I lived in DTLA for several years and regularly used Little Tokyo/Arts District station. It was not uncommon during peak hours to see people - myself included sliding down the railing.
I am 43 years old now and was much younger then (27-35) but I remember these days fondly. Now I live in NYC where public transit it so much better that this and many other issues that plague LA (especially the redline) do not exist but I do miss those days and look back on them fondly.
I still have at least 1 scar I can attribute to trying this whilst wearing the wrong pants (in terms of fabric).
> I lived in DTLA for several years and regularly used Little Tokyo/Arts District station. It was not uncommon during peak hours to see people - myself included sliding down the railing.
The Little Tokyo stop had no stairs or escalators before 2023, since it was at grade then. Do you mean a different stop?
Also, the busiest stations with huge escalator length, like Union Station or Wilshire/Vermont, have so much open space that escalators are rarely a bottleneck in my experience. 7th St/Metro station is crazy crowded, but the escalators are short and people usually give you room to run down the escalator.
The only station I worry about for future congestion is the Grand Ave station, which has no escalators, but is so deep that you have to take an elevator since walking stairs is not reasonable except for emergencies.
Yep, you are correct. I am just now realizing that maybe this is why there was such a culture around it. Lil Tokyo was closest to this spot and we regularly would grab things from Sakura Market for each other, talk random shit etc... one day this guy was scared/sad about a girl he really liked and we convinced him to approach her and so we played Lupe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhuYwE-gAn0) on the whole ride - much to the annoyance of the other passengers.
There was also a respect that I cant forget; almost like it was a rhythm. Never a rush to beat someone else to the train. I remember that for a time due to our schedules we would meet at the top, smoke a J and chat for as long as we could then slide down and catch the redline (now called the B Line*) and part ways.
Note: He got the girl. we all lost contact - hope he/they are dong well.
\Note: I wonder if the redline was renamed because of the level of violence or if it was because of the purple line expansion.
There aren’t many primary and secondary colors. If you plan to have a more comprehensive system you’ll run out pretty quick. Chicago comes to mind. The newest one is pink and I’m not sure what they’d do if they built a new one.
Some stations in Prague were at 200 cm/s, according to some sources [0] before EU regulations cut it to a maximum of 90 cm/s (TFA puts Prague at 65 cm/s today, and you know, I'm not on a Prague escalator right now, so I suppose I'll trust them).
I can't find a better source for just how fast the Prague escalators were, but as an occasional user they seemed more than twice as fast as London or Paris which TFA gives as 65-75 cm/s.
They felt dangerous to step onto, but I never saw anyone actually have an accident. The metro in Prague is also deeper than most.
I once worked in a Japanese tower for a few weeks. The office was on the 6th floor. I'd play beat-the-elevator with my coworkers. They'd get in the machine, as I casually leaned against the wall.
As soon as the doors closed, I'd sprint up the stairs, with the intent of lounging against the wall, pretending I am not breathing hard, and pretending to look at my watch.
Unfortunately, I rarely made it past the 5th floor sprinting. But there was still enough time to walk up the last flight and implement my evil plan.
My coworkers just looked at me with their "gaijin" expression.
It's interesting that escalators generally run slower in the US since their inventor was American: Jesse W. Reno.
It does seem like a bit of a trend in engineering that the first to get there set slower standards that others then copy, speed up and otherwise improve upon. See Britain and trains.
On that note, the very same Jesse W. Reno tried to build a spiral escalator in London in 1906 in Holloway Road tube station, the shaft for which still exists today. It never made it into production aparrently, but goes with the trend.
There are quite a few confounding factors at play in Britain with regards trains. The UK is quite small and infrastructure like railways takes up space and competes with roads and so on. There is the need for bridges and tunnels to accommodate crossings with other methods of transport or itself or to traverse topography.
A first stab at really high speed rail here called APT Advanced Passenger Train involved engines and carriages that tilted. It seems that the journalists on the demo run were so pissed (drunk) that it was given horrific reviews and the idea was shelved. That might have been our really fast railway links.
We did get HST 125 (High Speed Train) which in the early '80s did look pretty fancy compared to the older blunt nosed locomotives that they replaced.
In the south terminal at Seatac airport, there's a long escalator from the subway. Everybody crams onto the escalator, I just go up the adjoining steps two at a time and get there long before everyone else.
I just don't understand people who are content with just standing there on the escalator. And I mean able-bodied people, about to sit for hours on an airplane.
Of all the places to judge people for taking an escalator, you pick an airport? Where you have people with heavy luggage, people traveling in groups of mixed mobility, people who spent the entirety of the preceding days walking around looking at sights, people who didn't sleep well on an unfamiliar hotel bed?
Or given a non-airport station, I've found myself standing on the escalator during my morning commute ever since I ramped up my exercise routine. So when you see me, I'm standing because I hit a PR on my squats earlier that morning, or because I finished a 14k run less than an hour ago.
I remember taking the escalators in Moscow in the 80s and thinking they were freakishly fast. According to this article they are not that fast. I wonder if they lowered the speed or it was just my lack of familiarity with long escalators.
You are not wrong. I have tried some of the faster ones in Prague and Kiev.
The difference in numbers does not sound like much but it sure does in real life.
The speed combined with the wind can be quite wild.
Yes, they are used as air raid shelters, but they were designed like that in the first place. Some of them lie really deep - especially the ones in the city center.
Kyiv metro is one of the deepest in the world. We have one station that is 105 meters deep. So even with fast escalators, it feels like an eternity to go up and down there.
I was wondering if there’s something different about the escalator manufacturer or design. Like longer landing areas or boarding area with extended hand rails. If you had any familiarity with them.
Op is probably referring to the history of conflict between Ukraine and Russia specifically, for example when Ukraine lost its war of independence against the Red Army. Stalin purged Ukraine quite thoroughly then by starvation.
Can confirm the Kyiv metro escalators are both significantly faster and generally longer than London - the combination can be a little scary the first few times.
The speed is fine, need to be safe for old folks and kids. The important part is that people move over so those in a hurry/need exercise can continue walking.
> [increasing speeds would save] about 670,000 hours a year.
Are they the bottleneck? How many fewer/additional injuries would result from increasing escalator speeds? (Do people get good thinking done during their climbs and descents?)
Anyway, using the escalator would mean not jogging up/down the stairs as is my instinct.
According to the video from clan, speeding up escalators above about .75m/s results people leaving gaps between each other, so the speed increase is negated by a volume decrease.
> or even save transmission of a couple communicable diseases
There is probably an upper bound to the ‘saves infection’ effect of the increases speed and resulting greater commuter spacing. As the speed goes up people will want to hold the hand rail, and collect each other’s diseases.
The longest escalators in the Eastern hemisphere, at Wheaton Metro, which I've ridden many times, are apparently the same speed according to Wikipedia. So my gut feeling of maybe they did that because maybe they're short doesn't hold
I'm a little surprised there's no data here from the Montréal or Toronto metro systems! I think Canada has the same escalator speed limit as the US, so I expect them to be similar.
I am 43 years old now and was much younger then (27-35) but I remember these days fondly. Now I live in NYC where public transit it so much better that this and many other issues that plague LA (especially the redline) do not exist but I do miss those days and look back on them fondly.
I still have at least 1 scar I can attribute to trying this whilst wearing the wrong pants (in terms of fabric).
The Little Tokyo stop had no stairs or escalators before 2023, since it was at grade then. Do you mean a different stop?
Also, the busiest stations with huge escalator length, like Union Station or Wilshire/Vermont, have so much open space that escalators are rarely a bottleneck in my experience. 7th St/Metro station is crazy crowded, but the escalators are short and people usually give you room to run down the escalator.
The only station I worry about for future congestion is the Grand Ave station, which has no escalators, but is so deep that you have to take an elevator since walking stairs is not reasonable except for emergencies.
Thank you, I got to do down memory lane checking this.
There was also a respect that I cant forget; almost like it was a rhythm. Never a rush to beat someone else to the train. I remember that for a time due to our schedules we would meet at the top, smoke a J and chat for as long as we could then slide down and catch the redline (now called the B Line*) and part ways.
Note: He got the girl. we all lost contact - hope he/they are dong well.
\Note: I wonder if the redline was renamed because of the level of violence or if it was because of the purple line expansion.
<https://www.mta.info/project/station-accessibility-upgrades>
(Of the old US subway systems, MTA seems to be the most lackadaisical in actually making their system accessible.)
"Your grandkids might some day dream of having accessible subway stations" is such a civilizational failure that we've just silently accepted.
Thanks for the heads up.
How uncivilized. Never saw anything like this in DC.
I can't find a better source for just how fast the Prague escalators were, but as an occasional user they seemed more than twice as fast as London or Paris which TFA gives as 65-75 cm/s.
They felt dangerous to step onto, but I never saw anyone actually have an accident. The metro in Prague is also deeper than most.
[0] https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/prague-s-speedy-len...
As soon as the doors closed, I'd sprint up the stairs, with the intent of lounging against the wall, pretending I am not breathing hard, and pretending to look at my watch.
Unfortunately, I rarely made it past the 5th floor sprinting. But there was still enough time to walk up the last flight and implement my evil plan.
My coworkers just looked at me with their "gaijin" expression.
It does seem like a bit of a trend in engineering that the first to get there set slower standards that others then copy, speed up and otherwise improve upon. See Britain and trains.
On that note, the very same Jesse W. Reno tried to build a spiral escalator in London in 1906 in Holloway Road tube station, the shaft for which still exists today. It never made it into production aparrently, but goes with the trend.
There are quite a few confounding factors at play in Britain with regards trains. The UK is quite small and infrastructure like railways takes up space and competes with roads and so on. There is the need for bridges and tunnels to accommodate crossings with other methods of transport or itself or to traverse topography.
A first stab at really high speed rail here called APT Advanced Passenger Train involved engines and carriages that tilted. It seems that the journalists on the demo run were so pissed (drunk) that it was given horrific reviews and the idea was shelved. That might have been our really fast railway links.
We did get HST 125 (High Speed Train) which in the early '80s did look pretty fancy compared to the older blunt nosed locomotives that they replaced.
Is that what you meant?
I just don't understand people who are content with just standing there on the escalator. And I mean able-bodied people, about to sit for hours on an airplane.
Or given a non-airport station, I've found myself standing on the escalator during my morning commute ever since I ramped up my exercise routine. So when you see me, I'm standing because I hit a PR on my squats earlier that morning, or because I finished a 14k run less than an hour ago.
The speed combined with the wind can be quite wild.
You might also enjoy this comparison with London:
https://youtu.be/UWJot1Q2LgY
The video also explains that escalator speed is now set via international standards.
Thank you.
Hong Kong: 0.75 meters/s (1.7 mph)
Kyiv: 0.9 meters/s (2 mph)
Kinda slower than I expected in general. I assume the speed is mostly dictated by boarding/alighting safety.
[1] https://visitkyiv.com/visitor-essentials/kyiv-shelter-map/
Kyiv metro is one of the deepest in the world. We have one station that is 105 meters deep. So even with fast escalators, it feels like an eternity to go up and down there.
When building them, they probably didn’t expect to be hiding from Russian attacks.
The USSR didn’t bomb it’s citizens all that often did it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czecho...
Where are the fastest escalators in the world? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWJot1Q2LgY
Are they the bottleneck? How many fewer/additional injuries would result from increasing escalator speeds? (Do people get good thinking done during their climbs and descents?)
Anyway, using the escalator would mean not jogging up/down the stairs as is my instinct.
There is probably an upper bound to the ‘saves infection’ effect of the increases speed and resulting greater commuter spacing. As the speed goes up people will want to hold the hand rail, and collect each other’s diseases.