An Alternate World of Reverse Treadmills

As a college student, I am faced with two dilemmas: getting out of bed to cross the vast, stormy ocean of students to reach my 8 a.m, and, faced with the frankly less than adequately healthy Hot Steel and Noodles, and the famed Waring Halls Cookie, forcing that treadmill run into that crevice of available time.

What baffles me with this is that when we walk (or run) on treadmills, we are cannibalizing a possible usage of transportation: I move forward, while the ominous tar-colored belt propels me back from reaching that next "world cave," whether it be ramming into a dumbbell rack, or smashing my head into cinder-block. But as Penn State as a campus goes, even with its hodgepodge of brick and mortar in a less than coherent organization, the future, including that 20 minute walk, are kept without significant obstructions. So why not reverse the treadmill and assist the movement of the masses?

This is essentially a travelator, that "horizontal-escalator-thing" that you probably ran onto in the shopping mall or airport. But what a British firm NBBJ proposed was something more vast: an entire subterranean city of moving walkways, placed side by side with variable speeds. For instance, the innermost walkway could travel at 15 mph while the outer ones travel at slower speeds, allowing people to transfer efficiently to slower "lanes" before finally exiting at a point.

Granted, if this were to be applied to Pollock Road or the Pattee Mall, we would not want to crawl through caverns of much and instead appreciate the beauty of our campus (unless we are caught in that downpour). But what such a proposal offers is still flexibility to many regions in a smaller space. Airport? Place the NBBJ walkway. Getting from Macy's to PacSun for that 1-minute sale? The NBBJ walkway is there to save you time and money!

Now obviously, such a system does have its downfalls. Firstly, those hoards of people that primarily haunt College Avenue on football nights would be haunting campus 24-7 on the travellators. And how in the world are you supposed to curve such as system through the winding paths of State College (or most real city for that matter)?

If such a system were to be implemented, nevertheless, our global cities would be stretched out into fine lines surrounding the walkway systems. Have a look at Dubai, UAE:

Such a city is served by a metro, but a moving walkway would serve the population really well, as the vast majority of people are contracted into the narrow hallway of Dubai's "strip road." Imagine, though, that walk from East to Hammond, being stretched so that you would have to pass all academic buildings and dorm buildings before reaching the Engineering quad. Also, your journey to Berkey Creamery would have your ice cream melted by the time you reach your dorm building.

Granted, such a system will reduce travel time, but only up to a certain amount can be saved with the NBBJ walkway. For short distances within a mall or airport, both of which are naturally arranged in a line, such system can do wonders for all the dashing and fights that take place every midnight after Thanksgiving. But the application of NBBJ is missed: it is applied to cities and organizations of humanity that want to express freedom of habitat and movement, and not be confined to a 2 x 1000 piece of plywood.

References:

"Burj Dubai and the Sheikh Zayed Road Skyline by Brian McMorrow." PBase. N.p., 30 May 2009. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.

Deezen "NBBJ Proposal Replaces London's Circle Line with a Travelator." Dezeen NBBJ Proposal Replaces London Undergrounds Circle Line with Giant Travelator Comments. N.p., 08 Sept. 2015. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.