Are You Lazy if You Don’t Walk the Escalator?
In his review of Wall-E in Friday’s paper, senior editor Glenn Arbery took aim at able-bodied people (without strollers) who don’t walk up escalators. By my rough count, I’d say this is — oh — 99 percent of everyone. Anyway, we thought he might get some response to his complaints, but we had no idea passions ran so deep, as they apparently do for this reader:
Speaking of pet peeves:
The purpose of an escalator is NOT “to speed up the normal ascent of people climbing a stairway”. That is to say, getting any one person from point A to point B faster is not the goal. The goal is to move a group of people from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, without compromising safety. Speed of individual ascent (even average speed of individual ascent) and efficiency aren’t the same thing.
The most common accident that occurs on an escalator is tripping. Same as on stairs. In my experience, people walking escalators typically appear awkward and uncertain. That’s partly because the dimensions of an escalator step are different from those of the typical stair step. The escalator step has a slightly higher riser and a longer tread. You don’t even have to look that up to know it’s true, but it is. Do you think people take this into account when they step onto an escalator? Even if you know that information your brain doesn’t process it. Add small kids – hell, any kids – to the equation, or people not paying particularly close attention, etc., and expect them to perform this group exercise gracefully and in unison …. What, are you kidding? Your model of efficiency is shot.
But here’s the thing I don’t get, how many valuable seconds of useful time would you gain if everyone adhered to your standards for escalator protocol? At Northpark, near the theaters … 5 seconds per ride? Even 7? Let’s call it 6. Multiply that by the number of escalator trips you’ll take in your lifetime. What would you do with all that free time? Write a novel? Invent a green alternative to the internal combustion engine? Are you that good??! Or would you just trim your toenails?
I don’t want people walking past me on an escalator. It’s an annoyance – and for what legitimate end should I suffer their rudeness? When I step onto that tread, it’s mine. Don’t expect me to move or have my personal space crowded because you deem yourself or your time more valuable.
Nobody looks dumber to me (or more rude) than somebody walking on an escalator when everyone else is not. All for the sake of a few seconds.
On a wider escalator, it’s just like a moving sidewalk at Hartsfield or Hobby - Walk to the left, stand to the right.
On a narrower escalator, with no room to pass we walkers are just SOL if we get stuck behind a slowpoke “stander” as there’s no polite way to make them walk.
“Don’t expect me to move or have my personal space crowded because you deem yourself or your time more valuable”.
Wow. What a completely self-centered, thoughtless jerk. I’m generally a “stander”, because it’s not a race. But if someone wants to walk past, I move aside (if I’m not already standing to the side).
Why? Because I don’t know why they want to pass — maybe they’re late for work, or a job interview, or a lunch date. Maybe that 6 seconds makes a difference to what they’re doing. Maybe not — could be they just like to keep moving. But I don’t know, and I don’t have to know — I give them the benefit of the doubt, and show some courtesy by letting them by.
It takes a sad kind of person to cling to “when I step onto that tread, it’s mine.” If they’re the type that really wants to impede someone else just on some kind of misguided petty “principle”, I can pretty much guarantee that both the “walker” and the walker’s time actually is more valuable than the “stander’s”.
Geez. Show some basic courtesy. Poor reader, “suffering” the indignity of having someone else walk past. The heart bleeds.
Something’s wrong with your links to the actual articles and the papers.
I’m one of those who prefers to sprint/walk up escalators. Just to give you an example how lazy people are: I worked at Neimans downtown for a year. Customers NEVER used the escalators. Instead they used the pokey old elevators. I could sprint up the escalators two floors (maybe 3) with my arms full of merchandise and do it in high heels before the any of the elevators could leave the ground floor.
Does anyone care?
Aren’t the ones at NorthPark - right by the AMC - really narrow anyway? I would think that safety would dictate the proper behavior more than a peeve.
I’m an escalator walker-upper, not a stander, although I can’t say I’ve built a philosophy around it.
Stand on the right! Pass on the left! Just like it SHOULD be on our highways - slower traffic keep it to the right. Leave the left lane open for people who have somewhere to be.
Really? This is the best you’ve got today? Escalators? ‘Scuse me while I go watch paint dry.
Not accepting any more comments?
Okay, I’ll try again. This is the first time in my life I’ve heard anyone say anything contrary to what I must still assume most normal people understand to be the standard operating procedure: namely, that you’re NOT supposed to walk on escalators, for safety reasons. It is absolutely NOT the same as a moving sidewalk. The signage on many escalators in sports facilities, transit terminals, airports, etc., wide or narrow, explicitly tell you NOT to walk while on them. Width is not relevant. While there’s a whiff of rationality to the opposing viewpoint, I think you guys are kidding yourselves with this “stand right, walk left” business–it has no application to escalators. The idea is to raise a series of mini-platforms from one level to the next–like a series of small, continuous elevators. If you still don’t believe me, get out your tape measure and check the run/rise ratio on each platform section. I think you’ll find the “steps” don’t meet the code requirements for a safe staircase–because it isn’t designed to be one. Which is also why when they’re shut down for maintenance, they rope them off, and don’t allow them to be used as stairs.
Hmmm… The Otis company says I’m wrong, and that “stand right walk left” is viable (http://www.otisworldwide.com/d72-safetyesc.html). Wikipedia has a subsection on the page for “Escalator” titled “Conventions: standing and walking” that discusses different local conventions. And yet the U.S. Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation, which Otis purports to support, says, “Escalator steps are not the correct height for normal walking and should not be used in that manner. The risk of tripping and falling is greatly increased.” To me, the Otis and EESF positions are contradictory on safety. I’m so confused. But I’m going to stand still on escalators.