New Blueprint for Urban Mobility?

Beltways aims to revolutionize moving walks. 

Beltways^®, a first-of-its-kind modular accelerating walkway, is being developed by brothers Matine and John Yuksel in Hebron, Kentucky. The Yuksel brothers relocated the company, Beltways, near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) to develop an accelerating walkway originally conceived by their father, Edip Yuksel, in his native Türkiye. As a freshman at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Edip Yuksel conceptualized a modular, pit-less accelerating walkway. A passion for politics changed the course of his professional life, however, and his accelerating walkway idea fell by the wayside.

While studying at university in 1979, Edip’s younger brother was assassinated in the streets of Istanbul for leading a national political youth organization. The loss drove Edip to drop out and become an activist, writing best-selling books critical of the authoritarian Turkish government. Due to his writings, he was imprisoned and tortured for four years. After prison, he decided to leave Türkiye and come to America in 1989, seeking freedom and the right to free speech. He attended law school, became a college professor, and, with his wife, raised Matine and John, who went on to build successful careers in law and technology. Today, they are working to transform urban transit with their father’s visionary idea.

The brothers’ resumés are impressive. John Yuksel, a California-licensed attorney, is a graduate of the University of Arizona Business & Law Schools and Tsinghua University School of Law, specializing in cross-border investment between China and the U.S. He led nation-building projects in Southeast Asia for the Bush family’s investment firm. Matine Yuksel, meanwhile, graduated from Princeton University and worked in the supply chain division of Apple in Silicon Valley. It was during the

pandemic in 2020 that the pair decided to dedicate themselves to taking their father’s idea to the next level. Beltways’ mission statement reads, in part:

“Beltways aims to accelerate humanity and expand the reach of walkability with modular, pit-less, accelerating walkways that enhance speed, safety and accessibility. Beltways’ accelerating walkways have the potential to go further than traditional moving walkways and become a key pillar of urban public transit.”

The Yuksel brothers didn’t just jump right in with their father’s idea from the 1970s. They approached the initiative with lots of forethought. John Yuksel said the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) studied accelerating walkways for 10 years, and the DOT concluded that the market for accelerating walkways could be orders of magnitude larger than the moving walk industry and as large as the elevator industry. This DOT data provided a wealth of information. John Yuksel states:

“There was a vast amount of data collected and actioned. For us, it was important that we spent our initial years extensively studying the prior attempts at accelerating walkways to develop a system that overcame those challenges.”

Similar to tests conducted by the DOT several decades ago, Beltways plans to work with third parties such as universities to study human factors and conduct safety testing on their novel system. The Yuksel brothers, both of whom are members of the A17 Escalator & Moving Walk Committee and Accelerating Walk Task Force, are focused on making their systems as safe as possible for the traveling public.

In doing their research, the brothers bemoaned the fact that moving walks in U.S. airports are often under repair or completely shut down (something your author can attest to). Beltways’ accelerating walkways revolve around the idea of modularity, with each unit comprising a series of smaller treadmill-like modules, each programmed to run at a different speed. The modules at the beginning of the chain move at a slower speed to make onboarding safer and more accessible. As the walkway propels the passenger forward onto subsequent modules, speed increases.^[1]

Just like on a moving walk, passengers can, if they choose, simply stand on the conveyance and allow it to take them to their destination. Additional Beltways features that enhance safety versus a traditional moving walk include:

• Allowing passengers to experience a comfortable entry and smooth acceleration up to 10 times the speed of current systems, then gradually decelerate to allow for a safe exit.
• Unlike conventional moving walks that have elevated combs at the entrance and exit that present tripping hazards, Beltways has a completely flush treadway, which means a safer entry and exit experience that could, in the future, accommodate wheelchairs and other wheeled devices.
• Targeted safety signage displayed on ultra-wide LED floor displays that greet passengers when they are entering or exiting the Beltways conveyance.
• Digital twin software that provides real-time data on the transit network’s performance and health.

Around the same time Matine and John Yuksel were reevaluating their careers, Edip Yuksel was busy patenting several inventions from his college years — including the accelerating walkway. The brothers were immediately drawn to it, seeing it as a solution to a need for efficient short-range mass transit. The next step was moving from San Francisco to Iowa, where Beltways’ first prototype was completed. Then came commercialization, with the ultimate goal to install a Beltways system in an airport. Airports in the U.S. see remarkably high foot traffic, with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Organization providing service to approximately 2.9 million airline passengers daily.^[1]

John Yuksel observed that an airport is the ideal demonstration location for Beltways because it is a clean, controlled environment that is also a “microcosm of a city, with an immense amount of people traveling through it every year.”^[1]

Research, including on-site visits, led the brothers to zero in on airports, where they found immediate traction in the form of pilot offers. In 2022, the brothers relocated to Northern Kentucky to access affordable real estate, closer manufacturing partners and more capital. Beltways received non-dilutive capital from an Ohio-based fund in 2023 and additional financing in 2024 from more California-, Ohio-, and Kentucky-based funds, all of which seek to promote sustainable and impactful businesses in the region.

Beltways is focused on its goal of launching a public pilot demonstration next year at a U.S. airport, but interest in their technology goes far beyond just airports. The brothers are also communicating with other OEMs interested in partnering, as well as other customers such as private locations and cities. “Future city developers are eager to create a new blueprint for urban mobility,” says John Yuksel.

The brothers say much of Beltways’ publicity has come through word-of-mouth. Matine Yuksel says:

“Just about everyone gets very excited about what we are building at Beltways, because it truly is for everyone. In general, we find the industry is ready for an upgrade, and excited about the future our transit system offers.”

The startup is getting attention, being written about in Business Insider, Forbes, Venture Capital Post and ABC News, to name a few. The company, and the brothers, have received numerous awards, including:

• AutoTech Outlook Top 10 EV Technology (2020)
• 1st Place at Startup Cincy and OhioX (2023)
• Cincinnati Business Courier List of Startups to Watch (2024)
• Forbes 30 Under 30 (2024)
• 1st Place Startup for the John F. Barrett Entrepreneur Vision Awards (2024)

Matine and John Yuksel said their biggest reward thus far has been working with family to solve a challenging problem that could “be of great benefit to the world.” In 10 years, they envision Beltways having moved beyond airports to redefine how people move around cities, “becoming the primary building block of urban public transit networks.”

Reference

[1] Hornbeck, Kenton, “First of Its Kind Moving Walkway Being Developed in Hebron,” LINK NKY, September 27, 2024.