I wish everyone was as good a citizen as you are. Cannot ask for more than this. In fact, it is more than I would even ask for.
Dammit, man this is the pit!
Get hold of yourself!
If so, why are we finding it possible to provide examples of very high-volume escalators where it is explicitly encouraged?
My very amateur guess would be is that escalators, like many other means of ingress/egress, are scalable and engineers who desire a relatively high flow in some areas such as public transporation install escalators to accomodate that need. But, would you not concede that if you were to take the same space and area that is occupied by an escalator in those same areas and make that same space a widely sweeping staircase that it could accomodate more people per hour, more quickly than the escalators that are there? I bet it could since the space occupied by the mechanical housings on either side as well as to some extend the movable railing could be horizontal stair space to accomodate more people. If people ride the escalator they move at the pace dictated by the machine and is a known quantity. Also, in an emergency situation where evacuation is called for escalators can be reversed or shut down to promote one unified direction away from danger and out of the area. Seems pretty straightforward to me how escalators could be used in these ways.
I don’t understand.
If the engineers design the secalator around fire regulations assuming that x number of people per hour use the escalator standing still (a number impossible to get exact), then why can’t they address the same regulations assuming y number of people using it? Regardless of standing still or walking, the same number of people are going to get off the escalator as get on it.
My brain is standing to the left today. For secalator, please read escalator (although I like “secalator” better).
You can get close, enough for estimates anyways I would imagine. Let’s say you have a small train station which is served by one train that leaves every 15 minutes. The train’s capacity is 200 people, the lobby area to board the train has a capacity of 400 people. This means at any one time you can have 200 people in the lobby safely and can process up to 800 passengers an hour. The entrance is served by one medium sized escalator that can accomodate 1 average sized person per step plus baggage. The speed is set so that one step is delivered to the bottom of the landing every 5 seconds. That means that in one hour, if you have one person occupying every step the entire hour you will deliver a total of 720 people into the lobby spaced evenly through the hour and at no one time would the lobby be past capacity. Now, because there is some room on the escalator (for the baggage) people can and do pass and walk down the stairs past the riders. If it’s minor it will be accomodated by the cushion capacity of 80 additional people the system has built in plus the escalator would likely not be at maximum capacity the entire hour either. If it becomes routine… you will have overcrowding, people missing trains ect. because there aren’t enough seats for them during peak periods. Again, I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, I’ve just read some bits here and there online about pedestrian control and escalators over the last couple of days and this is my best guess as to how the system might have been envisioned to work. I could be completely wrong .
Well expressed. And wrong.
Implicit in the suggestions in your post is the idea that slowing down is relaxing. Uh, no, it’s not. It’s frustrating. Ever try to drive on an open road with a speed limit that is unusually low? You can drive slowly for a while, but your speed will eventually creep up because it’s actually more stressful to drive slowly.
Northerners have a different notion of rude. We do fast. Perhaps you’ve noticed. As a result of this, wasting someone’s time unnecessarily is rude.
If it makes you feel any better, Ms. Malienation likes your unsweetened tea. And I likes me some grits. 
Your cornbread’s not sweet enough, though 
Heh, it’s a circular argument really. I could retort that you simply feel frustrated because you won’t relax and take your time. Why do you have to speed up, is it worth getting upset about? Do you really save that much time at the end of the day by speeding or is speed an end in itself? If it was a two lane highway with no passing and you come up behind somebody who feels comfortable driving the posted limit but you’d rather go faster, what would you do? I don’t feel that going about my day in the manner in which I’m accustomed to and is generally the norm here is wasting anybody’s time. I see implicit in your (and other’s) view is that anybody NOT going at your pace is somehow infringing upon your time by existing. In not every case is there going to be a solution that allows you to continue on at your pace and they at theirs… sometimes you will have to simply wait and that seems strangely offensive to many. I’m sure there is plenty of room for both of us though. BTW, Unsweetened tea can barely be described as ‘southern’ and sweet cornbread is an unspeakable abomination. ;> I like your pizza and more locally your crab cakes. :>
Probably not, especially if we’re talking a couple of hundred steps.
If it’s moving that slowly, I’m definitely walking.
I’ll try to pay attention when I go home this evening, but I’ll think you’ll find the timing between steps to be a lot closer to one every second, MAYBE second and a half.
I’m certain I’ve never been on an escalator that took anywhere near 5 seconds between steps.
:rolleyes:
My example was to show very broadly how an escalator could be used to slow down and moderate pedestrian traffic based on calculations of use and delivery time. I picked nice round numbers out of the air and did my calculations to suit, it was to provide an easily understood example not depict reality. Is it REALLY necessary for me to recalculate my numbers and adjust the example so that it reflects an escalator delivery time of about 1-2 seconds for you to understand my point?
You used a spurious example to demonstrate a point which some of us to be completely inaccurate. Unless you’ve got realistic numbers, your example harms your case.
-Unlike Europe, which normally have stairways and escalators located togethor, Many USA malls and suchlike may not offer the option of a stairway, and if so it is often done only to meet fire codes, so is hidden away, may have access doors that sound an alarm, etc.
-For the sheer joy of using something that fits:
I’m 6’5" tall, have a 38" inseam, and wear size 14 shoes. The only stairways that are proportioned for my feet and gait are escalators.
Taking two steps at a time solves the problem going upward, where my heels can hang off safely off the edge. Downward requires me to turn sideways and crab-walk, as if I point my toes forward I either have the choice of clipping the edge with my heel, or having the ball of my foot miss the edge, either of which is likely to cause a tumble. Escalators are the only time I get to go down stairs without breaking stride.
Which may go a long way toward explaining the escalator standers. If you are proportioned such that you are not comfortable walking, then I can see why you might wish to stand. I can’t see why you would wish to stand in the middle or on the right.
D’oh! I meant to say sweet tea :smack: