FYI PEOPLE!!! When choosing to stand on an escalator one should always stay in the ‘slow’ lane (to the right) and leave the left side of the escalator unimpeded so that those of us who do not forget how to walk when traveling escalators are able to do so without the self-importance and ignorance of others preventing getting in our way…WTF!!!
—Moi
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2009.
These are the same lazy asses that are one beat away from a heart attack. Unless, of course, they are impaired in some way.
You designate lanes?! LOL!! What a dork!
The OP obviously has never been to Barrington Place and their Kate Moss escalators. Besides, some of us older people can’t climb the fucking stairs because they’ve got bad knees due to 30 years of jogging on concrete. If you try to pass me on a narrow escalator, baby, expect to be mule kicked. Otherwise I will stand to the right just on instinct, not because you told me to.
I know in that in Toronto people abide by the rule of the walking lane and the slow lane. But they also have signs indicating that.
Designated escalator lanes make too much sense. It will never work in Halifax.
“self-importance and ignorance of others preventing getting in our way…WTF” I’ll tell you WTF, YOUR self-important ass can USE THE STAIRS if you’re unable to politely work your way past people using the CONVENIENCE of the escalator. God gave you a mouth. USE IT… politely.
If only you could use your fingers politely, kay.
Shit I thought the “slow lane” was the left side. Jesus christ.
Sometimes, when I’m at the mall, for instance, and I’ve been shopping alllllllllll day and I have a million bags I don’t give two shits about others on the escalator. It takes what? less than 30 seconds to go from top to bottom? You can bloody well wait because I ain’t moving.
Sorry for being all bitchy, but I broke my ass at the gym today and I’m a bit emotional atm. 🙁
This drives me nuts too. If your tired and can’t walk cool! Just don’t stand smack dab in the middle on an escalator that is perfectly able to provide two lanes of people. Left, Right..I don’t give a fuck which, just move over.
Why is everyone in such a goddamn hurry???
Stop and smell the plastic roses, fer Christ’s sake.
Is there anything more redundant than walking up an escalator? Seriously, if you walk up it you’ll be all of five seconds ahead of where you would have been had you stayed put. Chill out.
“There’s never an ‘Escalator Out of Order’ sign. Just ‘Escalator Temporarily Stairs’… Sorry for the convenience.”
Looks like I was one of those people that didn’t know that there was actually a “fast” lane and a “slow” lane. Sounds stupid actually.
“Stand Right, Walk left” makes sense in places where people can be legitimately in a hurry, like airports, train stations and the subway. The custom and expections for people used to those places just carries over to malls and leads to bitches like this one.
Yup, there is a fast lane and a slow lane when it comes to escalators. Stay on the right no matter how ” Kate ” it is and let the faster ones scamper up the left side of said escalator. It works in MTL. even though they have the wide ones. I’ve travelled on the ones @ Barrington Place, yes they are slim but still passable.
Actually Burning Man, the ones at Barrington Place are not passable. I know cos I travel on them every day. If someone tried to pass me on one of them, they better be in an emergency hurry or else they’re not getting by. Anyway, that wouldn’t happen since I normally walk up escalators.
What’s so special at the top of the escalator that you need to rush up there?
When I was in England, I could understand having the fast and slow lanes in places like the underground and for the trains and such, because some people really are in a hurry to get somewhere and the escalators are a lot taller. But how much of a hurry can you possibly be in when you’re at the mall? I don’t think people often realise just how long it takes to get places, and how little time they save by rushing there.
Everybody’s in a fucking hurry to go nowhere. Hmmm…might make a good tune.
Broc, I work there, I have travelled those fucking rolling steps a million times, and I HAVE PASSED PEOPLE on them. It’s a bit delicate, but do able.
I have never heard or seen of this etiquette… I always thought of it as being in a rush or just rude.
I figure that if people are in such a hurry, they would get on the escalator before me. *shrug* Personally I cannot stand it when people start clomping up the steps and try barrelling past me. Mind you, I have a VERY wide frame and its hard to get by me, however, I make no qualms if someone politely asks, “Excuse me, may I just get by?”
My favourite incident was at Barrington Place when some fucking asshole just tried to rush past me from behind without a peep. So when he was trying to walk over my left leg/side I made a point to check him into the side of the rail and then shoved him as he went by. Kinda hoped he’d try and say something to me but he kept going. Smart on his part.
I thought the entire point of an escalator was to not walk up stairs. Do you climb up elevator shafts as well?
The point of an escalator is to increase your ambulatory efficiency, not just to stand on. Only lazy fucks stand on the thing. It’s stairs that move, not a system meant for carrying your fat lazy ass to the top. You people who stand on the escalators are the same people who will stand smack in the middle of an aisle and completely block it off. It’s the same thing. Just because the escalators moves, it doesn’t mean that you should throw away the common courtesies of allowing room for someone else to pass if they aren’t as lazy as you are. You would all be bitching if someone was standing in the middle of a hallway and wouldn’t let you pass.
Its an escalator, NW, not a treadmill.
Nice paint-brush type analogy of people who stand on the escalator. Do you work for the people who make escalators or were you the one who created them?
I wouldn’t bitch about standing in the middle of a hallway blocking my way. Someone like me will ask them to move or I’ll just walk through.
NW, is it really worth getting bent out of shape over escalators ?
I’m with TTFN (hi TTFN!).
You’ll get to the top what, 4 seconds faster? Chill out.
Besides, I get vertigo on escalators. If I try to walk I feel like I’m going to fall.
Qwerty’s back!
I thought this was just (not-so-) common sense. Stand to the right, just as you would drive in the right lane to let others pass.
It’s not always about being in a hurry, just about wanting to keep moving the ole legs…
In any case, I personally think escalators are another sign of the coming apocoalypse, or at least the obesalypse.
And the big deal about standing on the right side is….what? Jesus people….just creating trouble for the hell of it I guess.
Jesus Qwerty…where you been at? And Jammie too! Were you guys making out?
As for escalators, they are not meant to be walked on. The rise on the stairs is higher than a normal stair and if you pay attention to the ones with signs, they pretty much say stand in the middle and hang on to the handrail.
http://www.otisworldwide.com/d72-safetyesc…
http://www.safetyinfo.ca/pdf/ttc_escalator…
Either way, for those who are able to walk/run up moving escalators, I don’t think it’s that hard for the standers to just stand aside to accommodate them. It’s also not unreasonable for the walkers to just chill out for a minute if the only way up a busy escalator is to push and shove. It just goes back to common courtesy.
So unless someone is standing in the middle of the aisle, and walking backwards down the up escalator, or vis versa, forcing you to go nowhere, it’s really nothing to bitch about.
I agree an Escalator is stairs which means you walk on them
Rather you *disagree*.
true
An escalator is a conveyor belt with platforms for you to stand on. Walk up ’em if you want (I do too) but just understand that those standing are the one’s doing what they are supposed to.
Instead of whining about people who use the escalator correctly (hold onto hand rail & stand on step) Just run up the regular set of stairs that they have anyway.
So chill out …try smelling for plastic compounds in your coffee or bottled water & enjoy the ride !
Hi Miles.
Strangely, I was in fact making out with jammie. For eight months straight. It was intense.
Don’t tell floyd. Or jammie, for that matter, as it happened almost entirely in my own imagination.
Internet sock puppets… the stuff of romance novels.
My lips are still sore. How’s Jam Jr. doing Qwerty?
And yeah, where is Floyd??
Holy fuck Burning Man, I suppose if you’re completely ignorant and that entitled, you could try and squeeze by someone, but it’s not like they’re as wide as the ones at Mic Mac Mall. To get by someone on the BP escalators you would really have to rub up against someone. It’s never happened to me but if it did I would have to do what NGF did and hip check ya.
Qwerty? For really real? Man, I’ve been lurking since the Big Change, but couldn’t be bothered to sign up all over again. I was tempted when Miles and Jammie turned up, but who can resist Qwerty? Now where’s Floyd?
Miranda’s back too?! Let’s party, fuckers!
Miranda too?!? This is just too much for one weekend!
Jam Jr? It’s only been 8 months….but I guess it makes sense that Jr. might be a little “premature” given his Daddy’s propensity for such 🙂
Who would have thought that escalators would bring the lurkers out of the woodwork…
I think we can all agree that escalators are something worth getting passionate about.
Just so we’re clear, I am not the bastard child of Jammie and Qwerty, and Dino is not an alias for Jam, though my ‘Junior’ suffix suggests otherwise.
Ouch, Miles, ouch.
Wow, Miranda too. This could feel like old times. We just need Floyd, “The Captain” (He Who Shall Not Be Named), and that wacky chick with multiple personalities whose name(s) I can’t recall. Also that bus-stroller-hatin’ chick whose name also eludes me. But it would be like 2008 and wow wouldn’t that be cool?
I just posted a comment. It was full of win, complete with a mind-blowingly relevant South Park reference, but it didn’t take. The more things change…
Now could we please get a “Get the fuck back on topic?!?!?” for old times’ sakes?
Get the fuck back on topic!
As a side note, (*giggle*), when did “self-important” become the new catch-all-insult-du-jour?
Stand still on an escalator? Self-important!
Walk around carrying fancy coffee with an Italian-sounding name? Self-important!
Wear giant sunglasses with Lulu Lemon pants and too much makeup? Self-important!
Drive too slow? Self-important! Drive too fast? Self-important!
Have the nerve to get cancer and get pissed off about the radiation therapy wait lists? Self-important!
Smoke? Self-important! Hate smokers? Self-important!
Hate the bus? Self-important!
Love concerts on the Common? Self-important!
Put a cheesy family photo in the Christmas card? Self-important!
Drive a bicycle? Self-important! Drive a Hummer? Self-important!
Let your dog pee on my tree? Self-important!
Own a Blackberry? Self-important!
Have a bigger stroller than your neighbour? Self-important!
Oh, just shut up.
Yeah. While you were gone Jams, we evolved into a digressive little bunch. But on the serious side, I have to agree with you. Society is me-me-me, very impatient and self *absorbed* if you will. We try to act giving but in the back of our minds lies the always present little troll saying ”what’s in it for me? how does this benefit me?”…Call it instincitve. Whatever.
First and foremost: The whole ‘people who walk on escalators are pushy, rude and deficient in some way because they walk on escalators’ thing and the whole ‘people who stand on escalators are lazy, fat and deficient in some way because they stand on escalators’ thing are both ridiculous past the telling of it.
The thing of the thing, even in a podunk li’l collection of wattle huts like Halifax where nobody could ever be in a hurry to get anywhere, is that stand left/walk right means that people who want to walk get to walk unimpeded, and people who want to stand get to stand unmolested. Thus, everyone gets more or less what they want.
Second and secondmost: The whole ‘nobody could possibly be in a hurry on the east coast’ thing, is both irrelevant and wrong.
Irrelevant because wanting to move at one’s own pace is a reasonable expectation. If you[re walking up Spring Garden and a gaggle of teenagers/seniors are slouching/shuffling their way up to Shoppers/Starbucks, they are expected to leave or make room for folks moving at speed. Not to say they do, but they should. Even if they part like the Red Sea on request, the request shouldn’t have to be made. Reasonable people who are moving slowly make room for people who aren’t. Why this should hold true everywhere except the moving staircase is beyond me.
Wrong for all the obvious reasons. People work in malls, they forget their wallets, purses, purchases and children in malls, and whatever else. And the Barrington slimmy that nobody could possibly need to rush up? The one that leads to the bus stop?
Third and thirdmostly: The Barrington escalators are, by any reasonable definition, one laners. ‘Delicate but doable’ means ‘invasive and uncomfortable’ enough that you’d best have a good reason. Or at least a good lawyer for when one of these message board maniacs ‘hip checks’ or ‘mule kicks’ you down a flight of moving stairs for having the temerity to enter their space.
Which leads to fourthmostly: squeezing past someone in a narrow space makes you rude. An asshole, even. Threatening (or allegedly engaging in) violence in resonse makes you a ridiculous asshole. If you were a third as badass as you want to seem to be, nobody would be squeezing past you on escalators to begin with.
Nextmostly, walking up an escalator is a low risk activity for most people. ‘Stand in the middle and hold the rail’ is not the same as ‘keep your head and arms inside the bus’ or ‘never shake a baby, never’. It’s legal butt covering so that if you’re in that small percentile who can’t walk up them (which, again, is fine) and on top of that are dumb enough to try (not so fine), they’re not liable. The escalator is not going to eat you if you pick a side.
You know what? Since I flew off that fucking treadmill last week and broke my ass, I can’t do stairs up and down and honestly, I’m in so much fucking pain these days that I don’t give two shits who I’m blocking on the escalator. Y’all can bite me.
Seriously though — it takes what? another FIVE WHOLE SECONDS to stand stationary on the escalator? I mean I could see complaining if the person blocking the way in front of you was blowing huge farts in your face but….IT’S FIVE SECONDS OMG.
But it only take 2 seconds to get thoroughly pissed at someone, which leaves 3 seconds to stew in your madness before you reach the otherside. Fifthmostly.
FIVE SECONDS PEOPLE!! END OF STORY.
Where do these guidlines of social etiquette come from? It seems as if people just pull them out of the air or their ass or have to dig in their purse to find them.
Next some asshole is going to create a post about “Watching TV in your own home etiquette”.
Heh. If it takes you two whole seconds to get pissed at someone, you’re on the wrong board.
The story is this: There are people who like to walk up the escalator, and people who don’t. Angling that last step onto the escalator to one side means everyone except those damned, ignorant escalator unicyclists get to do what they want.
The reasons why some people like to stand or walk aren’t even important, nor is the FIVE SECONDS one loses by standing versus the 6 to eight inches of lateral movement that lets everyone have their cake and carry it up to the second floor too, and the only thing they lose is a reason to yell that the other guy’s cake sucks.
I’m a pedway escalator user and there are times when I just don’t want to hurry back to my office. Those escalator breaks are good times to chat and delay the inevitable. If they were wide enough for two I would certainly stand to one side in my moments of laziness. However they are NOT made for two, anyone who thinks they are (I’m looking at you Burning Man) would immediately get a moniker from my posse. We’re not original – it would be something like ‘Rude Escalator Guy’, which we would then shorten to Reg. When I am walking and I get stuck behind someone, I once again think – wicked, now I can laze and it’s not my fault. Try it, it works.
Ha, SBW, I think the same thing at work when the elevators are taking forever. And at least once a week I’m so bored that I hope one of them will break while I’m in it.
I usually walk up escalators simply to get some much needed exercise, not because I’m in a hurry. On the other hand, I totally agree with the later posts here and never pass people on the BPS escalators. I think Burning Man has a sick need to molest people on the escalators. Seek help, it’s out there Burning Man.
Sounds like you need a little invention called THE STAIRS. People walk all over those, you should give it a try.
If God wanted you to walk up the stairs, He would not have invented escalators and elevators.
Why is it so difficult for ‘standers’ to stand to the right so that ‘walkers’ can walk up double-width escalators?
Why do so many of you posters feel the need to react with violence because someone wants to pass to the left on double-width escalators? What is wrong with you people?
When there is room for both walking and standing why not stand single file to the right out of courtesy for others? This courtesy occurs in other Canadian cities, why not here??? It really is not that difficult!!!