glidewalk: sidewalk of tomorrow

fast, efficient, fun, power-assisted turf-walking...

One of my decades-ago favorites: moving sidewalks, everywhere ... but not conveyor belts but napped micro-turf that multi-vibrates only under foot, and the action of the micro-tines causes forward motion, (cf the nap of fur moves easily in one direction but not the reverse: its oscillation underfoot tickles the foot forward not backward)... You'll walk forward to go faster, backward to go slower, (micro-turf matches your foot-speed), Or, inward-leftward to let the micro-turf accelerate you to the proportional-lane speed limit faster, the highspeed innermost center lane fastest at 15 mph, banked through sweeping turns, easy grading uphill and down: pleasant breezing... and, walk off outward-rightward when you arrive ... And, when clear, walk straight-across to the other side, to go home....

20 mph, is achievable by walking 5 mph on the fastest 15 mph innermost track: 3-4 minutes to 'walk' a mile....

Notice that by multiphase vibrating only under the feet where you stand, napped microturf is energy-efficient: Unlike conveyor belts which move the whole belt, plus the under-rollers, miles long, microturf is an object-mover firstly.

A second advantage of the vibrator is that it can detect the traveling foot, and not-move when someone is merely walking across the lanes (while avoiding oncoming sidewalk traffic): there is no additional crossover construction bridge or underpass, requires no belt-splitting... just "power and ground" (literal humor too), laid by-segment as wanted... converging... diverging... it's all very efficient....

The third advantage, combines the first two, allowing acceleration by merely walking onto the glidewalk in the desired direction until it accelerates to matching speed ... then the walker paces, sidestepping inward (leftward) onto adjacent lanes to pass others ahead....

The micro-tine action in propelling forward, slightly lifts, allowing the glide over its semi-slick nap to be lower pressure:- thus if the nap were to stop or if the walker were to sidestep instead of walk back onto the slower lane, it would not slick slide but easy glide to slow to the going lane speed, even to stop, safe.

(Beware of children using this as an opportunity to play, running as fast as possible and jumping on-or-off, even dressed as 'jousting comicbook knights', sliding while the segment detects and matches their glide-movement....)

A fourth advantage, is its ability to create a continuum of lanes --slowest on the right, fastest on the left,-- and, adjust when walkers of different speeds approach, to allow for more gradual, smooth passing. It could even route passers aside -making room- for passing.

A fifth advantage, is to go all the way to TCA, Tactical Collision Avoidance, uni-control with one total sidewalk surface that is micro-locally programmed to move in the direction the walker walks, as a power-assist ... auto-adjusting velocity, limiting speed, rerouting to right-forward, nudging walkers away from oncoming traffic, optimizing course-routing, allocating surface as-needed daily and hourly, even cross-through-sequencing denser city-ways ... all selected by walking, thereto, on omni-directional micro-turf power-napping....

(Additional features include shoeshine-nightlighting efficiently turning-up brightness underneath each passenger and angled forward).

Grand-Admiral Petry
'Majestic Service in a Solar System'
Nuclear Emergency Management

© 1984, 2004, 2011 GrandAdmiralPetry@Lanthus.net