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Some cities in mainland Europe are like this already. They make cars unnecessary. Even bikes, as you can walk everywhere. I'm talking about midsized cities (10
by nextos 7y ago
Some cities in mainland Europe are like this already. They make cars unnecessary. Even bikes, as you can walk everywhere.
I'm talking about midsized cities (100-300k inhabitants) that are really compact thanks to 4-8 levels in every apartment block and ubiquitous use of lifts.
Lifts are the disruptive technology. They make energetically efficient cities possible and cheap.
I also find these cities much more nice to live in. Nice parks, avenues and shopping streets. I guess they are the heirs of the Hellenic tradition of valuing meeting squares a lot.
In contrast, as much as I like other aspects of Anglo-Saxon societies, their terraced or detached house model is energetically unsustainable, and yields both liveless suburbs and downtowns.
- dylan604 7y ago>Lifts are the disruptive technology. They make energetically efficient cities possible and cheap. Are lifts really as efficient as escalators? An escalator is constantly moving (unless it's malfunctioning), so there is no wait to continue moving. An elevator on the other hand is not. Maybe it depends on the number of floors? I can see an elevator being faster going from ground to floor 40 rather than zig zagging floors from ground to 40. Does anybody use "express" escalators that skip floors allowing for faster transit to higher floors?
- dragonwriter 7y ago> Are lifts really as efficient as escalators? I wouldn't be surprised. > An escalator is constantly moving (unless it's malfunctioning), so there is no wait to continue moving. That wastes energy but makes it time efficient for users (in terms of latency). OTOH, escalators are slow compared to most lifts/elevators, which means total trip time efficiency isn't good unless you are only going a floor or two or are competing with an elevator that stops a lot, where the latency gain may still beat the loss of vertical speed. Which is why escalators tend to get used where you've got lots of traffic volume but they aren't going up/down lots of floors.
- Johnny555 7y agoI used to work in an office building with escalators that are powered off at night -- there was some sort of motion sensor about 10 feet before the escalator that would power it on when someone approached, you'd have to be running to reach the escalator before it reached normal speed. So on-demand escalators are possible, just rare. In the daytime either they kept them on all the time, or maybe there was enough constant demand to keep them running as I never saw one powered off during the day.
- tjoff 7y agoI thought on-demand escalators were the norm, from subway to malls I don't think I have ever seen an escalator that not my on-demand. But I can't say I've put a lot of thought into it.
- dmd 7y agoAre you thinking of elevators, maybe? There are maybe a few hundred on-demand escalators in the whole world, and millions of normal ones.
- Dylan16807 7y agoI definitely want to hear where you got an estimate that there's less than a thousand on-demand escalators in the entire world.
- tjoff 7y agoNo. And I've personally used at least a hundred on-demand escalators just in my city.
- duckymcduckface 7y agoThey're more efficient because of reduced frictional losses, the contact point of an elevator is a pulley at the top of shaft and a couple guide rails. The guide rails are mostly there to provide lateral support. As for latency you can design around it, modern tall buildings will usually have multiple elevator banks that service different floors. A lot of engineering can go into designing the dispatching for elevators.
- wang_li 7y agoEscalators in Incheon airport start when you approach and stop when you exit.
- rizzin 7y agoNot just Incheon, all around South Korea.
- WanderPanda 7y agoIn Germany most of them also stop (and sometimes fail to start when you approach...)
- checkyoursudo 7y agoMany or most of them, at least in Munich, are reversible as well.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Moru 7y agoOur hospital used to have lifts that didn't stop at floors. The had no doors, you just jump on them and get off. They were intended for staff only, to quickly get between floors so slightly out of view of the public. They were replaced a few years ago though. Mabe too many accidents?