But doesn’t this apply to stairs as well? I’m always paranoid about someone behind me tripping while I’m taking the stairs down and having a domino effect (or myself tripping and creating a domino effect) but it’s a risk everyone chooses to take when they take the stairs. And a pretty low risk, as far as I’m concerned.
Plus, if you stand in two lanes, it’s more likely the moving lane will be injured, rather than the people standing on the right. (This is assuming the escalator is wide enough to have two lanes. If the escalator is only wide enough for one lane, I agree that no one should be trying to make their way past the others ahead of them.)
Hm, I never knew people were so worried about falling on escalators. For me, escalator accidents are always related to getting something caught in the moving parts, not tripping and falling. (A brief Google search also seems to turn up more of the former than the latter, FWIW.)
Personally, I like to keep my legs moving. The few times I visit a mall, I’m moving from point to point, and I hate stopping. I’m the guy on line who can’t stand still. Same in an elevator. I want to minimize my time from point A to point B, and that means not stopping unless necessary. On a wide escalator, it shouldn’t be necessary. I wouldn’t have to intrude upon you idyllic ride if you didn’t intrude on my not-so-idyllic gait.
Yeah, and if one gets on one of those sorts of escalators and wants to keep moving I’d say think that plan over a little better. I fully support the privilege of all to be inert on an escalator if they so choose, and if it’s the single-track variety, they’re not obliged to keep moving or get out of the way.
But for fuck’s sake, what’s the big deal about standing on the right when there’s room enough for people to pass by?
7th and Metro? The red line is smelly. The gold line is mostly all the Pasadena yuppies (I’m part of that crowd) and doesn’t seem to be as bad. Also, it is now PACKED in the morning.
I doubt that 1/2 the time I’m walking up the stairs at Union to get up to the Gold Line and there’s a queu to ride the escalator and I get to the top way faster than everyone on the escalator 1/2 way up. There’s no place I ride that has stairs akin to some of the stops in Boston, so I’ll just run up them. I’m getting back into great shape but I’m pretty healthy.
Even on days when I’m wearing heels and don’t feel like getting on the escalator…I don’t really care if it takes me longer. I’m the first person to arrive in an office that possesses only the most remote sense of time.
Ah yes, the elevators of urine-doom. I refuse to ride those as well.
Taking the stairs = marginal exercise and not having to be near or talk to other people (many of whom don’t seem to wash). I consider it a win-win situation.
I was going to start the same OP in the near future. But, mine was going to extend the same argument to sidewalks as well…
Just to add on, if you are on the escalator with another person, I believe that you have a similar obligation to stand one in front of the other so as to provide a free lane for we escalator walkers.
This OP is evidence to me that dopers can argue about anything! Seriously, if you can make someone else’s life easier (letting them walk by) by not doing a damn thing differently (all you have to do is get onto the escalator 18 inches to the right of where you were originally going to get on), why wouldn’t you?
I think that is a common assumption that there are two lanes on an escalator; one for standing, one for walking. Most airports even have a sign on those people movers to those not walking that they should stand to the right.
even this one some one trying to pass this woman (who doesn’t appear to be either Twiggy nor Roseanne), would brush against her, or she’d have to turn sideways.
That last one is a subway station, wring, and one with which I am fairly intimately familiar. There’s plenty of room for people on one side to pass without doing much more than brushing the clothes of the people on the other side. And if you’re objecting to the clothes-brushing, all I can say is that it’s absolutely routine here in D.C. and, I suspect, in every other big city with a public transit system.
So, then are we in agreement that in the situation where escalators ARE designed wide enough that standers should stand to the side?
My experience is that the vast majority of escalators are designed to allow two person side by side travel. Your mileage may vary.
No one is suggesting that in the rare scenarios where this is not the case that you have the right to require them to move (though it’s frustrating being behind you…)
The first one might be too tight for two lanes; the second and third can definitely let a walker past. This may be an urban versus suburban viewpoint, though - my posts are most definitely see things from an urban viewpoint.
I just clicked on your links. It sure does look like you cherry picked pictures where the distances and angles make a two person escalator appear slimmer, but are actually perfectly wide enough for two side by side.
The only one that has an actual person on it for perspective looks fine for safe passage.
I actually work just off of the 7th and Metro stop, so that’s where I enter/exit on a daily basis. But I’ve also been riding long enough that I position myself by the subway door that puts me right by the escalators or stairs, so I’m always one of the first people heading up. The only time I usually get jammed on the escalators is when the subway coming from the other direction lets off right before I arrive. But at those times, the stairs are usually just as bad because you’ve got folks on the Blue Line running down the stairs, shoving folks aside at will to catch the subway I just got exited. It’s a no-win, as far as I’m concerned.
Oh, and if I start to notice smelly people around me during my escalator commute from now on, I blame you.
you think that’s wide enough? hunh. it’s ok to brush up against some one? double hunh. (I’m not saying it never happens, but only when there’s no other alternative. Only seat on the bus is next to some one? yea, you’ll brush up against them. crowded elevator? sure, it’ll happen. But when the alternative is wait 30 seconds? nope. I’d consider that an intrusion. )
again, in a mass transit situation where time is of the essence, schedules going on, crowds and so on, I"d understand the brushing up against some one. but you can’t stand still for 30 seconds in a leisure setting? not so much
And how! But I must admit, I thought this was a no-brainer. “Yeah, Loopy, you were kind of a dick yourself to snap at the guy, but wtf? Standing on the right is just how it’s done!” Learn something new all the time.
I picked out ones that seemed to me to be small, yes. so ? you’re saying ‘most’ and I’ll give you that in mass transit, but NOT in malls (where, IME, the ones I picked are about what you see).
and I think D_Odds may have it. I’m suburban.
I used to get off on the Hope side, but our office moved a couple of months ago due to the massive office-to-loft conversions taking place in the area. Now we’re on Flower, so I get to take the red-headed stepchild exit from the subway.
And I’m going to pass on the Pershing Square walk, if you don’t mind – your word is good enough for me on that one!
1/2 the time I’m walking up the stairs at Union to get up to the Gold Line and there’s a queu to ride the escalator and I get to the top way faster than everyone on the escalator 1/2 way up. There’s no place I ride that has stairs akin to some of the stops in Boston, so I’ll just run up them. I’m getting back into great shape but I’m pretty healthy.
