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Don't Walk on Escalators. It's Faster if Everyone Stands.
Don't Walk on Escalators. It's Faster if Everyone Stands.
People who walk on escalators might say that they do it because they're "in a hurry," but we indolent standers know that they only do it to make us feel bad. In an unexpected-and counterintuitive-twist of fate, though, it turns out that the walkers are actually the true societal drain.
Research from the University of Greenwich in 2011 indicated that on average about 75 percent of people will stand on escalators while the other 25 percent walk. Right away you can see how reserving half of an escalator's real estate for only one-quarter of the people who use it might not make sense. And people tend to create more following distance on the walking side of the escalator versus the standing side. Transport for London's simulations preliminarily showed that using a whole Holborn Station escalator for standing would allow 31.25 more people per minute to board the escalator (112.5 people on the escalator per minute versus 81.25 people per minute with a walking lane).
In fact the three-week experiment in 2015 had even better results than the Transport for London researchers predicted based on the Greenwich research. For example, one escalator that normally transported 12,745 people between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. on a typical week was able to move 16,220 because of standing rules. But the Guardian reports that commuters pushed back, calling the trial “stupid” or yelling, “This isn’t Russia!”




As a 25%er I'll just say "get out the way I'm coming through!!"
When I see someone walking up on escalator, I usually wonder why they're so impatient. It moves for you so you don't have to.
But then, I'm one of those weird people who avoid escalators altogether if I can. I don't like getting on and off them. I always misjudge my feet and lose my balance.
You can't avoid the escalators in the London underground though, but I agree that getting on and off escalators is scary, especially going down. I sometimes take a while trying to step on them. Though also I don't like being forced to stand still on them if I'm trying to get somewhere, I'm just impatient I guess.
You know, I thought I had gotten pretty good at just sort of rolling off of escalators and smoothly stepping away, but then I was in a place where I had to go down 5-7 LONG escalators with my hands VERY full. I think I almost died at least 4 times.
Ah that does sound terrifying!
From another perspective (and as one of the people who walk them), I often find standing on (crowded) escalators claustrophobic. I'm hemmed in on either side by railings and, if no one's moving, I'm blocked front and back by people. Of all the things that throw me into a panic, it's feeling like I can't move. So I guess I am impatient, but mostly to get off the escalator! ☺
The toughest are those really long escalators that are loaded with bodies. Especially when there's someone in that queue who is slow and doesn't step off the escalator fast enough -- or step away from the escalator fast enough. (God help the ones who get to the end of the escalator and just STAND THERE.) All those bodies are on a conveyor belt and they're forced to keep moving forward -- whether walking or not -- so if you've got something/someone blocking the exitway, you've got a bad pileup waiting to happen.
I guess I've never been on a really crowded escalator. I think that would really freak me out. I don't like crowds and I don't like escalators. Luckily, I live in Canada, where crowds are rather rare.
Yeah, it's pretty standard in the NYC-area that all escalators are packed. And @Zork is totally right. There are people who get off and just STAND THERE. And like, despite our reputation we don't like yelling at people. But those ones are asking for it. There's a constant flood of people behind you who can't stop no matter what.
They do this at the top of the Grove St PATH exit a lot.
I understand the sudden existence of light is confusing, but take a few steps and move to the side.
I do enjoy this scientific justification for my standing on a elevator refusing to be rushed by people who want to walk. :P Use the stairs, if that's what you want. :P
It really is terrible. The worst is when there isn't a lot of immediate real estate for the overflow of people at the exit of the escalator.
You know it's trouble when you've got one of those people that take 5 minutes to step onto the escalator at the start. I try to leave an extra step or two between myself and that person if I can, to buffer the pile-up to come. And the nuclear option is pushing them forward/aside when they get to the end and decide to practice tai chi.
That's the thing people don't get. If you stop dead in the middle of a sidewalk, people can walk around you. You can stop your car in the middle of a highway and cars can drive around. People have NO CHOICE when they're on an escalator. Whether they're walking or standing still, they are being moved forward steadily. There is nowhere to go but forward, especially when you've got a crowd of bodies right behind you.
I'm not even sure it that they don't get it so much as they're so completely self-absorbed it's never on their radar to begin with. Until someone shoves them out of the way.
But it's a lot less tiring to walk up an escalator than a staircase 😛
Making excuses for punishing us with your inefficiency!
😁
Yeah but most escalators are not so crowded, so walking up is usually faster. This only applies to metros/subways in major cities where the density of people is such that everyone standing still on the escalator would be faster.
It would be even faster if everyone walked.