Escalator Etiquette

[Idlewild]

@Gadarene

The “safety issues involved in passing people on escalators”? Man oh man. I’ve been walking up and down escalators in busy rush hours for well-nigh all my adult life, and I hain’t seen an accident yet!

Again, to echo several others: assuming that the escalator is, in fact, wide enough to accommodate two lanes, how does one person’s right to stand right smack in the middle of both trump my right to (with all politeness) ask them to step aside so I can get where I’m going at my chosen pace? Why do you think they make them that wide, anyway?

Well, second-hand because you didn’t see it, but I slipped walking down an escalator in May and broke both bones in my ankle, which required four hours of surgery to fix! There was shattering involved. It was very exciting.

So yes, people do get injured on escalators. It might be a negligible risk, but it is non-zero. And now when I ride a down escalator I’m standing still, pressed to the right, clinging onto the safety rail and trying not to panic when people push past in a hurry.

I still think people should stand to the right, especially in time-sensitive locales like the subway (don’t really care at the mall, though I stand to the right) but it’ll be a long time before I’m quite so cavalier about walking down them.

Is there a point to this post? Meh. I think standing guy was rude but I don’t think the standing part was really worth a fuss - the “take it outside” part is hilariously over the top and I’d be pissed. I just wanted to share dramatic tales of how escalators can in fact fuck you up, ruin your summer and cause a seasoned walker-down of escalators to switch to standing to the fucking right all the time, even when I’m in a hurry.

[GorillaMan]

@jjimm

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.

Heh heh…I presume we’ll follow this up with watching them struggle to get served in a semi-crowded pub?
(Just come to my mind, my parents encouraging us to ‘slide’ off the end of the escalators…)

[GorillaMan]

@Idlewild

Well, second-hand because you didn’t see it, but I slipped walking down an escalator in May and broke both bones in my ankle, which required four hours of surgery to fix! There was shattering involved. It was very exciting.

So yes, people do get injured on escalators. It might be a negligible risk, but it is non-zero. And now when I ride a down escalator I’m standing still, pressed to the right, clinging onto the safety rail and trying not to panic when people push past in a hurry.

I know someone who had far more than four hours of surgery (i.e. several bolts & plates), slipping off one step of gasp a stationary stairway!

So it’s a non-zero risk, so every time I encounter a stairway, I freeze, grip the handrail, and wait until…errr…

[Loopydude]

You know, I tried to find a photo of the escalator I went down, and found out a guy died falling off an escalator in the same mall after attempting a dumb stunt. Creepy. I wonder if it was the escalator I was on.

I think I’ll just stay off escalators from now on. Ornery jerks, slippery steps with bone-shattering injuries, people falling from above! Not worth it!

[galt]

So there’s an entire population of dickheads who believe that if you’re in someone’s way, and they politely ask you to move so they can get by, and you have no reason not to comply, that refusing is somehow ok? I just can’t fathom this attitude, whether it’s on an escalator, a moving sidewalk, a stationary sidewalk, the highway, etc etc etc. You’re fucking rude if you’re intentionally getting in someone’s way.

Do you assholes refuse to let someone out of an elevator if you’re blocking the door? “What’s the big hurry? Your life isn’t going to be ruined if you have to wait an extra two minutes to go to my floor first, then go back to your floor! I’m a complete self-absorbed butt-hole, live with it!”

[Idlewild]

@GorillaMan

I know someone who had far more than four hours of surgery (i.e. several bolts & plates), slipping off one step of gasp a stationary stairway!

So it’s a non-zero risk, so every time I encounter a stairway, I freeze, grip the handrail, and wait until…errr…

Of course, stairs can be dangerous, and if I’d slipped going down stairs I’d probably have a bit of an irrationally phobic reaction to 'em too. But, although I keep trying to tell my co-workers it was a fight with a timberwolf that did it (“Wouldn’t you have more scars?” “Nope, I’m just that good!”) it was an escalator so that’s what makes me freeze up.

You may note that I was just dropping in an entirely worthless anecdotal data point to respond to someone who’d never seen an accident on an escalator, if that tempers your incredulous derision. I still don’t have a point. Probably knocked it off the top of my head when I fell.

[Li_l_Pluck]

I’m with HalBriston, b/c I, too, wonder why many of you’re are putting your feet of righteous indignation up **Loopydude’s ** ass.

He as on an elevator that he describes as being wide enough to accommodate two lanes of traffice, he saw someone straddling the (albeit) imaginary line beteen the lanes, and has asked, politely, and twice, if he could move over so that he could get by. Instead of displying the Commn Fucking Courtesy that **Spidey ** mentioned, the “genleman”–oops, “man” (using the term broadly enough to fly a 747 through–transmogrigied into a dickless troglodyte. (“Wanna take it outside, buddy?”=My dick ain’t actually that big–even little kids at the community pool point and laugh–so I gotta do SOMETHING to prove that I am *some * semblance of a MAN, dammit!)

As far as I can discern, this situation is in no way **Loopydude’s ** fault. (And BTW, dude, grow some balls, man! When these folks come back at you with some shit that you know in your heart…just…doesn’t…make…any…sense to the logical mind, don’t backpedal, and don’t hem and haw. Stand up! And it’s the pit, so you can throw in a couple of “fuck yous” or two. You won’t get in trouble for it.)

So, yeah, I’m definitely siding with **Loopydude ** here. And I’m glad to see that others like DianaG, WhatExit?, D_Odds (and I, too, have taken that escalator at the 53rd & Lexington station many times!), Dinsdale, and a couple of others whose names I can’t recall right now came to his defense.

Really, folks, this isn’t rocket science. If you get on an escalator and see that is clearly wide enough for two lanes of traffic (even if there are no signs posted to that effect–and here’s were **Spidey’s ** CFC comes in), just do the the polite, less-likely-to-cause-unnecessary-drama thing and stay to the right, thus allowing room on the left for the walkers to get by. I mean, really, why wouldn’t you unless you wanted to be a dick? And if you have larger than average packages that can (within reason) be placed on the steps in front of you (though I usually get on backwards so that I can drag the package off quickly without inconveniencing other riders–though watch it, those of you who’ve turned to salt at the bottom), then just do that. Does it really take that much more energy, and is it really going to disturb the order of your universe?

And overeasy4, I’m not quite sure what to make you. Not yet, anyway.

[What_Exit]

@Oakminster

It appears self evident to me. The only escalators in my town are at the mall. There’s a sign warning that one is not supposed to climb them like steps, and they aren’t really wide enough for passing. Trying to force one’s way past someone has a good chance of causing a fall. Add in complications from carrying packages and/or accompanying children, and yes, there are safety issues to consider.

What **Gadarene ** said.
Really, most escalators I have seen have limited safety issues. I will of course allow for the small kids in tow part. But I have never seen a sign that warns not to climb them and I have rarely been on escalators too narrow for passing. I feel either your circumstances are abnormal or perhaps you might be exaggerating a bit.

@Oakminster

If you start holding hands, I’m passing out the tie-dye, and we’re singing the Coke commercial…

“I’d like to [COLOR=DarkOrange]teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” [/COLOR]
Come on, everyone now.

[Li_l_Pluck]

Awww, hell!

I meant “many of **you ** are”.

[Hal_Briston]

A-fucking-men, galt. That’s the crux of this whole thing – it has nothing at all to do with escalators, it’s about common fucking courtesy. If someone says “excuse me”, you move your ass out of the way – it’s that simple.

I just can’t wrap my brain around the thought process that goes into any other action. “Ooo, this guy wants to get around me and I’m blocking his way! I’m a fucking douchebag who has no authority over anything else in my pathetic little world, so I think I’ll take this chance to wield a tiny speck of power! Muahaha!”.

Just step aside, you lazy fuckhole.

[galt]

@Oakminster

The only escalators in my town are at the mall. There’s a sign warning that one is not supposed to climb them like steps, and they aren’t really wide enough for passing.

Sounds like a situation where blocking the escalator is unavoidable. Now, what’s wrong with a general policy of showing some Common Fucking Courtesy when possible? Nobody expects you to get out of the way if you can’t.

[Li_l_Pluck]

I caught a couple other typos/mistakes. Where the hell did I get “elevator”?! :smack:

Ambien, I curse you all the way down to the depths of the hell from which you sprang! (But please help me sleep a little before I go in for my overnight shift tonight. Pretty please?)

[Oakminster]

@What Exit?

“I’d like to [COLOR=DarkOrange]teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” [/COLOR]
Come on, everyone now.

Can I help it if my fantasies involve hippie chicks that sing?

[Oakminster]

@galt

Sounds like a situation where blocking the escalator is unavoidable. Now, what’s wrong with a general policy of showing some Common Fucking Courtesy when possible? Nobody expects you to get out of the way if you can’t.

What’s wrong with a general policy of not intruding into someone’s space just to get to the bottom of an escalator a few seconds sooner?

[mhendo]

Some disclaimers:

1. Yes, there are some escalators so narrow that passing is impractical. On those escalators, i’m happy to bide my time if the people in front of me aren’t moving.

2. There probably are, in fact, some people who are so frightened by escalators that they desperately have to hold on to both railings. Unless someone can show me different, i believe that such people constitute a tiny minority.

3. There are times when, out of tiredness or laziness, i prefer to stand (rather than walk) on the escalator. I understand completely when other people want to do this also.

Now, having said all that:

If you’re not on escalator type (1), and if you’re not one of the people described in (2), and if you are choosing action (3), then:

Stand to the side of the fucking escalator, you selfish piece of shit!

I can’t believe the self-important, entitled assholes in this thread who, absent any logical reason, choose to stand in the middle of the fucking escalator, and then have the hide to call someone else rude for deigning to ask if he can get by.

It’s simple sidewalk etiquette, you mouthbreathing pustules.

The people defending this sort of selfishness are probably also the type of assholes who, along with their friends, walk four abreast on a busy sidewalk and expect the crowds to magically part for them. Earth to fuckwads: you’re not the only people in the world, and if you lack the consideration necessary to stand to the side of the escalator rather than in the middle, then you deserve all the fucking shoving you get.

And i love the excuses given by these morons. “It only takes another ten seconds to get to the end. Why not just wait?” Message to cranio-rectally inverted: my reasons for not standing on the escalator like a store dummy are none of your fucking business, and even if they were you’d probably be too stupid to understand them anyway.

Now move over, because i’m coming through.

[GorillaMan]

@Oakminster

What’s wrong with a general policy of not intruding into someone’s space just to get to the bottom of an escalator a few seconds sooner?

How does asking politely to be allowed to pass equate to “intruding into someone’s space”?

[galt]

@Oakminster

What’s wrong with a general policy of not intruding into someone’s space just to get to the bottom of an escalator a few seconds sooner?

Who’s intruding? They’re simply asking to get by. Politely.

[Oakminster]

Asking someone to act to accomodate your wishes is an intrusion. In some situations, the intrusion is warranted, other times it isn’t. Most people are content to merely ride the escalator as Karana intended. Those that aren’t are probably yankees. Bless their hearts.

[Fiveyearlurker]

@wring

and I think D_Odds may have it. I’m suburban.

Hmm. Maybe there is some truth to that. I’m urban all my life. People aren’t considered to be invading your space unless there is the possibility of insemination.

[Fiveyearlurker]

@Oakminster

Asking someone to act to accomodate your wishes is an intrusion. In some situations, the intrusion is warranted, other times it isn’t. Most people are content to merely ride the escalator as Karana intended. Those that aren’t are probably yankees. Bless their hearts.

Ooh. On my way home from work, I’m gonna drive down the two lane road at exactly the speed limit and split the two lanes going in my direction, thereby blocking both of them.

I mean, Karana intended the speed limit to be 30, so what’s the biggie? I’m sure that I’ll get a heartfelt “Yo go boy!” from my fellow motorists. In fact, they’re likely the same fellow motorists who are standing in the middle of the escalator.