I want to know how y’all manage to walk up or down an escalator without feeling like you’re about to puke. It’s all I can do to stare straight down at my feet and not feel like I’m about to pitch off into the dark Texas night when I’m standing still. If you want to barge by, be my guest, but know that I reserve the right to toss my cookies on your shoes when you do it.
I used to take two trains to get to and from school. Now, if I didn’t make my first train, then I waited for 15 minutes to get the next one, which then resulted in missing the second train, which then meant I waited 20 more minutes for the next one, which resulted in me getting home 35 - 45 minutes late. When you have three kids all needing to go places/get picked up/wanting to eat dinner, that’s no small chunk of time.
Now, there were 3 seperate escalators in between me and my first train, all wide enough for people to stand to the right while others passed on the left. Invariably, however, I would encounter two people standing abreast, idly chatting, obliviously blocking the entire step. I would try a polite “excuse me” at first, however, if I was ignored, I had no qualms about using some strategic elbow and backpack action to get by. (Providing they were able bodied, which I really can’t remember a time when they weren’t).
So, how’s about this, I won’t push if you stand to the side! 
Going up the escalator at Dupont Circle is like looking at the space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I keep hearing “Also Spake Zarathustra”…
Da… da… DA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
While I understand the feelings on both sides, I think that the polite thing to do is:
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If you’re standing, stand to the side (appropriate side WILL vary by country). Don’t have a conversation group in the middle of an escalator.
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If you’re walking, and someone is in your way, “Excuse me” is the proper approach, not a push, shove or jostle. Even if you’re late for your train. (The Metro should provide a little more time between trains as well.)
Thank you for your adherence to proper etiquette.
- Politeness Man ::resheathes his stainless steel hanky::
I walk up escalators… and I walk past so many fat, lazy people that could do a whole lot worse than picking their feet up and getting some simple excercise! I mean, come on! You can go to a gym or buy a stairmaster and a few workout videos, but you can’t be bothered to walk up an escalator?? Me, I take excercise where I can, walking when others stand, standing when others sit. Rejoice in your body’s vigor!
Of course, the elderly, infirm and heavily burdened need to stand, but the rest of us - move your lazy butts! 
I’m with your sister. I can’t do down escalators at all. And if the incline is steep and the stairs are at the same pitch as the escalator, forget them too, even if there are landings to break up the descent. If there isn’t an elevator, I’m not going down. Sometimes I can’t go up either, if it’s too tall/steep. Dupont Circle sounds like my worst kind of nightmare. I also had major problems in London when I couldn’t find an elevator (okay, lift) to get down to the Underground at a couple of stations, and couldn’t find anyone to ask who looked sufficiently sympathetic enough to give aid to a stupid Yank with an escalator fear.
It’s not just escalators and steps, when I think about it. There are non-staired escalating people movers at the Pittsburgh Zoo (a flat belt type contraption that goes up a hillside from the parking lot to the entrance) that caused me to have a complete panic attack. The higher we went, the more labored my breathing became, and I had to be helped off by Mr. tlw and a nice gentleman who saw my distress, because I couldn’t open my eyes. When we were done with the day, I had to have Mr. tlw come and pick me up at the handicapped access area, because I knew that I couldn’t go back to the car with him if it meant facing those people movers again. :eek:
I prefer to walk up the down escalators. You get a pretty good workout that way, although it does take a lot longer to get up to the second floor. Plus, in spite of the signs saying “Walk Left, Stand Right,” when I walk on the left, I keep running into all these people that are just standing there. Buncha jerks!
Chalk me up as another walk-when-I-can escalator user. Same as others - if its a two-wide escalator, I will absolutely ask folks to step right if they haven’t already.
As someone who commutes through Grand Central Station in NYC many days a week, there are: a) long escalators to be dealt with getting up from and down to the lower levels; and b) trains to catch. Most New Yorkers are actually not the least bit obnoxious (contrary to the stereotype), but they are in a hurry and do expect people to observe the “walk left, stand right” rule. People who don’t will hear “Stand right!” when more than 1 - 2 people get clogged up…
dantheman, don’t you love it when you ride the Dupont station escalator with someone who’s seeing it for the first time? They say, “Whoa” with such awe.
According to Metro’s website, the escalator at the Wheaton station on the Red line is the tallest escalator in the Western hemisphere. I’ve been meaning to take a field trip and see it…but I can’t think of another reason to go to Wheaton.
I walk up and down escalators as well, but not because I am in a hurry. I just feel like a jackass, standing there while a motor rides me everrrr sooo slowwwlllly up. I really hate the ones in department stores that only go up ONE floor. These are the same department stores that have an ELEVATOR as well.
Little Tavern burgers.
Yeah! Perish the thought that somebody in a wheelchair or with a stroller might want to get to the other floor. “Sorry, Gimpy. If you wanted to go to the second floor you should’ve been born there.” :rolleyes:
On a wide escalator I’ll stay to the right. On a narrow escalator I’ll block it, and anybody who has met me can attest to my ability to block any path. And if some jerk older than six wants to run up a down escalator I’m on he should be prepared for an “accidental” knee to the breadbasket. “Gee, I didn’t see you coming. I wasn’t expecting some moron to come running UP the escalator.”
move it fat ass.
Actually, it’s pretty scary in our building, if they check you to the right on the narrow escalator, you have the image cast through your brain of momentary teetering, then a head first plummet to the marble floor below. I suggest you keep a hand free so you can take the offender with you.
I tend to walk up and down escalators too, almost all the ones I encounter on my “commute” are two wides. I’m a bit more subtle, if there are two people standing side by side blocking me, I don’t ask them to move, I just step loudly as I approach them, and then loudly sigh … sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t (ie, sometimes they move to one side to let me pass). I’m sure it’d be more polite to ask them to move, instead of making exasperated sounds, but hey, I’m having more fun that way. (-:
As for having to get to the finish line first … it’s totally not about that. I don’t push anyone out of my way, and I apologize if I accidently bump someone’s bag, or their person. I just can’t stand the thought of all my good exercise (I walk three kilometers each way) going to waste for those 30 seconds, when I could be using my leg muscles, keeping my heartrate up, and just generally not resting before I get to my destination.
I have no problem with those of you who don’t want to walk while on the escalator - I just wish you’d let me past you, when there’s plenty of room!
Ever have an elbow in your boob? A cyst can form in the bruised place, necessitating surgery. And it can look completely accidental. (totally innocent )
(I know you were joking, sorta. So am I, sorta.)
Hey DROPZONE my point was that both aren’t needed. An elevator for the handicapped, moms with strollers, and the elderly, is necessary.
I like to walk up and not stand and ride. It is lazy and annoying. I usually say excuse me though, or pardon.
What I hate worse is perfectly healthy adults riding an elevator down when the stairs are next to it. That is lazy. It really makes me mad when I need to get downa nd have to wait with my child in a stroller so some fat fuck can save his/her breath. Thats right, i said it. Walk and get soem exercise and allow parents and strollers to use the elevator first…( I apologize for the rant and hijack)
I didn’t realize Wheaton’s was so big. Since I pass by there every day, maybe I’ll stop one time. Or not.
I’ll be surprised if this thread doesn’t get moved to the Pit at some point.
You know what? I’m one of those lazy fat-asses who just stands there. I do it on up and down escalators. It’s not actually because I’m lazy. It’s because I try to live my life so I’m never in a freakin’ hurry to get somewhere, and hey, why not enjoy the trip? I do my best to keep to the right and let the neurotic walker-types pass me, but after reading posts like those from brainfizz and Govindha, I’m tempted to start clotheslining the walkers/runners as they pass. If I time it right I might be able to get them rolling down the escalator at the same rate it’s moving up, trapping them there for all eternity.
Just kiddin’, folks - I love each and every one of you. Just don’t get me started…