Please note: When riding an escalator, there are rules to be followed. While folks from actual “big cities” understand escalators and their proper use, folks in Seattle have managed to avoid learning escalator basics. Here we go…
If you want to stand still on the escalator, stand on the right side.
If you want to walk on the escalator, please do so on the left side.
Now that the Seattle Transit Tunnel has reopened, I’m finding the exact degree of “cluelessness” that exists. On some of the longest escalators in Seattle, I’ve been hung up behind balloonheads who don’t seem to understand that yes, I’d like to get where I’m going faster than this steel horse, all by itself, will take us.
The folks who will reply with “why are you in such a hurry? blah blah blah”… Look, the rules exist to make things run smoothly. I’m asking for basic courtesy. I don’t like getting the stink-eye when I politely ask, “can you please step aside?”
Duuude this post is classic “uptight Seattleite”.
Damn straight this is not the big city. And I am glad we don’t feel the rush. But yeah I get your complaint. I feel the same frustration from time to time. Mostly when using an escalator in a Mall no matter what city I am in.
This post kind of reminds of that episode from Seinfeld where they are arguing over the proper way to parallel park (back in or head first).
Yeah, I was going to say that it’s the malls that have muddied everyone’s escalator etiquette. It’s getting bad everywhere, and not just in Seattle.
It seems that modern humans will do anything to avoid a little exercise. I am always amazed that young energetic people just stand there on the escalator instead of walking up or down.
right on. it’s the same on the people movers at the airport. you walk on the left, stand on the right, people. then there are the losers who drive the speed limit or less in the PASSING lane on the freeway.
we could probably reduce freeway congestion, I’d guess by 30%, solely by re-educating drivers on this point alone: slow pokes in the right lane, passers in the left lane.
Will,
Hey dude, this is Seattle. If you are in a hurry, take the stairs. The escalator is for people who do not like to pick their feet up and place it on the next step. That is what the stairs are for.
If people in this town can’t master elevator riding, how can you expect them to master light rail?
Abandon hope, all who ride public transit, or its elevators, of any sort.
The Piper
Um, Big Glen, have you ever been able to find stairs in department stores or the Westlake Mall?
Oops! @ 6 this is a blog about escalators and I commented on elevators and then went on to make a silly comparison to light rail. I’m so embarrassed. Now those folks who say I make comments without actually reading the posts will be proven correct. I hereby make a Thanksgiving resolution to actually read posts before commenting on them. But damn, it takes so much time, and then I have to look for the main point of the post and think about it. It is so mentally taxing. I don’t know why I read the horsesass blog everyday anyway. I’m a conservative and FOX news is more my style.
Attention horsesass security the post @8 is satire as indicated by the mis-spelling of the silly Piper Scott’s name. Please do not delete and replace with your horsesass comment policy bullshit.
Book recommendation for republicans and those who love them.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Good.....0595094724
David @7,
No, I don’t go inside the Westlake Mall. That place is for the tourists. And when it was still a Bartells it had stairs.
turn it down!
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/
Not much to talk about today, huh folks?
Happy Thanksgiving!
If you don’t want the stink eye then don’t smell up the place by insisting your time is more important than others’. Courtesy indeed.
If you are in a hurry take the stairs.
No one who stands in the middle of escalators reads blogs anyway.
For someone who theoretically espouses “big city” sentiments, you sure are a damn whiner. Did us Seattleites hurt your poor widdle feelings with our big nasty stink-eye?
Heh. Folks, Will is right. If you go to any city bigger than Seattle and don’t follow those simple escalator rules you’re liable to get a nice talking-to from one of the many who walk up the escalators. Try that stunt in New York or Chicago and see how fast expletives fly out of the mouths of people about to walk right up your back.
Stand on the right; walk on the left. Accept it. Learn it. Love it. There are many other things that will differentiate Seattle from other cities — this shouldn’t be one of them.
@5
If your in hurry, just move elsewhere. Personally, I haven’t hurried since ’93 and that time it was by mistake.
My pet peeve is being stuck behind someone driving at or below the prevailing speed of traffic in the left lane of a mostly open highway.
It’s typically illegal if you are not passing.
I sympathize with you, Will, I do; but good luck with that. I can’t even get stupid, entitled Seattleites to share the sidewalk. Just last week at the park there were 3 boneheads, walking abreast, toward me, on a 5 foot sidewalk. They saw me, but that didn’t change their configuration a bit. I just steeled my shoulder, because, no, I’m not going to move off the sidewalk and into the street just because they think they HAVE to walk side by side, all the way. One of them jumped to the side at the last minute, finally realizing that I was not going to submit to their unspoken demand to relinquish the sidewalk.
And it’s always the same type: 2 or 3 middle class whites, side-by-side-by-side, decked out in expensive exercise clothes, and usually with a humvee-sized baby stroller in tow. Sometimes I’m tempted to stop right there and ask them who the hell they think they are; but people who think they’re the center of the universe aren’t going to even understand the question. So I just make sure that when they bump my shoulder, as they are wont to do, they feel it. Assholes.
What a non topic. If you want to run from one floor to the next, USE THE STAIRS YOU NITWIT! You’re like bicycles on sidewalks and 90 mph cars that get mad at 70 mph cars in the left lane.
There are old people, very young children, and handicapped people on escalators. FCS, give ’em all a break.
What a preppy jackass you are.
Oh, and so far I haven’t seen any rules posted. You now The Decider as well?
justdrivingby: I agree with you sidewalks but common sense dictates different courtesies for different situations. Most adults can figure that out.
@20
Money killed Seattle.
hmmm this comment on escalators has provoked the natives. They have values in not being like any other big city, and they want to retain a local culture or identity of being “different,” more “kind” (protecting the disabled and the elderly) and even “slow.”
This finds confirmation in other local beliefs, such as:
(a) that rapid transit does not work, and a city can do without it;
(b) that left side entrances and exits on the autoroutes are very good, and that making the right lane the HOV lanes is fine;
(c)even a four story building is “density” and one can be antidensity, yet still be “green.”
All of these are challenged by the “foreign” experience …meaning from any other places….and “foreign” values of efficiency, logic, “rational thinking” of an “analytic” sort….
the local culture says we should only have thoughts that tell us how good we are, all else is judgmental, harsh, an unhealthy or “foreign” thought practice.
“Love it or leave it” is the expression, no?
But do not criticize or compare, no?
So, as you are blocked by people standing on the left who could just as easily stand on the right and let you pass by, keep in the mind that this practice upholds an entire cultural superstructure of localism! It is self identifying conduct, just as the big capitalists have big yachts for no logical reason, and tribesmen in the Amazon paint themselves with certain markings of display.
Do not try to use rationality on tribal customs!
All of these comments, and all i want to know is just where these rules are documented in the public code????? Aren’t these (supposed rules) just some version of Emily Post or Amy Vanderbilt; elitist tropes of hierarchical demands to obey the rich??? I am pretty sure the First Amendment still guarantees the right to say something to people ahead of you, like asking them to move out of your way.
With a polite “excuse me, please.”
Oh, I forgot, easier to expect or demand . . . nitwit!
They should teach escalator etiquette in grade school so kids grow up knowing they should get the hell out of the way when some self-important pushy type comes flying down (or up) the escalator in a big fucking hurry. Me, I just go with the flow, and if the right side of the escalator is crowded, why, I’ll just hop down (or up) the left side.
@24
Swung on and missed. Nice try though.
@24
Historically getting big projects built wasn’t an issue. “The Seattle Way” is a new, stupid and behind things like the Green Line debacle and the ongoing non-debate over the viaduct.
Yep. Pretty much the same principle about driving on roads where you keep right except when passing. People look in the 60 degree view ahead and ignore those that might be in their rearview mirror or two steps behind them on the escalator.
A good, “Ahem. On your left!” or “Please move to the right to let people pass sir.” or escalate with a flick on the left ear usually works.
@24: I actually like your analysis even though I am a semi-native. The difference is that I have traveled other places.
Bringing this analogy to the highway (and one reason our traffic is worse than it has to be) is the inability of Seattlites to merge.
Here it is a combination of get out of my way and I don’t want to be too pushy.
the lanes coming on to the freeway often back up because there is someone who desn’t understnd the concept of getting up to speed to merge – they think they need to stop every time they see a merge sign.
then there are the people on the freeway and:
1. don’t pull over to an empty middle lane due to – can’t be bothered, cellphone call, why should I move?, I don’t care to move…
2. Try to STOP to let the merger in….Noooooo, they are screwing up the traffic!
to piper: this is why mass transit and trains work better – ain’t too many idiots driving and screwing things up. It only takes a couple of these to screw up traffic.
And then my pet peeve: The ship canal bridge south daily traffic jam. Why does anyone get on on 45th and try to get over to 520? go to the montlake exit you dimwits! that is why a few pathetic “mergers” block the bridge all the time. build a concrete lane barrier to stop the 45th to 520 mergers and this will make the ship canal much better!
@17 They have their folk ways, we have ours. If they don’t like it, they shouldn’t live here. This place is already crowded enough! We don’t need New Yawkers or Chicagans here.
@24 Yeah, it’s to be noted that people drive in the left lane because (a) the downtown, express lane, and Mercer Street ramps all exit from the left lane, and (b) you can’t drive through Seattle without making at least 2 lane changes.
When have you seen an empty middle lane around here? And the merge from 45 to 520 isn’t bad at all. In fact, the right lane moves fastest. At this particular merge point, people are pretty civil and do let you in. Try 65th to Roanoke. But, you don’t do that one.
Also, hard to get up to speed and merge when tailgaters won’t let you in. Now, that’s a recipe for disaster.
Finally, I agree the left lane is for passing but passing is still supposed to be somewhere around the legal limit. Do you know what it’s to drive the legal limit or perhaps five to ten miiles over and have to be swinging into the left lane all the time? Nobody said the left lane was reserved for race cars. Okay?
Besides, there’s no such thing as a left lane in Seattle. There’s only “parking lanes” and “the travel lane.” Usually the left lane is the only lane that’s moving, if there’s such a thing as moving traffic at all.
@30 If someone flicks my ear, I’ll lick his chops — with a big fat sloppy wet rabbit kiss!!! How you like them apples, hey?
231 Another reason our traffic is worse than it has to be is because everyone slows down to a very polite 3 mph when passing the scene of an accident, so they can get a better look at the casualties.
@31
Your comment about 45th to 520 merging is so right on. I have always considered the problem but never thought about the idea of putting a concrete barrier up. That’s a great idea. Would solve so many problems with the traffic backup for miles. And very cheap to implement.
I think I will write my legislator.
So what’s with the empty escalator in the downtown tunnel? Was this a terrorism drill?
@36
If you’re standing still to the right…..letting people pass to the left……no problem whatsoever. Your mama raised you right and zero reason to flick your ear.
@32
Right on.
Many of the new people seem to be coming here to fill new jobs in fields that are absolutely stupid. I have a nephew that owns a condo that cost him the equivalent of 5 years pay who works on coding for cellphone video games. He’s gonna be screwed when his job goes away and his job it will be going away.
I’m not hugely impressed with the new economy.
@1 No, the reason you can’t go in front first when parallel parking is because you can’t get the whole car in that way.
@42 This has to do with the fact the wheels that turn are in the front of the car, not the back of the car.
Who you call balloonheads or clueless could be mentally disabled people who don’t realize they are breaking any unwritten escalator rules. They also may be people from other countries, and in their culture it’s perfectly okay to stand on the left side of the escalator.
As a true liberal, I try to have compassion for all people.
@40 Let me explain something here. I’m an old rabbit, and I have lots of joint problems. In a nutshell, I can’t stand on an escalator (or climb a stair) without holding onto to something. If I don’t hold on to the rail, there’s a considerable risk that my weak extremities will give way under me, and I will go pitching headlong down the escalator (stairs), wiping out everyone below me as I tumble earthward. So, for my safety and that of others, I’m going to hold on to the rail. If there are too many people on the right side of the escalator to reach the rail there, then I’m going to hold on to the left side. And I’m not going to let go because some young buck in a hurry wants to pass me. The needs of feeble senior citizens take precedence over those who have the youth and strength to let go of the handrail and go around the tottering old rabbit. That’s the way it is, and that’s the way it’s gonna continue to be.
And if you don’t like it, you can flick my cute pink rabbit ears and collect your big, fat, wet, sloppy, rabbit kiss!!!
Furthermore, if you want to live under New York rules, then move to New York.
I could not agree more with this piece. People in Seattle are as dumb as shit when it comes to common courtesy on the road or on the escalator.
Unfortunately we suffer here from a village idiot mentality (much like in Mississippi), combined with a passive bullshit demeanor….
I have no qualms with asking some fat ass from Renton or Everett to move the fuck over and get with the program.
To follow up on Seattle traffic… It’s fucked up here partially because drivers in Washington state are so dumb. They’re poorly trained and no one ever seems to consider who the fuck is behind you here.
In California (and most other major cities in many other states) you’re trained to be alert to who is in front, back and on both sides. Here, people stop on a dime and don’t know how the fuck to merge….
Liberal Dragon says…
“People in Seattle are dumb as shit.” “I have no qualms with asking some fat ass.. to move the fuck over..” “..drivers in Washington state are so dumb.”
You sound very angry and hate-filled. You also sound very ignorant. Saying “People in Seattle are dumb as shit,” is just as ignorant as a racist saying “Black people are dumb as shit.”
Are you sure you’re a liberal? I don’t really like being lumped in with you.
I seem to remember, if I go in the way-back machine, a post like this on the now-defunct Pike Place Politics, possibly by you, Will. I remember it only because it got so ugly. People were PISSED that you thought they should have any escalator etiquette.
I don’t know if that’s happening in this thread, because I don’t read comments on Horses Ass. But I’m with you, Will, now as I was then.
Also, what would help would be signs, like most other big cities have.
You expect the same clowns that wont’t get out of the left lanes on the freeway to do so on an escalator?
BTW: They have signs on the freeway and a LAW that says slower traffic keep right. It ain’t working there.
BS – Fuck you and your dumb ass post. WTF does racism have to do with anything here? You sound like another one of these never-get-angry Seattlites that should live out your remaining years on prozac.
Please make an effort to pull your head out of your ass – reality is a good thing.