I’m Walking Here

Imagine that you live in an urban environment. In fact, many of us do not have to imagine. Given that most of the world’s populations are concentrated in and around cities [], many of us know the reality of what it is like to be a part of an urban transportation system. It would be a big surprise to me if the reader of this paper has never been in a bus terminal, or train station, or airport that has been densely crowded with people trying reach their destination. I live in NYC, and work near Grand Central Station. Although it is not the most trafficked subway station in NYC [], it is still an urban system where you can observe a lot of different patterns in the way people move about. One of those patterns is how people take the escalators. From what I’ve gathered, being both an observer and a part of the system, is that in most cases people tend to align themselves in intelligent ways. Much like ants moving about the colony, people in most cases tend to align themselves in a way that lends itself to a relatively easy way of moving. Obviously, that is not always the case. Sometimes, there is simply too many people, and order breaks down. Sometimes, there are issues in certain parts of the station that create bottlenecks in other parts. One such disturbance that I have observed, is the way people position themselves in an escalator.

Before we get into what my thoughts are on this matter, I think it would be helpful to write about what lead me to pick this topic. During my time at City College, I have always found it a bit frustrating that there will typically be a bottle necks when traversing the North Academic Complex (NAC). In my experience a lot of them tend to happen around the escalators. This is most likely due to a number of factors. I think the two main culprits are the efficacy of the elevator systems and the way the pedestrians take the escalators. In this paper, we will focus on that latter. For those that don’t know, the NAC is comprised of many floors that are linked together by a series of escalators. These escalators are not too big and take the people from floor to floor. An important distinction we should make is big escalators versus smaller ones. I would argue that this is an example of a small escalator and furthermore, through my research, I have come to the conclusion that my thoughts on this may not necessarily apply to bigger ones.

In this essay I will be discussion what I believe the most proper and efficient way of taking the escalator in a crowded environment. I will try to convince that similarly to how we, as a society, give importance to the efficacy train, buses, planes and traffic are operate with, we should also give importance to how we as a pedestrian play our role in a larger system. We should pay attention to how our behaviors have effects on the general health of our public transportation systems. Have you ever been running behind and in your path to get from one point to another is a series of escalators? Now imagine, you are in such a hurry that it doesn’t matter if you build a sweat rushing up the stairs, you just really need to get there. As you go up the first one it’s no so bad; maybe you see someone in the way and you politely ask if you can squeeze through. Great, you’ve made it passed your first escalator with only a minor set-back. Now you need to get through the next one. What you see next might just cause you to start cursing your life under your breath—or heck, even loudly depending on how important it is. What you see is a seemingly never-ending escalator with people blocking that way all through out. You think back on that other escalator where you had to say excuse me one time and how out of place that one person way but it was okay because it was only one person, and everyone else were holding on to the right handrail while you made your way up the left side. I give the scenario to try to demonstrate that although it may seem innocent and inconsequential to ride the escalator without regard to which side the people in a hurry seem to be going up, there are still negative repercussions when the lay person behaves this way.

In my research I found a BBC article written by Journalist Tom Geohegan that gives an overview on the different ways people take the escalator and while there is not one right way to take it, different behavior is seen in different parts of the world []. Geohagan, tells us about how people feel about this by saying that is a silent war where much like people having road rage people can feel like they have been robbed of their precious time by people blocking both lanes of traffic on the escalator. He also writes that in some places in China moving up or down on an escalator is not done so much and a more static approach is taken. To contrast, in Canada they have signs designating walking and standing lanes on the escalator. I believe the author wants to inform the reader that there are many ways at viewing this topic and that may depend on where you are from. He does not seem to take a side one whether one is right over the other. Because the author is a writer for the BBC, the audience is people that read the BBC. I believe that this article was meant for people that live in cities. The more I dug into the topic the l less I had my heals dug into what I believe was correct. For example, at the time of announcing my topic in class, I was convinced that my way of looking at things where entirely correct for most if not every scenario. Granted I was peeved at the way people took the escalators at City College and though that the way people took them on the subways was the most optimal way.

I argue that how we should be going up and down the escalators at City College is rather simple, there should be a standing lane and a moving lane. In the standing lane, the person riding the escalator should be stationary and safely holding on to the rail and they move up or down. On the moving lane, people should be able to freely climb up or down the escalator. Riding the escalator this way facilitates and optimizes moments in an urban system. It is not hard to see in highly congested systems that this is the behavior that naturally take place. I argue that there should be more effort done to put signs instructing people how to take the escalator to make them safer and more efficient. Different research has different takes on how they think people should be taking escalators. Because there are a lot of different types of escalators that accommodate different urban environments, it is impossible to come up with one golden rule that would apply in every situation. I believe that when you are part of traffic you become part of a shared behavior. Despite this, I think people are generally bad at picking which behaviors is good and which is bad given the situation. It funny, the research seems to suggest that in larger escalators system it is in fact more optimal (i.e. the system allows the most people per minute to complete the stairs) but this is simply not what is observed in my experience []. In my experience in those larger systems with more people, the people tend to organize themselves into the two lanes mentions before. However, the smaller systems inside the NAC at City College tend to behave more static with stationary people occupying both lanes.

Most of the events that lead to accident happen when we are in the company of others [] and traveling as a party. It makes sense that when traveling with company one might become distracted and not focus so much on how you have positioned yourself in transit. People that are traveling with someone else are also more like to occupy both lanes of an escalator. And it really makes a lot of sense. When you are walking with someone on the street for example you tend not to walk in single file but side to side. We tend to face one another as we take part in conversations with the people we are traveling with. It then seems intuitive that when it comes to taking an escalator the pair might inadvertently remain walking side to side and hence occupy both lane while not moving forward. This kind of behavior is not inherently bad. It is by no what the purpose of my essay to try to create a tyrannical system that polices the way people move their legs, but rather to try to urge people to pay more attention to the people around them and how their actions, as innocent and inoffensive as they may be, can still lead delay people that are trying to get through. One might also. One might also say, why not just say excuse me? To which I say, people do say excuse me. And generally, people are very receptive to their need to get somewhere in a timely manner. However, shuffling about on the electric escalator is never a good idea, and is the reason children tend to get injured on escalators []. Would it not be better if there was a convention that people already adhered to, that way people generally know how they are expected to take the escalator. Yingying Xing, a researcher studying at Tongji University, investigate the cause of accidents the occur in escalators in metro stations in China from the year 2013 to 2015, says that in that time most of the accident that occurred in transportation systems was on the escalator. Xing gives us statistical evidence using a sample size of about 1,000 to show what factors made up the injuries, small to big. He comes up with variables that contribute to having an accident such as but not limited to age, sex, time of day, and whether they were performing other activities while using the escalator. He found that escalators made up around 67% of the total amount of accidents recorded in transportation system, beating out platform screen door by a staggering 56%. That begin said, even though this topic seems trivial I think that it is important to discuss given that it likely makes up most of the accidents in transportation system across the world.

            While I am satisfied with the research that conducted, I do believe that I did come to the least satisfying answer on taking the stairs, and that is that it depends. Should there be a walking lane and a stationary lane? Should only one person occupy each step? Should two people occupy one step? Should people ride in a stationary but static formation? The answer to the first question seems to be that it depends. To answer the first question, it seems to be no when it comes to highly dense system like the metro of London, or the Subway of New York City (though this is not what is observed), but yes when it comes to smaller system like the staircases at City College or maybe your local shopping center.

Work Cited

Chia, Chia-fen. “In-Depth Investigation of Escalator Riding Accidents in Heavy Capacity MRT Stations.” Accident; Analysis and Prevention, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 23 Jan. 2006, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16434013/.

“Escalator & Elevator Etiquette You Need to Know.” Mitsubishi Electric India, 1 Nov. 2021, https://in.mitsubishielectric.com/en/feature/partneringindia/insights/escalator-and-elevator-etiquette.html.

Geoghegan, Tom. “Escalator Etiquette: The DOS and Don’ts.” BBC News, BBC, 27 July 2013, https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23444086.

Reynolds, Laura. “The Results of the Holborn Standing-Only Escalator Trial Are In.” Londonist, 7 Mar. 2017, https://londonist.com/london/transport/the-results-of-the-holborn-standing-escalator-trial-are-in.

Xing, Yingying. “An Analysis of Escalator-Related Injuries in Metro Stations in China, 2013-2015.” Accident; Analysis and Prevention, U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29078983/.