Mobility issues aside, do some people prefer escalators to elevator on an exclusive basis?
In the building where I work, we have both escalators and elevators (few buildings don’t). But I notice that when tell some people that to get to another floor it is much easier to take the elevator (which is about the same distance away as the escalator), they go back to the escalator anyway. If you take the escalator, you have to walk across the lobby of the building to another set of escalators to reach certain floors.
And even now when the up escalator is broken, it makes less sense to me.
I know plenty of people with a slight aversion to lifts (sigh elevators). They won’t try and hike their way to the top of the Empire State Building, but they’ll walk two flights (and certainly use an escalator) instead of the confines of the lift. Such people don’t shout about such things, they just quietly get on with it. Put it in the ‘mild phobia’ catagory, along with most cases of arachnophobia. You’ll find that they’ll ‘happily’ use the lift when they’re accompanying somebody important.
Elevators stop too often and fellow passengers could have offensive odors
Escalators are OK in the UK, (cuz people leave room on the left for those who choose to walk up them) - but here in the US, the walk up is almost always blocked by a rider (a pet peeve of mine).
I imagine that some people prefer escalators to lifts because they don’t like the claustrophobic sensation. They may also feel that escalators are safer than lifts. After all, if an escalator stops working you’re not “trapped”.
Or perhaps they use the escalators to get some extra exercise.
I’ll always choose the elevator or stairs given the chance. I can get on to go up an escalator fairly normally and easily, but I have issues about catching the stair to go down. I’ve always had it to some degree but the older I get the worse it gets. I frequently wonder if there is such a thing as having a slight case of vertigo, because I find open heights bother me more than they used to. As a teen I climbed a water tower just because with no problem. A couple of years ago I was not happy about being at the top of Marblehead lighthouse on Lake Erie.
Elevators for efficiency, especially if you’re going more than one or two levels. Escalators are good if you have the time. The best feature about an escalator is that there’s never a wait unlike an elevator.
I prefer an elevator. Unless, I’m in the way of someone who needs it more than myself. I have really bad foot/eye coordination. My husband gets a kick out of watching me get on and off escalators.
Hmm, I see. I used to think that people didn’t understand my instructions but my coworkers notice the same phenomenon.
I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that 90% of the people got to where I was via an escalator so they assume that it’s the only form of transport between floors. Or it’s what they’re used to.
If you’re only going a floor or two, especially in a place where the elevators would be crowded, it seems that an escalator would be faster. Especially if you’re like me and you walk along them (up an up, down a down).
Or you could also be like me and have the task of keeping your ten-years-younger sibling entertained while our parents were shopping. When he was 4, there was nothing he like better than going up and down the escalators.
Actually, given a choice, I’ll take the stairs if it’s less than four flights. This might be why I’m thinner than the stereotype of a typical American
I don’t like elevators/lifts much - I’m slightly claustro-averse (not really bad enough to be a phobia) and, when they get stuck between floors, I get wiggy being in a small, steel box I can’t escape from.
On the other hand, I’m not really that happy with escalators if I’m in a long, loose skirt or have potentially trappable bits around me. Escalator accidents can be ugly, though thank Og I’ve never been in one or seen one in person.
To me 3-4 floors are the break even point. I like to keep moving, and that does not happen w/ elevators.
It’s push button, wait (and look stupid), wait some more, take 4 steps turn around and wait (and look stupid) and finally you get there and can start moving.
