Of course. I run late often. But, I rarely am late in the Mall, and I know I do not slow down. Same when I visit the city. I race to get there and move swiftly from place to place, despite not being on a schedule. I seem to have two speeds. Sitting or walking very fast.
I can do the same Supermarket trip as my wife in 30-45 minutes that takes her 75-100 minutes.
I race to Yankee Stadium at near reckless speeds. I fast walk from the garage to the Stadium and then end up sitting in uncomfortable seats for an extra hours or so. It does not make sense. It is just the way it is.
Maybe I’m not the only one who finds this completely unbelievable,
a mall in America, an escalator with an almost no one on it, then surely the stairs would be empty, right? You chose to take the “long-ass, slow escalator”, instead of the stairs, WHY?
Douchebag was also presented with that choice.
Isn’t it kind of obvious, that if given the choice between “long flight of stairs or a long-ass, slow escalator”, that choosing escalator is a clear indication that Douchebag didn’t want to walk?
Admit it, you took the escalator because your too lazy to actually use stairs, you want a power assist.
Escalators are not powered staircases!
CMC fnord!
I like to get their attention and then point to the red light…
then point at them and laugh my ass off!
Almost as much fun as making the speeding assholes pass me on the right (when I’m in the fast lane and not going as fast as they want me to) so they can discover that in 200 yards there’s a wall of cars going the same speed as me!
Given equal and opposing opinions, the best move would be to do our best to accomodate each other. I’ll walk on the left, and you can stand on the right. Hell, I won’t mind if you stand on the left, as long as you leave passing room on the right.
Q: If I’m standing on an escalator and someone runs past me and trips face-first into the steps, is it rude if I point and laugh at them…?
(additional information: sometimes about a minute after a Corvette blows past me at twice the legal limit, I’ll see it stopped by the side of the road in the tender loving care of a state trooper. For the record, I usually only smile and wave as I drive by, even though pointing and laughing seems indicated. )
This is just bizarre. Walking down the escalator gave me the straightest, shortes, and fastest way down. That’s the reason I took it. Had it been crowded I would have taken the stairs, because then the stairs would likely have been the most expeditious route. Of course I made a choice. Why the fuck is the point of pointing that out as a critique?
See above.
escalator
n. A moving stairway consisting of steps attached to a continuously circulating belt.
I’m afraid you’re just too stupid to continue this conversation.
Oh, I can grasp it… but knowing there is a different mindset out there is a far far cry from understanding it or approving of it. You probably, due to culture and the way you were raised ect. ect., feel that moving fast is preferrable to taking your time. I feel that hurrying everywhere as a default is no kind of way to live, people should relax and let things go. Instead of get annoyed at the pace of people bagging your groceries and taking it upon yourself to bag them… why not chat with the bagger or clerk or the people in line with you? Take a few moments to compose your thoughts? Look at the ridiculous tabloid headlines. Just STOP for a moment. Instead of walking up past people on a relatively cramped escalator, just take your turn and ride. My wife is from upstate NY and her mother is exactly as you describe… she was just amazed by the way things are done around here and thought it was ridiculous, unfortunately she also manages grocery stores for a living and her attitudes were not serving her well for her job down here (they moved to be closer to us and the grandchildren). I explained things, made some suggestions and I think she’s slowly coming around. I don’t think she’ll ever understand it but I think she’ll be able to work with it and appreciate the differences for what they are. Just as I’m sure my mother in law sees the southern way of doing things as lazy or slow or wasteful, I have my suspicions about her way too. This is what bothers me in particular, if the default speed is fast… what happens when you DO need to hurry (because it does happen you know, even in the slowest most laid back small southern town)? Surely there is a point at which hurrying along becomes rude, reckless and ugly… it seems to me that ya’ll operate a notch or two closer to that point than we do and are more likely to reach it consistently.
I just thought I’d say that I was in the T station yesterday morning and for the first time I noticed that there was a line of people standing to the right of the escalator. It’s probably always been this way, people standing to the right with walking space on the left, but I never noticed before. It was quite helpful to me who was running up the moving stairs on the way to catch a connecting bus. Etiquette!
Sometimes I move fast. At other times I move slowly. But in neither situation do I conduct myself in a manner that attempts to force others to move at my preferred pace. To the contrary, I am aware of the people around me, and make an effort to avoid having my pace dictate the behavior of others.
Which has been noted above is actually the way most of the people here in the slow 'ol South act as well, lokij’s protestations that we’re all just dawdling good ole boys aside. No one who has driven in or near Atlanta could ever assume that people in the South just laze along and smell the flowers.
An excellent life philosophy. However, another good philosophy is to live and let live. Also, be polite and considerate.
If you’re in someone’s way, apologize and move aside. If someone’s in your way, excuse yourself and make the request politely.
I just don’t see how so many people think it is their job to slow the world down, and how it’s for everyone else’s good. No, it isn’t for our good. We’re adults. We can make our own decisions. We have our own life philosophies.
It is considerate to be aware of your surroundings and to move out of the way if someone needs to get by. Why deliberately frustrate someone else by stubbornly insisting that your way must always be the right way? Why insist on a reason to justify them going faster than you? They want to go faster than you. Is that really that big a deal? Just take a simple step over.
What amazes me is that this argument is still going on. It all boils down to: if someone asked you to move over one step, so they could walk past, and you could do so with minimal to no inconvenience, would you?
If the answer is no, you’re being incredibly, appallingly, and shockingly inconsiderate. And there’s simply no excuse for that.
Yes, I agree. I actually see the major benefits to a slower way of life. I am just wired to the point were it would drive me crazy at first. I was just trying as hard as possible and with no judgment involved to give the other side and maybe increase understanding a small bit. It does turn rude at time. Of course in the Op we see where the Take it easy attitude can also turn ugly. No one way is the right.
Damn, you got me. Well in the post before yours, I did say “It does not make sense”. I will expand that to cover more of my shared behavior. So besides nitpicking that one point, did the rest of my post at least let you understand this other way of life?
Certainly, and occasionally I’m that way myself. Depends on my mood really. And in a perfect world, both types of people would co-exist peacefully.
What I don’t get is the assumption that escalators were invented to move people faster. They may have become that over the years, but what little common sense I posess says that originally they were built as a means to avoid walking on stairs, not as a way of walking faster. But at least we can all agree that they were not originally built as rides, right? Wrong.
I agree completely. In my very first post I said I would readily stand to the side and allow somebody who asked to pass. My point in subsequent posts is that I do not routinely stand to the right because in my experience, in this area, people do not walk up escalators and to do so would be rude. I guess I was making a point about how rules that are seemingly obvious to some people in some cultures are unknown or unecessary in others. I’ve said I would pass, I said I would do as others do in other places (especially if there were signs instructing me to do so) but I just wanted to dispell the sort of arrogant notion I saw here that it was obvious that one simply stands to the right in deferrence to escalator walkers and if you don’t you’re rude or a moron. That just isn’t true. I went on to elaborate about about the potential differences in culture that might explain why in some areas it is routine to walk up escalators and have rules about standing to the right while in other places it is unknown. Here’s the thing… in places where it is unknown… that guy not standing to the right isn’t trying to purposely impede your progress… he’s simply using an escalator and YOU are the one sorta breaking the collective social construct about riding escalators when you try to walk up past him, but again, I agree he should simply allow you to pass politely. I agree completely with What Exit’s last post, nobody is right… variety is the spice of life ect. when in Rome.
I should add that in that linked article, Jesse Reno called escalators “moving stairs” which might lead one to believe that they are intended to be used as stairs. But he also called them “inclined elevators”, implying passive usage.
Actually, in my reading about this surprisingly divisive subject I found that escalators are also installed as a means of controlling crowds. Engineers and architects that place escalators do it to deliberately slow crowd movement to a homogenous and somewhat predictable flow from entrances and exits. It seems to me that escalator walkers might unintentionally be subverting this design principle.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think standing in the middle of the escalator makes you rude or a moron unless you refuse to get out of the way when someone wants to pass. I don’t even bother standing to the right on most escalators in “casual” settings (e.g. malls as opposed to mass transit centers like airports), but I damn well pay attention to whether someone wants to get by and I move if they do, generally before being asked. If I’m carrying on a conversation or doing something that will distract me from noticing someone approaching, I will definitely move to the right.
Damn, you got me. Well in the post before yours, I did say “It does not make sense”. I will expand that to cover more of my shared behavior. So besides nitpicking that one point, did the rest of my post at least let you understand this other way of life?