Escalator - Is it a ride or a tool?

[ThankQ]

So, is an escalator (or a moving sidewalk) a ride to get you somewhere w/out working for it, or is a tool to be used along with climbing/walking to help you get somewhere faster?

I say... it's not a fucking ride. Move your legs, lazy. (And don't start whining about handicapped. Of course I don't think we should dump people out of wheelchairs onto escalators and yell, "Move it, gimpo!")

 

[Lindley]

I really don't care so long as you obey the rule: stand on the right, walk on the left.

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

I have to say, if it's a moving walkway, you had better be walking on it. This is more especially true in the Atlanta Airport. Move your arse, or I'm gonna be late for my plane.

But, most of the time, on escalators, it's just however I feel that day. But, I do stay on the right if I'm not moving... common courtesy.

 

[Teelie]

I have to say it's a deathtrap. It's waiting to take your life the moment you're not paying attention.

 

[MNM]

I really don't care so long as you obey the rule: stand on the right, walk on the left.

Hell no. It's a moving platform. I stand in the middle and let it take me up. If someone behind me is too impatient to wait the 5-10 seconds that takes, and just has to show everyone how important it is that they get where they are going by walking up the escalator, usually loudly bemoaning the fact that people are in their way, well tough luck.

 

[Mary Ann]

I have to say, if it's a moving walkway, you had better be walking on it. This is more especially true in the Atlanta Airport. Move your arse, or I'm gonna be late for my plane.

But, most of the time, on escalators, it's just however I feel that day. But, I do stay on the right if I'm not moving... common courtesy.

It's the same at Toronto's airport. I've never understood why people stand on moving sidewalks in airports after spending hours crammed in the cheap seats (where I always sit) of a transatlantic flight. I'm pretty short and *I'm* cramped, stiff and crabby when I get off a flight, and am only too glad to walk beside the moving sidewalks to get my circulation going.

 

[Aragorn]

The escalator is not a ride! If I'm behind a lot of people who get on the escalator, I immediately head up the parallel set of stairs if there are any.

 

[Trekker4747]

Both. I just ask that if you're going to "ride" the escalator, or moving walkway, to stand to one side and if you've a companion who's going to ride that they stand behind you. So that those of us who want to walk, this decreasing the time it takes us to get to where we are going, can simply walk past you.

 

[DeafPoet]

I really don't care so long as you obey the rule: stand on the right, walk on the left.

This. Sometimes I'm lazy and feel like standing there (at the right) but most of the time I've got shit to do, so get out of the way.

Nothing makes me more furious than a group of people standing in the middle of an escalator without a care in the world, totally oblivious to everything around them. Ask Ashu. Just makes me murderous with rage.

 

[Michael Chris]

I think it is rather rude to walk on an escalator, so I definitely do not. A moving sidewalk -- no idea

 

[Brent]

I use to be scared of it, was afraid I'd get my foot sucked underneath

 

[Michael Chris]

I use to be scared of it, was afraid I'd get my foot sucked underneath

Things like that can happen. My brother fell on one as a child. It ripped the skin off of his palm.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I really don't care so long as you obey the rule: stand on the right, walk on the left.

Qft.

Or alternatively: walk on the right also, but don't block the fucking path.

 

[Sakrysta]

I never knew this was a courtesy thing for escalators. They're barely wide enough for two people abreast as it is, and usually only traveling one story. Who is in that much of a hurry?

For the moving sidewalks, I agree with Lindley. They are clearly marked to stand on the right so that people can pass on the left.

But there are reasons for people to stand still on these things. I do ride the escalator - the point is to avoid the stairs. I try to walk on the moving sidewalks, but they invariably make me dizzy. I usually end up walking one and riding the next to get my bearings. But then, elevators make me dizzy too. The whole sensation of moving two different speeds at once - even though I know that's not what is really happening - messes with my equilibrium.

If I'm ever in your way, though, a polite "Excuse me" will get an, "Oh, I'm sorry" and a quick adjustment of position from me.

 

[Mallory]

I really don't care so long as you obey the rule: stand on the right, walk on the left.

I agree with this. Sometimes I'm in a hurry and want to get by, other times I'm content to just be carried to the end.

 

[John Picard]

I really don't care so long as you obey the rule: stand on the right, walk on the left.

I agree with this. Sometimes I'm in a hurry and want to get by, other times I'm content to just be carried to the end.

Agreed with both of you.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Unless you got a legitimate medical reason, or the escalator is too crowded or borken, if you take an escalator and there are stairs there fairly adjacent, you're just taking a ride.

It's like people -- and I've actually witnessed this half a dozen times -- who get in their car, and drive to a house LITERALLY two or three houses down, and there's nothing wrong with them other than being extraordinarily lazy.

 

[Rarewolf]

Standing still without moving is a bit too much like queuing, so no I continuing moving under my own steam as far as the people in front of me will let me. I'm the same with lifts - I'll skedaddle down the stairs if its quicker than waiting.

 

[CaptainStoner]

I really don't care so long as you obey the rule: stand on the right, walk on the left.

Hell no. It's a moving platform. I stand in the middle and let it take me up. If someone behind me is too impatient to wait the 5-10 seconds that takes, and just has to show everyone how important it is that they get where they are going by walking up the escalator, usually loudly bemoaning the fact that people are in their way, well tough luck.

I agree. It's also a moving platform that is changing elevation, hence the name of the thing. Often full of people carrying bags and/or accompanied by kids, and/or older people... I do have a habit of walking up an escalator when there is no one ahead of me, because it's fun. I've done that since I was a kid. But if there are people ahead of me, I just stay put, or ascend until I've reached the next person.
And I have never seen a traffic lane on the left of escalators. A normal, non-moving stairwell designed for two-way traffic is at least twice as wide as an escalator. It's just not a good idea to be passing people on it.
Some of these padawans need to learn a little control.

 

[Lindley]

True, some escalators are too narrow to effectively pass. If that's the case then just hold up and deal with it. But others are wide enough.