Well in my humle opinion this system works just fine. However, I would like to note that I never truly stated that I had a degree in civil engineering and a masters in mass transit and urban design. I only asked if it would help the discussion.
But lets be serious, I also have 2 small children and know the rigors of having to haul both of them back to the room after a day of not stop walking. If you take a step back, anyone who is honest with themselves can agree that the Disney system, which includes the location of the buses and their proximity to the entrances, is one of the most effiecient designs to move a large number of people.
The issue isn't the design, its the fact that we as Americans have become a tad bit lazy and are used to having everything spoon fed to us.
Disney transport is okay. Although I have too often spend too much time getting from A to B. Transport seems to be cursed forever by an absense of an overarching master plan during the Eisner hotel mania. WDW should've been clustered, in a few hubs.
But you'll get to DAK reasonably soon in reasonable comfort Where however a needless quarter of a mile walk is a shame. I once walked that back and forth last trip. From the park to the bus and back to park because I forgot something and then back to the bus. Goodness. That was quite a hike in the Florida heat and humidity.
The MK has ferry's, hotel boats, two monorail lines, walkway and buses arriving at its gate, all in a smaller area than DAK. That's funtional design. At DAK, it is only buses and tram, but yet you walk further.
The distance is not the end of the world. But I do get the impression it was designed by a fit person, not used to hauling kids around, sitting behind a desk in an airconditioned room. Where he was perhaps more concerned about the efficiency of the busing system than the needs of those people not fit and healthy and without children.
I do agree Americans are too fat and too lazy. But I'm not American, I'm European. And, oh irony, it is in the European Disney park that they use the lazy option proposed by the OP, that of a moving sidewalk.
WDW will not build a moving sidewalk at DAK any time soon. My concern in all this is that my next trip to WDW will be with a special needs person. She can walk, but she has limited energy. It's a shame if it is expended having to walk to a bus, having to stand waiting for a bus, having to walk in the blistering heat to a bus. Those sort of things matter to her. Me, I'm fine. I'll run that distance, for fun. But not everybody has that option. What I want is not an automated sidewalk - it's not going to happen anyway - but a consideration in every design decision of as many special needs as can reasonably be taken into account. There are a lot of people in between fit and handicapped - the elderly, the pregnant, the very young, the sickly, those with physical limitations. They don't need ECV's. They need shaded waiting areas and short walking distances.
I would like to note that I never truly stated that I had a masters in planology I only asked if it would help the discussion.