Most of my life is lived lift/elevator free but is it possible to sneak in a similar gripe?
Am I too late? Opps I pushed the button already.
Escalators! GRRRRR !!!
Escalators are STAIRS designed to move everyone smoothly. YES they move BUT they do not mean the moment your feet touch them YOU SHOULD STOP FUCKING MOVING!
I can deal with people pushing buttons for wrong floors on lifts but people who refuse to walk on escalators…welll…umm…well, lets just say everytime I am behind you and you are standing there like a statue, in my mind you DIE.
Just walk you lazy arsehole, the stairs are moving, how far can you have to move?
Believe it or not, there are people with bad knees who are taking the escalators instead of the stairs because walking up or down stairs hurts. Yes, I may not have been visibly limping on the way to the escalator but that doesn’t mean I’m not walking up or down the escalator because I’m lazy. And BTW, in my case at least walking down stairs actually hurts more than walking up them.
And before anyone says it, I always stand on the right side of an escalator so that, if the escalator is wide enough, people can get pass me on the left.
If you did this for real there is a possibility that when you leave the lift, sorry, elevator the other occupants would be facing away from the door with their backs to you: Elevator Psychology
Actually, yes, once a person gets on an escalator he should STOP MOVING. For one thing, it’s quite possible that the person has bad knees, or bad hips, or something else that hurts to move.
But mostly people shouldn’t walk on escalators because it’s dangerous. You could trip and fall, and that’s no joke on a moving stairway. People can and do get mutilated when parts of their body get caught in an escalator. If you brush up against someone, especially someone who has balance issues, then you could cause them to fall. I’ve been bumped unexpectedly on solid ground by someone who is in a rush to get somewhere and doesn’t look where he’s going, and because I have balance issues, I’ve fallen. It was completely accidental, but I still had a hard time getting up. And these accidents all happened on level ground. If I’d been on an escalator in front of someone who was trying to get past me…it probably wouldn’t have been pretty.
Unlike the US (where it seems 108% of the population has some kind of disability that prevents them from doing any of the things that normal human beings in the rest of the world manage to do without a second thought), in NZ, Australia, and the UK (well, OK, London Tube stations), it is widely accepted that you do not stop moving on an escalator, or, if you must (heavy groceries, on the phone, whatever) you stand to one side to let the people who are still moving get past.
Elevators are really the best time for little one-liners to your mate. That’s when I turn to Zeldar and ask “So how did you come out on that morals charge?”
It’s not just the 2nd floor. There’s actually a sliding scale depending on the physical fitness of the rider and the degree to which the elevator is crowded. At either extreme – either an elevator with no one else in it or a passenger who is elderly, obese, injured, or otherwise infirm – then a ride to the 2nd floor is fine. Meanwhile, a healthy 35 year old woman is evil for riding a somewhat crowded elevator to the 2nd floor but not the 3rd. All the way on the other end of the scale, if the elevators are so backed up that everyone has to get in line and wait for either 2nd or 3rd lift, then a 21 year old male in great shape is pretty much an asshole if he doesn’t walk up to the 6th or 7th floor.
There are other potential variables, but that’s the basic framework. You can read more about it in my upcoming book, Judging Others On Minutia: A Field-Guide for the 21st Century.
This shit would drive me up a wall. In the military we had the same bullshit, but first of all the ranking officers knew enough to not sweat it when someone accidentally violated one of the niceties, and second of all everyone always wore their rank on their shoulders so you knew who was senior.
You forgot shower gel and body lotion. I also use Opium, among others, and I find body lotion is more than enough fragrance. To use all would knock out the olfactories of half the suburb.
Your location says Manhattan so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that in many buildings the stairway doors are locked. I would love to take the five flights of stairs where I work but I can’t.
So to you and the others who get angry about this, just know that I am not taking the stairs from 5th to 6th floor because I WANT TO. I’m taking the the elevator because I HAVE TO.
Are you serious? I should interrupt my call because, what, the 20th century was to much for you? You can’t handle being reminded that you’re in the 21st?
Cell phones are a fact of life, get used to them. Unless the person using it is likewise technophobic, and feels the need to yell into the phone like it’s a combat walkie talkie, let it go!
Yes. If you are capable of conducting your conversation in a low tone then fine. Talking loudly in an confined space is doucebag behavior of the first order.
Sure, like I said, there are sometimes other variables. I mostly had in mind apartment buildings, actually, where I’ve never known the stairs to be locked. In office buildings, the sliding scale only applies if the stairs are open and not *that *much harder to get to than the elevator.
Oh, come on. You’re just making stuff up. That hasn’t been my experience at all, and it took me 30 seconds to find two nice videos of London Underground escalators chock-full of people just standing still. exampleexample
Stand on the right, move on the left. This is as it should be. The only time traffic stops on the left is if a) a foreigner can’t read the “STAND ON THE RIGHT” signs that are every 5 metres, or b) if it’s so crowded that the egress points prevent people walking off quickly enough.
To which the correct reply is “Oh that thing? I blackmailed my way out of it of course!”