"Michael Bell" wrote in message
...

never-stop. We can all walk at 4 mph (= 1M/sec), so I think 4 mph
steps
would be acceptable, so 3 belts would get us up to 12 mph and 4 belts
would get us up to 16 mph. This is much faster than town buses and
after allowing for the time taken walking to the station and waiting
for the train, competitive with Metros.

No. You and I can. Old people and wheelchairs cant. Besides, would you
like
to ride on a skateboard at 16mph?

This is a misunderstanding. If you are on a 16 mph belt, the neighbouring
belt is at 12 mph.

And if the neighbouring belt broke somehow? Or the one your on for that
matter? What about the other side of the belt? If you trip (or are pushed)
onto the neighbouring belt you'll land and be dragged along at 4mph, unlike
what happens when you fall over normally.

The experience of the old belts was that old people COULD.

The old belts never went above 4mph.

Let's think about wheel chairs. Let's assume the belt is running from left
to
right, and you are approaching it about 20°. Your right wheel runs onto
it,
and it stops turning, if the belt was going faster than you, it would turn
backwards. No harm done. You give your left wheel an extra heave and
continue
your roll onto the belt. Where's the problem? A test would be cheap
enough.

What speed-gradient are you talking about? I was under the impression you
were on about 4mph (1.8m/s) "steps". That's a fast walking pace. You are
also ignoring air resistance (on the 12-16mph belt a 12mph head wind is not
inconsideable), and of course resistance in the wheel. When the chair is
half on, it would be send spinning arround like a whipping top

Raising our eyes from the technical details, we see that the
reasons why such project might or might not go ahead are political and
economic. Belts would create a wholly new townscape.

Never happen, discriminatory against a whole range of people

As discussed above, nobody is discriminated against.

A 153-metre long "moving walkway" is planned for the new Mersey Square
interhcange in Stockport. I have been unable to find out whether it
involves
CASCADING the belts, the key feature of my proposal.

£10 says it doesnt.
When I was a kid I had dreams of cascading belts whisking people along
shopping streets, but then I realised that in todays PC compensation culture
where even routemasters can't exist, there is no chance.