Forms of Transportation that Were Supposed to Change the World (But Didn't...)
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
- From boats to bicycles, automobiles to airplanes, many technologies have truly changed the course of human history. However, some of these technologies have fallen quite short of their creators' expectations.
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I’m surprised, I would have thought that the knowledge that a Segway had been responsible for injuring Piers Morgan would have increased public goodwill towards the product enormously.
Truly love this idea that violence and harm towards someone one disagrees with is celebrated, and I hope this continues to snowball for eternity 🙏
@@ThatKB89 I disagree with Hitler... But I guess he's a person too, right? I'd be, like, worse than Hitler for thinking that the world would have been better if Hitler had self deleted sooner, like, right?
I mean, it has, but I would like to think that it isnt enough
@@ThatKB89 There's a huge difference between assaulting someone and laughing at them when they injure themselves.
@@usonumabeach300 so your issue with hitler can be boiled down to a simple disagreement? Such an elegant way to trivialize genocide homie.
I’ve used moving walkways a lot in airports, and to me their advantage is not that they are faster (though they can be if you walk on them at a decent pace) but that they reduce fatigue when you have to walk for half an hour to your next gate while dragging luggage and feeling jet lagged. Which is probably why they do still exist in airports. And I don’t see how they would be any more dangerous than an escalator in a shopping center.
Paris CDG airport installed a "high-speed" one a decade or two ago. Which kept breaking down and breaking users, but seems fine now.
#1 "Moving Walkways" are a lot longer than escalators and mostly fenced in at the sides for security purposes. Meaning if you had some kind of emergency it wouldn't be until the end until you effectively could be helped.
#2 On "moving Walkways" you have a lot more diverse speeds of the users than on escalators. Meaning the chance to bump into someone or bumped from behind is far greater.
#3 If "moving Walkways" fail it is likely a far greater cost than repairing an escalator with the same problem due to the length.
These are but a few of the disadvantages that "moving Walkways" have above simple escalators.
@@ArschvomDienst Very interesting! Had not thought of those problems. I was thinking that escalators would have more risk of getting stuck in all the moving stairs, also if you fall from an escalator it can be a long way to the bottom. But you have some interesting points.
I think their primary advantage is they enforce a minimum speed for everyone.
they are next to useless when you get a lardarse or two ahead not actually walking, blocking the way for everyone else.
Simon, for those of us that have mobility problems, moving walkways at airports are life savers!
I totally agree, but the idea was that they'd be EVERYWHERE.
I'd love it if I could get to work by moving sidewalk, but I do see why that is completely impractical.
It was supposed to make ordinary sidewalks obsolete, and that hasn't happened and isn't going to.
@@spyone4828 oh totally impractical for anywhere but Southern California where we have no extreme weather. Rain would rust it within a season someplaces
I have chronic fatigue, and they're great! But in my area, outside, they'd just freeze. However they would be great in hallways connecting buildings such as at university campuses and convention centres that have attached hotels.
@@annehersey9895 "Southern California where we have no extreme weather"
well, you also have the hottest location on Earth, Death Valley, there. I would say the inhabitable heat and extreme dryness of Death Valley to be a form of extreme weather, if not the most extreme haha
@@aohige True, true and this week, Northern California is having EXTREME weather! However, another 50 years of global warming at its current rate, then San Diego where I live WILL be Death Valley!
As a moderately disabled person, I LOVE moving walkways in airports, especially when I'm expected to get to the next gate in under 15 minutes yet it's a mile walk, and they wont provide me with alternative transport. That said, people need to WALK on them for them to work. I unapologetically demand people move to the side if they are standing and blocking the entire walkway.
I've seen some airports with a line down the middle of theirs, for a fast lane and a slow lane. Which is great as I have a disability where I get dizzy and fatigued more often, so I sometimes need to lean against something or sit on my suitcase for a moment.
At airports, I'd walk way faster than normal on those things. It was an interesting sensation and while a little more dangerous (I've never once had an accident, collision or otherwise), walking faster would kind of "shoot" you off at the end of the walkway. Like an amusement park ride, except in an airport.
Same!!! Lol
You could flat haul ass on some of them
Try running on one, you feel like Superman.
Yeah, i don’t know what Simon is talking about “slowing down”, and even if you, its still a benefit.
Hong Kong has tons of moving walkways all over the city, just from my casual observation (literally hundreds of people daily for the past 14 years I've been living here) the study that Simon references isn't wrong, a vast majority of people on moving walkways don't use it to speed up, but just as a convenience to take short breaks from walking.
Edit: and to clarify, people don't just slow down, they tend to stop completely. Standard etiquette in Hong Kong is if you want to stand you stick to the right, let the brisk walkers overtake on the left.
Anytime I used a moving walkway, I continued walking my normal pace. It's as fast as someone jogging. But it always felt a bit odd if not dangerous. Especially slowing back down to step off.
One time, I was on one by myself. Sprinted full speed on it. It was amazing.
Holy fuck I've always wanted to sprint on one it hurts to see someone else live your dreams 🤣
Lol its the little things sometimes that bring the most joy
@@joeyr7294 that's not what my baby mamma said
@@giantmanice lol 🍻🍆
It's like you've gone plaid
At airports, it actually makes sense. It's a people-with-baggage mover, essentially, where you can plop down your baggage and get to where you're going without expending too much energy. Its capacity is essentially limitless, which makes it much better than the little golf carts some airports have going. As for the child death, probably parental neglect/ignorance, not understanding the danger and the need to keep their kids close. I've seen this in modern escalators where adults just let their spawn play wild on those things, and I've had to save a couple of them from being brained.
Agree completely on parents not realising the world (nor the government) is not their babysitter.
True, and if you walk on them they're super fast
I'm an adult and I'm not allowed on escalotors due to not paying attention and jumping up a down escalator- thinking it was the up- and faceplanting in the middle of a crowded mall....
Yes, I agree about it’s benefit for people with baggage
It was the 1940's - I'd be confident that there were no safety features of emergency cutoffs around on that walkway. Without those it's only take one snagged piece of clothing to potentially kill or maim someone.
Robert Heinlein set his short story "The Roads Must Roll" in an America without vehicular roads, but with massive moving walkway complexes that not only were in cities, but stretched coast to coast. The infrastructure to maintain them, and the risks associated with mechanical failure, was central to the story.
Yes, the faults listed in the video (people walk slower, and safety) are irrelevant or could be resolved in the multilevel versions. The big problem is that a single failure brings the whole system (or Heinleinian city) to a standstill.
@@joegrey9807 And also good public transit are most likely a good bit better and more adoptable in the real world than the moving walkway.
Came to write this. Heinlein was my favorite author as a teen.
Asimov has moving walkways in his Robot series as well. :)
Of all the things Heinlein wrote I always thought the Road Town future was, if not the dumbest, then maybe the least practical future technology he envisioned.
The monorail could probably make this list. It was imagined a a mass transit system for the future but it just ended up as a theme park attraction
I never quite understood the monorail's failure. I used to live in L.A. and often thought a monorail track that paralleled the 405, the 10, and a few other key freeways would be a pretty good way to move people around without the pesky tunneling of a subway, and nice views. (A monorail from Cheyenne Wyoming to Colorado Springs, hitting Fort Collins, Loveland, Denver, and Castlerock would be quite nice too) It might be impossible now, but when they were building the freeways in the 40s through 60s the monorail concept was, at least on paper, pretty popular (they made on in Seattle for example). I'm surprised they never made any in L.A. for general use. Or if they did, they didn't last very long.
@@kev3d It's better to build normal rail instead of monorail
Until you go to Tokyo. That is why it can't make it to the list as its currently in real world use for mass transit. BTW its the same type as the one in the Frankfurt Airport, but much longer and with plenty of stops. Speaking of, the moving walkways there were fine and you could just walk normally on them. I don't see why ppl consider them dangerous, well they are optional to use, but they did help imo, that place is long.
Various light urban rail systems on elevated tracks are running around cities and airports around the world, and often doing just fine. It’s just that they don’t particularly have to use only one rail. Two are probably just more reliable, most of the time - less weight on each point of contact or something.
Now, the hovertrain is a concept that might have qualified for this video. Much talked about when I was a kid, but squeezed out by the practicality of improved high-speed conventional rail on one side and the SF dream of maglev on the other. Maglev in turn is just about hanging in there, but has never yet quite taken off outside of a couple of places.
@@freeculture The monorails in Japan and Hong Kong only make sense due to combined weather and geological concerns that necessitate just as much concrete to produce conventional rail viaducts in the same location.
Hey Simon (or more likely his editor): the moving walkway is an example of *Galilean* relativity, *NOT* Einsteinian relativity.
Good catch.
Thanks for the correction :)
@@Sideprojects correct the end title link as well currently it shows forgotten putin planes
TIME TO PUT SAM BACK IN THE BASEMENT!!
@@xyzpdq1122 lol
Moving walkways in airports are amazingly good. The amount of fun I’ve had speed walking on them and travelling at a sprinting pace is just unrivalled.
I agree with that so much it's so fun
Absolutely agree!!! Speed walking on a travellator is next level fun, in a tame and silly way 😜
One time I was in a hurry to run to the other side of the airport to make my connecting flight. I ran full speed on a moving walkway, and I went so fast I could hear the rush of air around me. Was pretty exhilarating.
That is my absolute favorite part of being in an airport!
To save you the time of having to wait the 3-5 years, you could just add the "Vegas Loop" to the list now. Taxis in tunnels - yeah, totally game changing
Slow taxis in tunnels , with no way to escape if there is a fire! Super Super amazing technology.
I never got why they didnt do something like a subway. vegas needs something like that since people rely on taxis to get from the airport to strip even though thousands arrive and leave daily and the buses are inefficient and unreliable
@@arthas640 A monorail is the obvious choice. Works as advertising, performs the same job as a subway, infinitely safer than a sealed, inescapable tunnel filled with individual lithium battery-equipped vehicles moving at high speed.
The thing I find most baffeling about the Vegas Loop is how neither the Media or the Cult of Elon has called BS on its implimentation compared to all those original CGi concepts. It is also faster to walk between the two points than que for a taxi in the loop LOL.
A great leap forward in the Disneyland For Drunks
0:50 - Chapter 1 - The monowheel
3:20 - Chapter 2 - Amphibious cars
6:10 - Chapter 3 - Moving walkways
9:30 - Chapter 4 - Codename, IT
A fleet of three amphicars (painted red, white, and blue) made regular appearances at 4th of July boat parades by my grandparents' home in Michigan. I didn't realize how rare they were! After touring in Australia in an Duck (similar concept, different manufacturer) - I just assumed they were unusual!
Where i live we just recently brought back the amphicar show yearly. If you or anyone else here wants to see them just look up Celina Lake Fest in Celina, Ohio. We hold it at the end of July every year and when i was young we had 100-200 cars show up per year. Not sure how it is nowadays, but i remember getting to go out in one of the cars and it was fun.
Heinlein's rolling roads time line was always one of my favorites. It's a weird concept, but he took the moving walkways to the extreme. Fun stories, but speculative like most of his stories
8:02 every large airport has them in the USA, and i absolutely love them. Its super fun to walk in place, or run while on one. Its a very unique fun feeling that everyone should try.
Plenty of moving walkways in airports and even railway stations elsewhere in the world, too, I think. They’re great for moving moderate numbers of people over moderate distances, indoors. They’re just not the future of urban mass transport.
The big designs with multiple levels moving at different speeds have fallen into the bin of history, though.
Whilst Segway undeniably was a huge fail, mostly by being too expensive and bulky, I have to give credit for it's makers - it's a pretty cool piece of kit, but especially their vision was very correct. The amount of electric scooters in cities these days is booming year after year, and they are very handy indeed in urban areas. If Segway would have had the idea to just rent them rather than sell, things could have been very different.
Segway was a very predictable failure. I was living in League City, Texas and attending the University of Houston - Clear Lake at the time the Segway was introduced. I was taking a Master of Science degree in Studies of the Future, and we talked about this "revolutionary new technology" would change everything. But then I recalled how easily we could get around Houston in the days after Tropical Storm Allison. It's one thing when the temperature's hot enough to melt Inconel X, but riding a Segway around the Houston area when you're having 28 inches of rain dropping down on your head in thunderstorms simply isn't a good idea. Worse yet, the Houston area isn't well suited for riding something like a Segway: things are far too widely spread out, and the battery life's too short.
Segways are available for rent where I live. The government changed laws to make them legal and in the process they made e-scooters and electric bicycles legal too.
Who here thought when he first mentioned "it", there was going to be a reference to Mr(s) Garrison's "IT" from "South Park"?
Electric scooters for rent nowadays are very slim & people look good on them. Segways don't make you look cool.
@@billolsen4360 A Segway is a means of transport, "cool" is irrelevant.
The moving walkways of varying speeds were a big part of the Asimov book “The Caves Of Steel”. When you read how they work and the speeds involved, you have to wonder what exactly they were thinking of and the dangers.
People Jam.
Thanks, I was trying to remember the name of the book.
Don't forget Mr. Garrisons monowheel, "It". It's better than going to the airport. 😅🤣🤣
I work in the New York City area, and the most common emerging transport I encounter is the electric scooter (the kind with 2 small wheels front and rear, a handlebar, and a short platform between the wheels for one's feet). They seem to strike a good balance between being portable, and still giving someone speedy mobility on paved routes. They have their issues, but people deal with them and use them for modest trips in the city.
I was able to try a Segway a few years ago, it was a loaner to our organization to test it for possible use. After a few minutes to become familiar with it, it was obviously a remarkable machine. It seemed to respond almost intuitively to one's desire to go in any direction, and was smooth, silent, and quick enough to get one into trouble on a sidewalk or hallway. Very impressive... but, too heavy for me to take down a flight of stairs to the subway on my way home. It was great for short local trips but would not be practical to zip me 6 miles away back to Brooklyn (unless there had been some dedicated paths for it, which sadly don't exist).
I guess the weight and cost of the Segway worked against their wider adoption, so today I see many commuters with $500 25 pound scooters carry their scoot, wheel it off the subway or bus, fold the handle bars up, and zip off on their way.
I thought it was pretty cool to see such a diverse population on electric scooters. Office workers, construction guys, nurses, students. It was neat. But, of course, it slowly escalates. Now the streets are flooded with those e-bikes and unlicensed motorcycles going faster than cars, weaving, and running red lights.
Pretty common in china are the segways without the handles. Can fit on ebike and take it into community that doesn’t allow delivery ebikes. Or to school. Ebikes are more common . But electric scooters i sometimes see. We try to use electric cause its good for the air, even though owning a car you can only drive every other day and not find a parking spot for is .. face.
In 1995 I was briefly in the Birmingham, Alabama area where in one of the suburbs I saw a young man scooting around on his own homemade motorized skateboard. I thought at the time that has got to be about the most energy efficient transportation possible: just a small engine, small fuel tank, four small wheels, and a platform to stand on. The chief problem with it was the fact that although skilled skateboarders could steer it where they wanted there are an awful lot of potential riders who wouldn't even be able to keep their balance on it - to say nothing of braking or adjusting speed.
As you say, the electric scooter strikes a balance: a folding handle makes it easily portable _and_ (perhaps more importantly) easily stowable. One problem in a city with bicycles and Segways is finding a secure place to store them when they're not in use, but an office worker can stow an electric scooter with a folding handle under their desk, and going about town they can even sling it over a shoulder if they need to briefly go into a shop. Of course the handle provides controls for speed and direction, but more importantly provides just enough connection to the platform to make it comfortable for most riders to maintain their balance. Modern batteries with electric motors of course reduce maintenance issues to almost zero. The simplicity and small size keep the costs quite reasonable, whether it is used in addition to or instead of a car. The range isn't great, but it's about solving the last mile problem (or even the last five miles problem) for people who wouldn't otherwise be able to use public transportation - or even if they just don't want to try to find parking in a congested area.
That said, the Segway has some great technology in it and those innovations will very possibly be in widespread use elsewhere in the future - but it did not fit the way that humans actually live, and that was where it failed as a product.
yeah, it's kind of funny, if the segway inventor had just put the wheels one in front of the other, instead of side by side, he could have actually changed the world. Instead we had to wait another 20 years. I guess smaller batteries were also required too.
I first saw those in downtown Salt Lake City in 2019. I also saw a few in July 2022 in Charlotte, NC. In both cases they wasn't confusion about where to ride them; everyone used the sidewalks as they'd get run over on the road. St Louis City also used to have some downtown but banned them in 2021 as a "Covid precaution".
Monowheel reminds me of what Garison made in South Park, but less 'intrusive'
It's worse because the episode was made to lampoon the Segway
@@ilajoie3 I thought the gag was about how a vehicle that literally f***s you in the butt is still better than dealing with airlines
Yup. Also, "gerbiling" reminds me of the Lemmywinks episode.
When it comes to segways, I've seen some most useful and helpful use of the tech. For off road wheel chairs 🙂 Basicly they just put a chair on top of the segway for the most part, instead of having you stand and hanging onto a pole to ride it. I spoke to the guy that had one, when we were in a rural tourist town. He loved it. Giving him more freedom than what a normal wheel chair would have given him.
There's a guy here in my SMALL town in New Zealand who has a Segway wheelchair, and he absolutely loves it!!! It looked cool enough that I wanted to try it haha
There again, other off-road wheelchairs exist which are both cheaper, & offer stair climbing ability, at the cost of being a little bulkier, but with the additional benefit of not falling over if their power systems fail or batteries die.
The real benefit of moving walkways is when you keep walking, something I quickly realized at airports which have them, especially when I had to get across the terminal very quickly to catch my next flight.
It's their only real use.
There was a researcher at the hospital where I worked who commuted on a Segway. He lived about a mile away and the terrain in between was absolutely flat.
Seeing it parked in the hallway was like a glimpse into a future that never happened.
Except for the obesity that would result. We didn't need the segway for that!
Its a miniature electric vehicle and those are still going strong, see the Chinese ChangLi's, marketed for the elderly there, 4/3 wheel full body which protects you from the elements, just 1000 dollars on alibaba... Of course the segway takes less space as its very personal.
Personal electric vehicles are actually a thriving business. Cheap scooters and the rental services caused a many of bureaucrats headaches. Electric bikes are getting people out of cars. Self balancing electric personal vehicles are hot products. Hoverboards, The One Wheel board , and electric unicycles were viral to growing businesses. I own a couple of electric bikes ,some scooters, and a Electric unicycle.
A mile is walking distance, at least for me.
That'd be so easy to just walk or bike though.
the fast walkways are great in large airports. if already can walk fast, youll go about 5-6mph
Also it's nice to take a break to process That Jetlag. It can be something sometimes. Especially if your real sleepy.
@@TheLPRnetwork I hope you and anyone with you stands clear to one side.
And if you sprint down one, you feel like those old rental car commercials with OJ Simpson flying through the airport. Back before all his murdering and such.
My dad had a Schwimmwagen growing up. I remember it breaking down kind of often, but the issues were surprisingly quick to fix. My dad took it to air shows along with the tank him and his friends owned together. Oh and yes we did go in water rarely like at the air show they would make a big water thing for him to go through
I think you missed a few... Monorails, perhaps?
Expect the hyperloop to appear on a future version of this list.
1:15 I am 97% sure tricycles don't have one wheel
I was thinking the same thing. I had to rewind just to make sure he said tricycle.
I was sure that I must have heard wrong. Thanks. 😊
came here to see if anyone else caught that.
I love moving walkways because they make navigating the multimile long airports bearable
It's really their only use.
@@shrimpflea -- If you have lots of heavy luggage, you'll feel their ACTUAL utility.
Here in Australia, we have motorised scooters everywhere on the street to hire. They’re constantly in use, I wonder for how long.
"Moving Walkways" It occurred to me that the Big Three SF writers _all_ used these:
* Heinlein, "The Roads Must Roll" (1940)
* Asimov, _The Caves of Steel_ (1953)
* Clarke, _The City and the Stars_ (1956)
The tiered moving walkways are features in Asimov's work. In Caves of Steel the protagonists reckless youthful experience jumping from one speed to another serves him in good stead as he uses the muscle memory decade's later to escape pursuers. The moving sudewalks are side by side not Above each other as was described in the video.
That was the first thing I thought of, too. His description of these moving conveyor belt freeways made quite an impression on me at the time.
Heinlein loved them too. In his 1940s books he envised America connected with a network of moving pathways (which have belts coming at 100 mph and even whole buildings on them) that replaced highways and forced cities to enlarge around them to form hundreds of miles long aggregations. then a few dozens years later a new technology (teleportation?) rends them obsolete and most of the ""roadtowns" were abandoned. Yay future. There's also a story about a worker's strike on one of those. Where one of the high-speed lanes abruptly STOPS, with the resulting carnage.
@@richardaubrecht2822 , "The Roads Must Roll"!
Exactly what I thought of as well.
THANKS. I knew I read that scene somewhere, and was pretty sure it was an Asimov work. Woulda drove me nuts trying to think of the title all night.
Azimov said he borrowed the idea from The Roads Must Roll. Both are good reads.
I always learn something from Simon! I have always thought the idea behind moving sidewalks was to enable you to move _without_ walking, for example if you were encumbered by an infant or large/heavy carry-on luggage. I really never thought it was to allow you to move _faster_
Same here! Or at least not in a huge hurry it’s a good chance to rest
One trip to an airport with them would've clued you in real quick, just like me. First time riding one not 5 seconds passed before people behind me asked me to step aside so they could zoom ahead lol.
My feelings exactly. I like them but I just put my luggage down and relax for the ride.
@@bob456fk6 absolutely insufferable
I have to say I always thought it was for both. Stick to the right (or left, country dependant) if you have like 700 suitcases, and let it carry you... Or walk on the left and get where you're going faster.
With those Amphivehicles, there are still those Duck Tours in London and the USA. Those are converted amphibious landing vehicles from World War Two. I still went on one in Miami. Quite an experience.
I followed IT for a long time before its release, and it was heralded by some of the world's greatest businesspeople and investors, who were in the know, as 'not quite as impactfull as cold fusion, but close'.
I can't for the life of me reconcile that with the Segway.
So I always thought IT was something different than what was presented.
If IT truly was as impactful as implied, it might have been hit with ISA secrecy order (there are around 6.000 of those active right now) somewhere along the development, and the Segway was the hastely substituted in.
That would also account for both the never explained delay and the ridiculous levels of secrecy that surrounded the development.
But I don't know...I just can't se how anyone, let alone but a passionated inventor could be so hyped about the Segway.
To quote Diane Sawyer, who hosted the show when IT got revealed: That’s it?” .. “That can’t be it.”
Did you ever see the Southpark episode on the IT?
@@JS-wc4xs no, I somehow did not - what was their take on it?
@@tobiashenriksen7068 (in the 5th season and when airports had horribly long lines just after 9/11) Mr garrison decided to solve the transportation crisis once and for all. His creation was essentially a one wheel (#1 of this video) that goes 300mph, but IT had some significant design choices that were very 'Mr. Garrison'. There were 2 'stablizers' that were very controversial. 1 entered the rectum and the other the mouth which both were very large and long. The constant tag line of the show was "well it's easier than flying". The IT was a huge success making Mr Garrison a lot of money but by the end of the show it was revealed that neither 'stabilizer' was needed and the government shut down the IT because the airlines were loosing too much money (and the government's reason was that many people depend on the airlines for jobs, travel, etc; regardless of the major inefficiencies of the companies they needed the bailout. .. again).
I love using the moving sidewalks at the airports. When late due to TSA deciding to be unnecessarily thorough to make up for their small… ummmm… (I digress), and I’m running as a result, it makes me feel like an Olympic athlete to watch as the world speeds past in the opposite direction. I don’t slow down at all when on there and I’ll yell out “LEFT” like when I’m on a bike and passing someone if someone is moving too slowly, or Lord forbid, standing still on the moving sidewalk.
Good man David. The people in Dublin Ireland actually STOP on the moving walkways not realising that their intended purpose is to speed up transit to remote gates in airports and other transit hubs. They do the same on escalators stopping often 2 abreast and blocking anyone who realises that you walk up or down an escalator and also that you keep moving off the escalator when you reach the end, not stopping like a headless chicken to have a gawk around blocking all the people behind you.
This is the whole purpose of such devices, to speed up movement in spatially restricted areas in airports, hotels, shopping centres etc. Their benefit is derived when people walk on them.
I'd love to see these people try the stopping stunt on Londons underground at rush hour......
Yeah... you're running late cause you're running late!
Have a non-common name or anything beyond beige-colored skin, and you would really know what "unnecessarily thorough" means!
Also, having worked for DHS, I've learned that it's not the local persons making the policies but some agency subcommittee or remnant of something that some security company recommended back in 2002-2006.
At least for the past 9 years, everything allowed and not allowed is listed on the airlines' websites, and even how you should pack or unpack for screening is on TSA website.
Nowadays (after I've left DHS) I get to the airport 1 hour before my domestic flights at any of the major airports and breeze by. Just have to observe which and how to get to the lines that move, unpack, get through with pockets empty, repack quickly and out of the way of other people, and like you, actually walk through the airport.
So many passengers wake up less than 3 hours before their flight so they drag their sorry asses through the lines and move even slower through the airport.
I was going to say I'm that rare guy that uses the moving stairs and walkways as they were designed. And you all beat me to it, that's fun. So are the speeds you can achieve! Always a little sad when it's not used right.
I've flown enough to see both crowds and the line on the right on the devices. And I don't mind excusing myself past the humans on display. And I like to even thank the people that make the effort when they see someone that needs to be somewhere. I wonder what it's like to have someone blow past you as you do that weird slouch but I appreciate the space.
Seeing the inconsideration used to make my blood boil but I've come to understand a lot of people are too lazy, never knew as they are a stray hay seed or are actively trying to bring about the future depicted in Wall-e.
@@zafarsyed6437 Thank you for your wonderful post. I actually arrive no less than 2 hours before any flight, but usually over 3 hours before boarding time so I can visit the AmEx Lounge and relax. That said, my spouse is not white, if that is the purpose of your message, but even before I met my spouse, I have almost always had quite a time with TSA and with the airports in a couple other countries, most notably, Japan. Thankfully, the Japanese will apologize for their inconvenience, whereas TSA will simply feel good about themselves in some hollow, self-supporting way. Just last month, I watched a Seattle TSA agent move my bags to a different line where it could be “randomly” chosen to perform a chemical test. Of course, as always, it was negative. Meanwhile, my spouse often has experienced the dreaded SSSS. This is all despite our Global Entry and Clear statuses. I follow all of the TSA recommendations and pose zero harm to the USA, but maybe your post will be helpful to someone who is new to travel. Sadly, you are missing the point of my post, but then again, the Department of Homeland Security is much like my old field of US Naval Intelligence, I suppose: an oxymoron. Best of luck to you in your private citizen life. It takes some time to be accustomed to such a change, doesn’t it?
@@jgdooley2003 Unfortunately, people see 'look, the machine is there to do the moving for me so I better stop moving as to not anger it' and then they just stand there frustrating everybody trying to utilize the machine in the intended way.
The moving sidewalk was something I loved to use as a kid both for the thrill of running on it and being about as fast or faster than adults and for the convenience of getting me from one part of the airport to another after waiting in line for over an hour (this was before 9/11 when air travel sucked ass at most airports). About 15 years ago, I travelled alone to Hong Kong and Seoul and still enjoyed using the moving sidewalk for the sheer convenience it provided, especially when I'm carrying a backpack with my laptop and another carry-on luggage and didn't want to walk. People often forget that pushcarts are usually not available in the airport past the security checkpoint and a number of carry-on luggage back then were built with heavy-ass steel frames or something for their spine and extendable hand grip and rollers.
10:40 Those actually used to be somewhat popular in my city, to the point that there are laws specifically addressing it. There also used to be a tour place that used Segways but I think it died during lockdown. Things like onewheels, eunicycles, eskateboards, and hoverboards more or less have the same uses and have basically replaced them, I still regularly see people riding those.
Hey now, at YVR I would always walk faster on the moving runway, it felt like you were walking at a running or at least jogging speed. They are a blast, and I'd love to see them expanded once we have a super-effecient energy source.
Asimov had moving belts of walkways, with different speeds side by side. Walkways might be more than a hundred feet wide, which allowed many belts with only a slight difference in speed between them to minimize falls. There didn't seem to be any handrails and indeed as described handrails would interfere with operation. The inner belts could be traveling at 30-40 miles an hour.
How funny, I was just thinking of this myself.
Reminds me more of "The Roads Must Roll", by Robert Heinlein. He had them reaching speeds of 100 mph. Not one of his best efforts.
@@alanlight7740 "The Roads Must Roll" was kinda more a political piece, taking a sideways look at utilitarianism, and pointing out that any kind of advanced civilisation must, by definition, have critical weaknesses where some technology or other and by extension those that operate it, have disproportionate power. You can even see shades of it in Russias' attempt to use its' supply of gas to Europe as leverage to achieve their diplomatic and political goals in Ukraine. It is at least a story that will be relevant more or less forever, although I'd agree it's not exactly his best work
@@alanlight7740 I wholeheartedly agree. At speeds of more than a few miles an hour you'd want some kind of shield and you'd want seats for long travel. Then you've got trams.
Ah, yes. Then of course the juveniles turned lane-running into a sport. Fun times.
0:43 the monowheel
3:18 amphibious cars
6:04 moving walkways
9:25 codename: it
On the note of one wheeled transportation. Look into EUC's (electric unicycles). The are self righting forward and in reverse, and you have to balance left and right. The difference between them and things like electric scooters is the size and portability.
They do have a much higher learning curve though and will likely remain an enthusiast focused transportation.
I tried a Segway once! I believe I was in my early teens, and my family rented them as part of a tour of Gettysburg battlefield Park. It was incredibly fun and a fantastic fit for an outdoor tour of a area too large to tour in one day on foot, but one problem: the ones that we were using had an automatic speed limit where if you exceeded it, it would lean back to keep you from continuing to speed up instead of applying a brake. That's all well and good, except when we were going down a hill, gravity caused me to exceed that speed, and I had to hold on for dear life to resist being dumped onto the asphalt at a fairly high speed by the automatic pull back. Fun, but that speed reduction function was inherently flawed, and could have seriously injured someone
1:16 "Unlike a tricycle where the rider sits on a seat precariously balanced on top of a single wheel..."
Did you mean to say unicycle again? Because this is news to me. I was under the impression that trikes could be fairly stable, stable enough to use in cars and human-powered passenger trikes. Of course there are exceptions, like the deadly trike ATV. But still, isn't the rider's seat usually balanced between the two rear wheels, if not centered between all three, and not balanced on the front single wheel? This comment confused me.
I remember the big deal people made about the Segway... don't see any around now.
I don't remember that
The inventor of the Segway died when he drove one off a cliff. I think Simon mentioned him or made a video about him.
I love the moving walkway at airports, but I always walk fast through them or rest depending on the mood and energy. I just don't like when I'm almost jogging them and a group has parked on it blocking the whole lane.
Moving walkways were not meant to get you there faster, it was meant to take the strain off walking, especially long distances. They move at a walking pace because the speed is roughly something we can comfortably step onto and maintain stability, like an escalator. Especially while hauling something like luggage.
You also forgot hover vehicles. They were hyped hard only for their skirts to be detrimentally easy to damage on ground and rather unstable making hard turns.
I remember sprinting down one of the moving walkways in the St Louis airport trying to make a flight. The $6k price tag back in 2000 would have been enough to buy a decent new motorcycle.
I remember the moving sidewalk at Spadina Subway Station in Toronto it was about 300 feet in length, one traveling each direction.
It was made exactly like an escalator, it just didn't go up or down very much.
If memory serves me it was in service well into the 2000's.
they are pretty common in large airports. I remember using one when I was last at Heathrow in London, although now I think about it that was 15 years ago!
Moving walkways are a blessing at the airport. Had this dude ever flown anywhere?
A lot of these 'world changing' forms of transport come into the category of 'a solution looking for a problem'. Or at least, a solution that resolves one relatively minor problem in another form of transport, but creates far more other problems. Monorails, hyperloops, maglevs and other gadgetbahns come into that category. There may be isolated cases where they're the most practical option, but not enough for mass implementation, and certainly not enough to counter network benefits of established systems.
However a lot of the successful world changing inventions, were also criticized for the same argument. As every new technology has a tradeoff over the previous, which there will be often a group of people unhappy to give up. If you were drunk the horse will often bring you back home, as well the horse can traverse more tarrains. However the automobile being faster, less maintenance, and environmental friendly (with early 20th century standard) made it become popular once it became affordable for most people. However, history could have gone in a different direction if some circumstances were different. Say no termerence movement, and there was higher drunkiness.
Those electric scooters and electric bikes seem to be the only one that is slowly changing some cities (or at least making regular bikes more accepted)
The hyperloop (or some other vacuum-tunnelling vehicle) is probably still going to work and be successful, at least in major transportation corridors. But I won't live long enough to see this prediction provided right or wrong. Travelling in a vacuum means you can easily travel Mach 25+ without nasty side effects like air friction. I see no reason why you couldn't get from one side of the earth to the opposite side in less time than it would take you to fall through a tunnel carved into the earth. However for this to work you would have to be flipped upside down in the tunnel because you would have to be travelling in the tube faster than satellites cross the sky (about 18,000 MPH.) If you were travelling faster than that across the surface of the earth you would have to be rotated upside-down because your acceleration would be pointing up rather than down.
@@TheNameOfJesus The idea of the Vacuum train goes back to the late 18th century. The difficulty of maintaining a vacuum chamber that large pretty much guarantee it will never be a practical reality on Earth.
maglevs are really cool though, even if they only serve some niches they are still amaizing vehicles and they are quite good at what they do
The world's longest moving walkway is here in Sydney connecting the Domain Parking station to Hyde Park. The many times it stops for repairs and maintenance highlights why these things are impractical, however, when it is working it is great. Unlike the commentary here, people tend to walk on the walkway, and walk at normal speeds. It is fast enough to experience wind through the hair. It is much faster than normal walking. I am happy that this 400 meter slice of the 1960's still survives.
I would also challenge the notion that airport travelators are a useless idea. At airports people are carrying luggage, and travelators, especially for older people, can be a welcome way to rest for a short while still moving forward. Thus, the observation that these people walk slower, or just stand on the travelator is part of their advantage at airports, and not the negative that Simon mentions.
I think there are very few airports that are so hard to navigate that these travelators are actually necessary. Most people can just drive their trolleys over the endlessly flat floors and people really struggeling to get around can usually get better assistance anyway. This is not the first time I have heard that these travelators offer more psychological advantages than actually saving time. That doesn't mean that I think that they are entirely useless or at least not fun, but if you looked at them economically I wouldn't be surprised if the advantages don't justify the effort.
@@jlust6660 One day you will get old and, like me, discover that those short travelators are a very welcome short rest from walking while still travelling forward. When I was young I would walk around them because I saw them as no more than an obstacle, but now I see them as a god-send, because walking is no longer fast or easy.
@@artistjoh someone's up for a surprise how many things are actually made for sick, old or disabled people once they get sick old or disabled 😂
@@chubbydinosaur9148 Or how few conveniences there are for old, sick, and disabled people when you need them :) And how impatient able bodied people are as they vent their frustration at being caught behind those of us who have been slowed down by the limitations of imperfect bodies.
"monorail!.... monorail!... MONORAIL!"
Everybody, in Springfield... maybe
As someone with fairly severe mobility issues, I wish there were more options like moving sidewalks, Segway-style devices, or even PeopleMovers like the WEDWay PeopleMover at Walt Disney World. I’m capable of walking short distances but I can’t walk more than about a block or two without ending up in debilitating pain, so my only real options most of the time are cars or wheelchairs.
I HATE being in a wheelchair; it’s a psychological thing but I feel like being in a wheelchair means I’m a total invalid. I prefer to walk when I can, and I mainly need alternative forms of transportation to get from place to place, like from one store to another in a large shopping district. Moving sidewalks would allow me to be more mobile and go more places, as would other forms of transportation that you can step onto or off of wherever you’d like.
I actually love going through airports that have moving sidewalks or trains/monorails. Intercontinental Airport Houston even has a WEDWay - the only one ever sold by Walt Disney Imagineering to an outside purchaser - and it’s fantastic!
As it is, I’m just stuck at home most of the time because it’s simply too difficult to lug a wheelchair around when I only need it for certain situations.
bring back the people mover!
dude wheelchairs on level floor is awesome, you can just GO
If you can stand for long periods and have reasonably good balance there are a number of new gadgets that might suit you - that is, if it's the walking that is the problem and not the standing.
I've seen Steadicam rigs mounted onto Segways that I was thought were a fantastic idea, because of how heavy Steadicam rigs are. Also, there's a lot of balancing involved, so the Segway helps there too. Bit of a niche use, sure, but still cool
The "Domain Express Footway" running from The Domain to Hyde Park in Sydney was opened in 1961 and still operates to this day. At 207 metres long, it is the 3rd longest in the world. I absolutely loved the moving walkway as a kid in the 80s and was disappointed when my father told me any plans to expand their use across the city had long since been abandoned.
Simon you forgot to include the onewheel skateboard and electric unicycle which have brought back the single wheel movement. They're amazing fun and great for short commutes
Moving walkways equal *FUN TIMES!*
Almost every time I've been on one, it's been boingy & sproingy & even a tad *breezy* & I'd totally love it if I could use 'em everywhere.
🚶🏻♂️🔛🚶🏻♂️
Curiously enough Mr Garrison from South Park created a monowheel and named it IT... This could be number 5 on this list
SIMON YOU FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT OBI WAN USING THW MONOWHEEL
The Segway dude did design an interesting stair climbing wheelchair also capable at standing upright on two wheels. Too bad that didn’t take off.
Those wheelchairs came with a $22K price tag. Hey did have some great benefits, the price killed it.
Those still exist (might be a different company now? not sure). But yeah, very expensive. Rep. Langevin from RI uses one. Can't go up a full flight of stairs (or at least it can't do it safely) but can deal with a couple steps. And at least for that particular dude it makes photo ops a lot less awkward since he can get closer to a typical standing height.
Let's do this video in a few years again and feature the Hyperloop: a system where cars drive through a narrow tunnel, designed by someone who happens to sell cars and tunnels. I guess rocket motors were too dangerous even for Elon Musk to use underground
-Hyperloop
-Self driving cars
-Atomic powered trains
-Flying cars
The thing about the Segway is that pretty much everything it can do, a bike can do better and for much cheaper. Bikes are faster, more stable when travelling, more portable when needing to get them up and down stairs or onto public transport, they can carry heavier loads or even tow loads, they have a longer range, they can be easily secured and stored, regular maintenance can be performed by pretty much everyone with a few basic tools, anything more advanced can be done by millions of technicians around the world, and you don't look like a knobhead when you ride one.
Not looking like a knobhead is the most important.
Yeah, but besides that...
except for critical mall-cop duties. Are there still malls?
Yes but there's one thing a bike can't do...impress tech nerds!
@@calessel3139 Can't get that start up cash.
One could argue that Segway was revolutionary. It was the first battery powered individual transportation device. Now we have one wheels, E-Skateboards, E-Bikes etc etc and all of those are quite popular.
As for Monowheels, hehe yah all those issues are legit. I've seen some SUPER cool ones that have really cool lights around the wheel though. Then again, I live in Portland, OR and go to Burning Man so yah.. not surprising.
As for the amphibious car. I've also been in one. Yah, super cool. I didn't know about the maintenance needed each time you take it in the water.. but it makes sense. Also, one thing the marketing never talked about: How smelly they get with mold and mildew. The things have leather seats and carpet in them! Even if the cab doesn't leak, you're going to get a decent amount of water inside the cab from getting in and out of it. On top of that, water ends up in places on the outside of the car where you just can't get it dry.. and mildew happens fast. The one I was in was in GOOD shape but ugh, the smell.
Speaking of smell, the exhaust was HORRIBLE. I get why they didn't pass DEQ.
Herbert Garrison, a teacher from Colorado, invented the "IT" back in 2001. I was a larger electric monowheel that you rode inside of. Super cool idea.
Out of the Segway came the Segway mini and Electric unicycle... Both are more useful than the original... Sadly Dean Kamen did not expand into the other two products...
I'm surprised Mr. Garrison's monowheel wasn't featured. Especially with the "gerbilling" issue. 🤣
What about JetPacks?
I've always enjoyed the quicker pace of the moving walkways at airports.
There's a local guy with the amphicar, seen it out a few times and got up close look when he took it to a carshow...via the river. I wouldn't mind a modern version in my area, there are alot of creeks and small rivers in the area that are great for a leisurely cruise, and plenty of boat ramps to get to them.
You forgot the iCar. Toyota's futuristic wheelchair/ scooter thing
Local amphicar guy in my area too! He drives it right down the boat launch
Look up top gear. They made amphibious cars then an amphibious van
@@spritemon98 seen it, great episodes as always. Top Gear is how I know about the iCar, the episode when Hammond tested it lol.
There have been a few more recent amphibious vehicles. The one I thought had a possible future, was the Gibbs Aquada, in the early 2000s. Had a brief spurt of promotion, then I never heard about it again.
"The Amphicar, its not a very good car, and its not a very good boat - but it is BOTH!!"
I don't think I ever considered moving walkways as an alternative to actual walking... I mean, every time you encounter one it is at a major transport hub, so one can reach their train/plane/car/bus faster. Like Gatwick airport in one place has about five pairs of travelators installed in succession that take you to and from some of its gates. And boy, was I happy to see them! Similarly, the tunnel underneath Waterloo station connecting Jubilee line to the other ones is so long that there is a pair of travelators installed to aid commuters. And when you are in a hurry, you *fly* through that tunnel. Frankly, I wish there was more of those around in underground stations around the world. So yeah, maybe a failure at replacing regular pavements, but I can't imagine an airport without moving walkways.
I guess taking a short break while not losing ground is a benefit, too🤷
Robert Heinlein wrote a short story involving moving sidewalks in the 1940s. Read it as a teen, still remember it today
Simon should check out electric unicycles, which are starting to become very popular in North America. The legacy of the Monowheel has plenty of potential thanks to self-balancing technology.
I still remember barely holding my laugh when i saw French police, armed to the teeth, riding Segways in the Charles de Gaulle airport - you know, body armor, FAMAS, etc... on a Segway, with a shield plate, saying Police.
Also, i believe the vacuum tube train is not getting the spot it deserves in this video.
I don’t care how kitted up and armed a person is, even if the look like Rambo and a one handing an M60, riding on or even standing next to a Segway removes all badass points.
I always think cops riding Segways should be required to wear blue flashing lights on their heads, in order to really complete the effect.
Oh my, the vacuum tube train! I remember being SO excited when I first read about it in Scfi books and even more excited when I found out people were actually working on it. Then I started watching UA-cam videos of all the potential major issues with it and was like, "Oh damn! But, oh DUH! It's a horrible idea."
All though, it would be a BETTER idea if it went through underground tunnels. However, most of the ones I've seen proposed are on elevated tracks.
@@OgdenM That's why the first one was made very deep in New York, deeper than the later subway, search youtube, and do not confuse it with Elon's hyperloop which has similar principles but is different (lower pressure, not vacuum).
Chinese miltary alos likes them www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/segway_1.jpg
I always get from point A to point B faster on a moving walkway. I can tell by all the pedestrians I pass walking along side. It's also quite nice for people who are physically unable to walk comfortably for all that way due to age, illness, and injury, but are not quite disabled enough to need a wheelchair or a cart ride.
I am so happy you posted this, my husband happily showed me the portion with the walkways, we have been reading Asimov and even though I could only slightly imagine them, I kept picturing the slow air port ones, he showed me your video, and it helped explain it better, this is awesome and perfect timing!
"Unlike a tricycle,"
*Proceeds to describe a unicycle*
We May not be the fastest but our endurance and adaptability makes us very deadly / successful.
If they renamed the monowheel the flying yankee velocepede, I'd ride it. Heck I'd ride anything named that
That's a pretty dangerous standard, don't you think?
Unicycle not practical, meanwhile, Ed Pratt: "hold my beer".
When I heard "President Johnson" my brain did a loop the loop!
I'm in the UK where PM Johnson is being pushed out of his job, for a second I had the horrifying thought "Oh God he's gone completely bonkers & declared himself the first President of the UK" 🤣
Indeed. He bunkered down so much. It was great fun trolling his cultists with an article he himself wrote about Gordon Brown not being willing to leave Number 10. Almost as much fun as trying to even politely give a Corbyn Cultist some Facts & Logic about abysmal things Corbyn said and did; then watching them over-react in groupthink unison, then deny they're a cult! 😆😆
For an interesting take on the moving walkways I'd recommend Robert A. Heinlein's story "The Roads Must Roll", about an alternate future where there are "rolling roads" between many major cities. A good read by a great author.
Segway's issue was more with the price point than the tech... it wasn't a terrible idea for a scooter to get around places that don't use cars as much, but the problem was who is going to pay $5,000 for something when they could just buy a bike for a few hundred dollars or less? Even now we have much simpler electric scooters for a fraction of a price that are very popular. I didn't think the segways were any better than most of the cheap stuff that is out there now to ride around on.
It's also form factor. Once you get somewhere, where are you going to park your Segway? Can you easily take it on public transport with you? How do you get it up or down stairs?
An electric scooter with a folding handlebar you can fold and carry with you on public transport or up and down stairs, and you can stow it under a desk or in a locker. If you want to park on the outskirts of town where parking is cheaper and easier to find you can throw one or several scooters in the trunk and use it only for scooting around the city center. It's a last mile solution - and in fact, even an unpowered scooter isn't too bad for short distances.
That is true I could not afford a Segway until the Segway mini came out, and I bought it right away...the mini is easy to use with buses, and I have used it in the stores pushing a cart...
Dean Kamen's DEKA Labs also created "The Slingshot" which tackles one of the most world-changing issues: Access to clean water. Very interesting study and I cannot understand why is hasn't taken off.
See, Brody's fear of escalators was not unfounded.
That kid's sitting on the escalator again!
I was expecting the flying car too
I remember seeing a few of those amphibious cars when I was a kid in the'60s. When I started working as a mechanic in the 1970s I saw a few coming to the garage and they were all rust buckets
I see the maintenance as being *the* issue with the vehicle. The marketing seems like a simple solve: "Is is a car? is it a boat? IT'S BOTH!" Drive you and your family to the lake and enjoy! Simon mentions how lakes don't usually have ramps, but virtually any lake with recreational fishing or boating does!
The price was reasonable, the vehicles functional, but the maintenance must have been a nightmare.
@@kev3d Yeah I suspect the maintenance was almost never done right. People would bring them to us to weld up the holes and fix them, but never have it done once we gave them a price. Not to mention we had no idea where to find parts back then so we would have had to make almost everything by hand. If I remember right the engine was made by Triumph and that was the only thing we could get parts for easily
Add monorails, PRT pods like the Heathrow pods, gyrotrain (with one rail).
To think it took Mr. Garrison from Southpark to perfect the Monowheel.
Anyone else instantly think of South park when they saw the monowheel?
The one mr garrison loved 😂
Also the Segway - because that episode was making fun of all the hype about the Segway at the time (before it was revealed what it was).
Ah yes. The Sinclair C5. Not the first electric vehicle but the one with the most hype that it didnt live up to.
Also...I'd note that Isaac Asimov's book "The caves of Steel" featured moving walkwasy to get around.
I see one on occasion near me. Some guy from the village nearby uses it to get around.
I laughed way to hard at the segway inventor driving off a cliff...
Of course, this was enjoyable. All of Simon's videos bring wonderful enjoyment. Each is its own unique treasure.
Take a stroll around Wigan. Its electric scooters EVERYWHERE. They might claim to be illegal other than on private land but the police do not care one iota. You can buy them from cheap to high end, from online stores to Halfords, for kids or adults. They cover 20 miles ish , so more than enough for a quick commute. I could literally do donuts outside the police station and nobody would batt an eyelid. This will become the norm if a poor northern town is embracing it so fully. Even suits and hipsters are on them, so im surprised simons not on board yet.
Yes electric scooters are much better than segway, much lighter and you can fold it together and bring on the train or buss.
Legal here in Norway, now the main issue is all the rental electric scooters who are absolutely everywhere including rivers :)
What about Hyperloop?
I would like to nominate blimps, autogyros, and jetpacks for the next edition of this video. Maybe autonomous drone taxis as well for a bonus.
POV... its 2022 and youre just now realizing what the "IT" southpark episode was about all those years ago....
Simon, "gerballing" in the US doesnt have anything to do with the monocycle......
just ask Richard Gere
....allegedly
Well done sir.
We have Moving Walkways in Paris, France, in some Metro Stations. It`s fun to use them.
They are used at most major airports. Useful except for people that just stand on them.
I actually once was able to see an amphicar in person. It was owned by a man in avis, Pennsylvania. I did not take a ride in the car, but I was able to place my hands on it and lean over and look in and listen to the explanation from the owner about how things worked.
In the 1920s, there was an American who was really promoting the idea of two wheeled automobiles that stayed stationary thanks to a gyroscopic compass mechanism. Just the other day, a coworker observed someone riding a single wheeled vehicle which apparently utilizes the same mechanism to stay stable.
I think an excellent episode would be to review the trolley car, and how useful the antique style electric trolley car would be in today's world. It was destroyed by the bus companies during the Great Depression and the immediate post war era, when automobiles really came into the ascendancy.
moving walkways at airports are very useful for me because i always rush to my destination as fast as possible, honestly i wish there were more of them in certain airports (Schiphol has a stupidly long distance you have to walk to get from the gates to the baggage claim and exit, it's probably 10 minutes of walking)