I take the train to and from work almost every day, and I encounter escalators on a daily basis. Most are one person wide. A trend I’ve noticed every single day that strikes me as odd is, people walk up escalators.
Escalators, by definition, raise people higher. They are the equivalent of stairs. You’ve seen them – people stand on a platform and are magically… er, mechanically… escalated. It’s like stairs without the work.
And yet, people walk up them. I can understand it when folks are in a hurry, but most times I’ve witnessed this, there is no train at the station. There’s no reason to go faster. It’s simply because people, for some reason, want to get there first. It’s like passing a guy in traffic to reach the next stop light faster.
In one instance, I witnessed an elderly woman get on an escalator. She obviously couldn’t walk very far nor fast. A young businessman got on the escalator after her, and walked down so he was on the step behind her. He then looked around nervously – again, in a hurry – and turned his head around. He rolled his eyes at me as if to say, “Darn this old person! She’s not going fast! Go! Go! Goooooo!”
Two-person wide escalators are a separate instance. I feel they should be treated like the moving sidewalks at airports: stand on one side, walk on another. Of course, if someone needs to take up the whole escalator, that’s fine.
In summary, then, I’m tired of people walking on escalators when there’s no hurry. If you want to walk, take the stairs already. Leave us escalatees alone.
Posted in Everyday Life