July 14, 2003. Copyright 2003. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Power walkers ÒfallÓ for trottoir

LONDON, July 14, Graphic News: Commuters using Montparnasse stationÕs main interchange inside the Paris metro have fallen for a new high-speed travelator, but not in the way its designers anticipated.

Despite prominent warnings to keep both feet flat on the ground, some travellers have fallen and hurt themselves, and some injuries have led to the Metro company paying compensation.

The prototype high-speed walkway -- the trottoir roulant rapide -- is on trial at Montparnasse station until October. It whisks passengers along at nine kilometres (six miles) per hour, much faster than airport walkways and about the average speed of a Paris bus.

But, for some the difficulty is in the transistion from walking normally at around four to five kilometres (three miles) per hour and stepping onto the fast walkway. The trottoirÕs inventor, Anselme Cote, explained that people stepping directly on to the TRR may lose their balance so they first have to step on a slow moving section, from where they are accelerated -- and then decelerated again at the other end. 

ÒOne has to glide from one phase to the next; we ask people not to move [their feet], but they are not used to itÉ and that takes time.Ó

ÒThe real problem nowadays is how to move crowds -- they can travel fast over long distances but not over short distances,Ó said Monsieur Cote. You can travel from Le Mans to Paris in 50 minutes, he pointed out, but crossing Montparnasse Station may take you 20 minutes.

Transportation experts from as far afield as Toronto, Hong Kong and London -- and even the organisers of the forthcoming Olympic Games in Beijing -- have travelled to Paris to see Parisian power walkers and their trottoir in action.
/ENDS

Source: BBC World Service