long as the sidewalks have the side guards and tread fingers in place the old guy could have fallen, ridden along behind the walker, and been spit out the other end with little lasting damage, assuming others around him would not kick him on their way by and that toppling over was not a basic problem.
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
The comment from the Tick is important - to paraphrase: "why wasn't this guy on a courtesy cart"?
Good questions. Didn't anyone offer one to him as he got off the airplane? Was one available at the time? Did he refuse? Are these carts the responsibility of the airport operator (in this case, Pearson int'l, Toronto) or the airlines served at the gates (in this case, exclusive to Air Canada).
I didn't think of asking about this to the public safety official that I spoke to, though on retrospect, maybe I should have.
Typical engineer's problem: I'm not elderly or frail or limited in mobility, so how can I think like someone who is, to design appropriately?
STF
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
I was flying back from New Delhi, India to SoCal via Chicago on American Airlines a few years ago. The problem was that earlier in the day, after a flight from Pune to New Delhi, I had an accident while crossing the airport parking lot where I fell and broke my ankle. This was in the morning and my flight back to the states was later in the evening and I had booked a hotel room for the day. I didn't get medical care, but rather just put an ice pack on my ankle, and later got an elastic bandage and wrapped it tight. That being said, I called the airline and requested that they provide me with wheelchair service, first at the New Delhi airport and then when I needed to get through customs and immigration in Chicago and to my flight to SoCal and later when I arrived in Orange Co. It was no problem whatsoever and the airlines was very accommodating.
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
Don't be too hard on them.
je suis charlie
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
If it saves everyone 10 seconds, why not? I wouldn't pay for it, but I use them.
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks '16
ctophers home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
RE: Moving Sidewalks in Airports
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pearson-airp...
(same airport, BTW)
STF