Did you know that London's subway system is the oldest in the world? Well, it is. It's been running for 150 years and drastically needs an upgrade.
London's Circle Line alone has been in operation for 110 years.
It carries 114 million people each year, reaches a top speed of 20 miles per hour, and as the most congested in London, often experiences delays and unhappy and sweaty commuters.
According to City A.M., a group of architects called NBBJ has now proposed a terrifying solution for delays and exasperated commuters: replacing the Circle Line with moving sidewalks.
They're calling these moving sidewalks "travelators," and they "reckon," that replacing 17 miles of tracks with three speeds of travelators might solve London's Circle Line's delay issues.
Here's the plan: three travelators would run alongside each other at various speeds, from a relaxed speed of 3 mph on the outside to the breakneck 15 mph in the middle. Commuters would move between the three speeds, increasing their speed each time.
This solution would apparently transport commuters faster than the Circle Line trains do now.
While the idea has its merits-- that is, no one would ever have to wait for a train and the sidewalks could handle a much higher capacity-- we fear for the safety of everyone with bikes, strollers, and clumsy tendencies.
Seriously, wouldn't someone get trampled if they accidentally fell?
Since our subway system's pretty old too, we really hope the MTA doesn't get any ideas. Our subway's been running since 1904, and most of NYC's 467 subway stations were built by 1940.
The reason we're really worried, though, is because this new study reported it'll take the MTA 52 years to get all stations in a state of good repair. We wouldn't be surprised if the MTA was on the hunt for new ideas.
If we're being honest though, we'd also love to avoid moving sidewalks so we can retain our global status as the city that walks the most. Since, you know, being awesome rocks and all.
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[Feature Image Courtesy: City AM]