In general, people with the “why do you need to shave those extra two seconds off your travel time” attitude annoy me. There’s nothing wrong with feeling that way, but stay out of the way of those of us with purpose. Don’t try to impose your own laggardly ways on me by driving slow in the fast lane, taking up the whole width of the escalator, standing in the way in shopping isles, etc.
Communal thoroughfares exist for people to get from here to there. If you want to smell the roses, go sit in your garden.
I feel it necessary to point out to you that not all ill health is visible to other people and that you no more have the right to decide who may ride an elevator than I do to tell you to fix my car.
i can talk from both sides of the fence (well, escalator) here.
in my young days, i’d walk up (and down) escalators with the best of them. exercise, trying to make bus connections … it’s all good. generally, the Metro riders tend to be good on knowing the ropes and don’t block both sides. if they do, i’ve been known to do the sigh-and-glare routine, with varying results.
nowadays, after breaking my ankle and getting the pieces pinned back in place, i’m much less inclined to walk on the escalators in either direction. i don’t need a cane anymore, but sometimes i just feel like “saving” it. (plus it gives me time to dig out my Metro card on the way down, and change for the bus transfer on the way up.) but i always try to take up no more space than necessary, so the walkers are not inconvenienced.
and unless you want to go around checking all the standers for signs of infirmity (scars from the operations are one thing; are you gonna bring a pressure cuff to catch those with high blood pressure or heart problems?), i’d try not to be tooo huffy about those who don’t fit in your “move it or lose it” world.
oh, and regarding the OP? have you tried a hearty OW! when you’re the recipient of passive assault?
OK, but like Lucretia and others have said, please stand to the right. It’s possible to carry on that conversation with your friend while standing on the right sides of consecutive steps, rather than both parties being on the same step of the escalator.
Some people really are, quite necessarily, in a hurry. Some of us just prefer to move with a purpose. Either way, we aren’t going to be upset with people blocking the right side of a two-wide escalator - just the left.
As someone who used to ride the Wheaton escalators twice every day, they are indeed impressive – standing still for the ride up it takes well over two minutes to reach the top. That’s a LONG time to stand on an escalator. That was my best form of daily exercise, walking as far up that escalator as I could make it before running out of air. Going down, it was a game – trot down as fast as I felt I could go safely while trying to hit as many steps as possible. My all-time record was 127. The elevator is conveniently situated right by the top of the escalator, however, and a LOT of even non-escalator-phobic folks find themselves rapidly developing a phobia when they see the length of those and opt for the elevator. You regularly see tourists clutching the handrail with both hands, heads down, eyes closed, praying hard.
There’s also at least one good reason to go to Wheaton – lots of yummy ethnic food within about two blocks of the station. The best Chinese restaurant I ate at while in DC just across Georgia Avenue (in the same shopping center as the glatt kosher pizzeria, if I remember correctly), and there’s also a very good Korean restaurant just down a side street across Georgia.
I don’t mind the standers so much - even the ones in the way. I usually walk until I’m blocked, and sometimes the blockers figure it out for themselves that they should move to the right.
What I cannot stand are the ones who apparently have never been on one before in their lives, and STOP as soon as they get off and BLOCK THE FREAKING WAY for the rest of us. GET OUT OF THE WAY! We can’t exactly STOP, you know.
Let’s face it, escalators are probably one of the most needless, but still widely used, inventions in the history of mankind. I wonder how man injuries occur on escalators annually, or worse yet, how many kids have digits or worse ripped off their bodies by them.
And while I’m at it, who invented those idiotic horizontal people movers in the SF and Orlando airports?
One of the nicest (non-pub related) things about London is the fact they strictly heed the aforementioned DC request to stay to the right if you are too lazy to walk.
This is not a smack at the silver foxes inthe AARP, but IMHO, if an elderly person requires 2 people (1 behind them and one to their left) to balance them, they shouldn’t be on an escalator in the first place…that’s what elevators are for. By getting on an escalator and not having control over yourself, your putting the people behind you at great risk.
I guess you didn’t read the part of the post where we were told that Mom can’t walk far and the elevators are too far away for her to get to? I’ve been in that position myself, when I was on crutches and the elevator was about a mile away. Better to balance on the escalator, albeit precariously. Even if other people don’t always think it’s the safest way to get there.
I did, I just thought recommending a wheelchair, walker or electric buggy was too meddling, personal and obnoxious a thing to do.
All I’m saying is: one slip / one missed grab and the tale Jack and Jill would be tame by comparison. I just think it’s dangerous to put yourselves and inconsiderate to put unsuspecting people behind you in harms way.
Not to mention the poor slob property owner who’ll be forced to pay legal fees out the ying yang if something terrible were to happen.
I keep hearing people here talking about how they “move with a purpose,” as if that absolves them of all of their rudeness in barging past people. FUCK YOU AND YOUR PURPOSE! Your desire to get somewhere in a hurry or to get some exercise does not make you superior to me, though the attitudes shown in this thread would suggest you think otherwise. If you are in a hurry you should have planned better. If you want exercise go to a fucking gym. And if I happen to be taking up too much of the escalator for you to get past without shoving SAY “EXCUSE ME” AND I’LL MOVE OVER! Pointed staring at the back of my head will not work because I have no eyes there. A gentle clearing of your throat might work but I’m a bit hard of hearing. And standing there fuming will not work at all because I can be every bit as rude as you.
Oh you’ll know when I need to get around you. And it’ll be polite even. But next time, don’t consume more space then you deserve. It’s just plain rude, which you should probably take note of since you seem to be very hung up getting politeness in turn.
Then there’s one of my friends. He refuses to walk on escalators because he claims that he thinks to do so is disrespectful to the people who designed them.
As for me, I normally do walk on escalators, and if I don’t, I try to stay out of the way. I sometimes feel a bit uneasy going down escalators, so I’m more likely to stand then, or be a bit slow getting on. And like dropzone, if I do wind up in someone’s way, I am much more receptive to politely being asked to move as opposed to being shoved, etc. Golden rule and all that. I do my best to be polite to others, and I hope it isn’t asking too much to expect the same in return.
Politeness has its place I suppose, but let’s not get carried away. I respond much better to the antagonistic attitude that dropzone and others have. At one point I was running up a five-story escalator while practicing Nunchaku. Right near the top a woman who was standing on the right, leading me into a false sense of security, blindsided me with her umbrella. We were engaged in a heated shouting match when a man walked up and yelled at us to get out of the way. He was 7 feet tall and covered in leather and piercings, but I didn’t notice his height, because he was two steps down. So I attacked him. The three of us were soon engaged in a rowdy tussle, and we formed a perpetual snowball rolling down the up escalator, picking up more people who approached trying to stop us. As we gained mass, we rolled faster, and started to make our way down. I think when we finally hit the bottom, we had 28 people entangled in a heaping sphere of ire. I suppose I didn’t make it to the top very fast that day, but it reaffirmed my faith in humanity.
You misunderstood. I was writing to the people scrambling to get in front of everyone else. I am in front of her to keep her from falling if one of the slobs pushes her in their haste to get on or off. Mom can ride the escalator just fine. And later you imply that people who can’t walk long distances need to use a wheelchair. Well no they shouldn’t. Mom walks slowly, but that is her right, she has earned it thru age, her knees aren’t as good as they used to be, but she still gets around and even goes weekly to give out food and clothing to the needy. Mind you the doctor has given her a handicapped sign now, but the ones most happy about that is dad and me, we like to park close to the ballpark.
The only ones putting others in harms way are the inconsiderate healthy escalator users who should be walking down the ramps anyway.
Errr, no, dropzone. It’s in MPSIMS, so you’re just going to have to behave like it is, well, in MPSIMS. If you want to use dirty words in really big font sizes, I suggest you start a Pit thread. Don’t rant in MPSIMS because you think it’ll just prompt one of the automatic moderators to move it to where you want it to be. Doesn’t work that way.
