Yeah, I don’t blame you. What else could you have done? You certainly didn’t want to use the escalator as stairs…why, escalator steps are not the correct height for normal walking, and the risk of tripping and falling is increased!
I feel for ya, my friend.
Except stand over there, because your pants smell.
Me too. Maybe we should join the circus?
Fortunately, I am big and strong enough that if someone doesn’t respond to a polite request, I can push my way past. I like to call it ‘enforced civility’. If you’ve a problem, all you have to do is climb the escalator to catch up to me.
I always try to block the 10 foot wide escalator way with my 1,000 lb. body and mound of packages just so those important people whose lives would fall apart if they were 30 seconds late will be ruined.
In all serious, I’ve missed a Metro train on a number of occasions because someone stood on the left-hand lane of the down escalator, thus triggering a chain reaction of people standing in the left-hand lane, thus making me late by, yes, 30 seconds, so that I hit the platform just as the train was pulling away. Sometimes that can make a big difference – sometimes the next train isn’t for twenty minutes. Even if the next train is only five minutes away, though, missing a train can lead to a number of unfortunate or unforeseen consequences. And even better, you don’t generally know how close a train is to arriving at a platform – or whether it has, in fact, arrived – until you’ve finished riding the escalator. Which means that any one of those people who’re standing on the left-hand side and blocking my way could, theoretically, be making me miss that train.
So tell me again how their obliviousness outweighs my desire to proceed at my own polite, easy-going, yet forward-moving pace?
In my mind, the person who stands in the middle of the escalator is simply one of the many folk who feel no obligation to be aware of how much space they are occupying in a public setting, or how their actions might affect others.
IMO, when in public one ought to take up as little space as comfortably necessary, allowing as much possible opportunity for others who might wish to use the same public space in a manner different than I.
The escalator-stander has plenty of company in the folk who park their shopping cart in the middle of the aisle, walk 3 abreast down a city sidewalk, stop abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk/in a doorway/or at the head of a flight of stairs to have a conversation, wander down the sidewalk zigzagging from side to side, put their feet up on train seats, etc …
I consider such things as stepping to the side in case someone might wish to pass me nothing more than common courtesy. And when I realize that I did inconvenience someone I feel bad about it, and apologize. Not all that common I guess…
However, when I feel myself inconvenienced by someone else’s cluelessness, I generally feel the best option is to simply tolerate the minimal inconvenience, because it is far too likely that a reasonable request will be met with a “Wanna step outside” response. Which is much more unpleasant than the original situation.
You could do what I do; leave early enough to take into account any delays!
Plus, the escalator-stander is also likely the person who will stand at the end of the escalator exit trying to figure out which way to go, expecting every other escalator rider to pirouette around him/her. They will likely do the same at revolving doors. Og forbid you should actually make contact with their obliviousnesses; then you are the rude one.
True, that. I guess I’m just a self-absorbed, truculent churl.
Wish I had the Henry Rollins track to hand about people who stand on the “people-movers” at airports too. His point:
For your lazy ass it might be a means of propulsion, but for normal people it’s a means of acceleration.
Fuck the clueless lazy idiots who don’t move out of the way on escalators. There’s room enough to accommodate both the normal and the disturbingly sedentary on these things.
I invite overeasy4 to come to London with me and GorillaMan: shits and giggles for us; tutting, rude stares, umbrella pokes, and possible well-earned beatings for him.
See, up until you said this, I just thought you were rude fucking ass. Now though, you’ve crossed the line into a moronic rude fucking ass.
You leave early enough for any delay? How early is that exactly? 10 minutes? An hour? What if you have to walk the whole way and the guy ahead of you uses a walker? Do you leave two days early to take that into account? Do you have anything else to do with your life? Is nothing on a deadline for you?
It’s a bullshit statement and you’re lying when you say it. Furthermore, you know you’re lying when you say it. What you really mean is that you leave early enough so that you can take your own sweet time and delay others.
Fuckwit.
jjimm, they don’t need to go that far. Just come to NYC and get off the E train at Lexington and 53rd during rush, then try to stand in the ‘informal’ express lane. I’m always amused by the out-of-towner who thinks, “Hmmm, people are lined up on the right to get on the elevator, while on the left, they keep moving. Let me go left and stand there…” NYers aren’t shy about that extra shove as they shoulder past such forward thinkers.
Self-absorbed much? And what about when a person does leave time to take delays into account, but had it used up by delays more justifiable than your lazy ass? Should they expect to leave even earlier? At what point is their right to get where they’re going more important than your right to sit on your ass?
I tend not to move on escalators if I don’t have to, but I’m squarely with the OP here. Even if I thought people who just had to walk on escalators to be psychotic and irrational for wanting to get to the top 2 seconds earlier, I think of it this way: I’d rather have an irrational person move past me so I don’t have to worry about him than have an irrational person getting all kinds of pissed off because I won’t let him by. It’s the same principle that applies to crazy peopleon the road, but where there it’s safe driving, on foot it’s courteous and good for stress levels.
As I posted before, some people get terrible vertigo on escalators. It happens to me sometimes. It’s much much worse if I can’t hold onto the handrail, sometimes hard to do with arms full of packages. In that case, you can wait behind me.
What do you do if someone is standing side-by-side with a child?
Politely say excuse me (maybe even throw in a please), then force my way past if they won’t. Next time, parent can have child ride an escalator single file, with the child in front.
If someone is standing side-by-side with a child, I wait politely behind them. Almost without exception. The only time that wouldn’t be the case would be on one of those excruciatingly long Metro escalators 'round here – say, Dupont Circle, Woodley Park, or Bethesda – if I’m legitimately in a hurry. But otherwise, yeah, I wouldn’t make a fuss about a parent and child.
What am I, a monster?
I bet you don’t pull the tough guy crap on anybody your own size, do ya?
Have panic attacks at your leisure, just do it to one side of the escalator so I can get past. Though if you get vertigo on escalators, I recommend you take the stairs.
I’m reminded of a (non-)incident I had early last week.
I had just gotten off the commuter train and was headed downstairs to the subway. I was doing my usual half-jog down the escalator when I encountered two kids, both about eight years old, sitting next to one another on the steps.
A rather loud “Oh, Jesus CHRIST!” escaped my lips before I noticed that I had stopped right next to their fairly large, intimidating looking father. Much to my surprise, before I’d even had a chance to brace myself for his retort, his face turned red with embarrasment, of all things, and he quickly ordered the two to stand up and get out of the way.
I choked out a meek “Thank you” to him and then went on my way. 
Care to respond to, I dunno, anything other than the low-hanging fruit, Oakminster?
I now see the error of my ways. I will go over the speed limit in my car just to get past all the unimportant people who are lazy. Then, if they don’t move, I will bump their car to force it out of the way.
And on stairs and escalators, I will shove everyone smaller than me out of the way. I have things to do! How dare they slow me down!