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BART (SF transit): Walk-left, stand-right ‘rule’ wears out escalators

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D

Dalek

Member
BART: Walk-left, stand-right ‘rule’ wears out escalators

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Almost everybody who rides BART knows it, and those who don’t — the unsuspecting tourists, the occasional or self-absorbed commuters — quickly find out.

When on BART escalators, stand to the right, walk to the left. And woe unto those who get in the way.

“Those people generally get yelled at,” said Chris McMullen, a 35-year-old marketing director who commutes to San Francisco from Berkeley. “That’s how you learn the rules.”

Now BART, with anecdotal evidence from China, suggests the practice may not be healthy for the system’s escalators.

The message emerged after BART’s newest director, Bevan Dufty of San Francisco, tweeted last week about the possibility of posting signs, or painting footprints or directions telling escalator riders where to stand and where to walk.

BART tweeted back that unevenly distributed weight speeds the deterioration of the mechanical staircases. BART officials said they’ve known that all along, but cited a Wall Street Journal story from days earlier that said Chinese subways are questioning the practice of walkers on one side and people who stand on the other. The story said that in one of China’s systems, 95 percent of the escalators had suffered wear and tear because of the uneven weight distributions.

Some BART riders responded to BART’s explanatory tweets with the anger and snark that have become a hallmark of Twitter discourse, accusing the system of blaming the stand-walk custom for its decades of escalator breakdowns.

“@sfbart @bevandufty Like your escalators you are full of crap BART,” tweeted Cody Fitzgerald, referring to the transit agency’s problems with homeless people using downtown San Francisco escalators for restrooms.

Dufty, a former San Francisco supervisor and homelessness czar, is accustomed to controversy. But he was a bit surprised by the backlash from BART riders.

“My Twitter feed has been explosive,” he said. “It’s like I had a fire hose pointed at me: ‘This is a conspiracy,’ ‘Don’t believe it,’ ‘It’s a lie.’”

Others jumped to the conclusion that BART was preparing to ban walking on escalators.

Not so, said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost, who added that the idea was never considered anywhere other than on social media.

“We are not, in any way, blaming our passengers or asking that they don’t walk on escalators,” she said.

The leading causes of escalator breakdowns, she said, are not the uneven loads but weather, debris — including human waste — and vandalism. With a history of mechanical troubles with its escalators, BART is getting ready to replace about 20 of them, a dozen to be paid for with the $3.5 billion bond measure voters approved in November.
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D

Doominated

Member
People that post things like "that's a lie" or "it's just a conspiracy" are truly baffling to me.

You are UNEVENLY DISTRIBUTING WEIGHT on something that moves MECHANICALLY. Think if literally everything you put in your car was put on the left side and never the right. Don't you think the left side tires would lose air quicker? That the frame and suspension of the car's left side would get worn out at a quicker pace than the right side?

It's not a matter of "well they don't want us walking on them". It's got nothing to do with walking or standing on them at all. It's just uneven weight distribution as considerably more people are staying on the right side while people more violently press weight onto the left. I'm not an engineer. I'm not a mechanic of any sort. Yet this comes to me as common fucking sense. What is wrong with the people it doesn't come that way to?
 
N

NullPointer

Member
That's why I just use a wide stance and don't let people pass.

And Mitch Hedberg has obviously never used Bart. Its not a rare thing to come across completely dismantled and blocked off escalators. Bart is damn near always in a state of 50% disrepair.
 
shaowebb

shaowebb

Member
No machine lasts forever. It was a purchase by the business for the convenience of the public to promote more people using the place . Griping about the overhead of this purchase because people use it in an orderly fashion to avoid congestion is ridiculous IMO.
 
X

xptoxyz

Member
I think there are places that switch which of the pair goes up or down from time to time. Maybe adopt that.

edit: Assuming this would lead to a more even wear and tear and take longer to reach the point where replacement is needed.
 
T

thefro

Member
Walk-left stand-right half the year
Walk-right stand-left the other half

They should have a sign that can be reversed in front of each escalator

Pretty simple stuff, no reason to slow everyone down.

Edit: Yeah, just switching the direction each goes would be simpler.
 
H

HideyoshiJP

Member
ThreePiMatt said:
I believe it changes. I'm pretty sure its different in Tokyo vs. Osaka.
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I thought it was mostly everywhere else but Osaka that it's walk-right, stand-left. It seemed like a crapshoot at stops along the Tokaido Shinkansen, though. There was always "that guy/girl." I just did what everybody else did so I didn't embarrass myself.
 
S

Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew

Banned
Here's what you do.

1. Add signs that change weekly/month. Walk left, stand right for one week/month. Stand left, walk right for another week/month.

2. Make the sign electronic, and also add lights on escalators with divider marks indication which one is for standing and which one so for walking. Probably add similar signs as traffic light, with standing red man and walking green man.

3. ?

4. Profit (from less repairs). Congrats, you know have a longer laster escalator with even weight distribution.

Now fuck off and eat my shorts, man.
 
Maximus.

Maximus.

Member
Doominated said:
People that post things like "that's a lie" or "it's just a conspiracy" are truly baffling to me.

You are UNEVENLY DISTRIBUTING WEIGHT on something that moves MECHANICALLY. Think if literally everything you put in your car was put on the left side and never the right. Don't you think the left side tires would lose air quicker? That the frame and suspension of the car's left side would get worn out at a quicker pace than the right side?

It's not a matter of "well they don't want us walking on them". It's got nothing to do with walking or standing on them at all. It's just uneven weight distribution as considerably more people are staying on the right side while people more violently press weight onto the left. I'm not an engineer. I'm not a mechanic of any sort. Yet this comes to me as common fucking sense. What is wrong with the people it doesn't come that way to?
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There are a lot of dumb people out there.
 
S

Sylas

Member
NullPointer said:
That's why I just use a wide stance and don't let people pass.

And Mitch Hedberg has obviously never used Bart. Its not a rare thing to come across completely dismantled and blocked off escalators. Bart is damn near always in a state of 50% disrepair.
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Hoo buddy I hope you don't do that in New York because that's askin' to get decked in the teeth. We got places to be!

In all seriousness, the building I work in deals with this by switching the up/down escalators every few hours. It works because there are 6 in the first place, though.
 
J

Joe

Member
Would there be any realistic way to measure the increased maintenance costs and downtime vs. the benefits of efficiency with stand right/walk left?

It might be worth it to deal with the increased maintenance rather than get rid of a semi-orderly system altogether. Though it seems like like the best overall effectiveness would be to make escalators stand only and if you want to walk then just use the stairs.
 
A

Axiom

Member
I always figured escalator walk/stand was based on which side of the road the individual country drives on.

I have no actual evidence to back that up, just seemed to make sense. Same also seems to hold true for footpaths/sidewalks though that is much more dependant on other factors, because people will do whatever when it's busy and to not be close to "fast" traffic
 
N

NullPointer

Member
Sylas said:
Hoo buddy I hope you don't do that in New York because that's askin' to get decked in the teeth. We got places to be!
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I don't actually do that - am usually moving quick so I can avoid the inside smell of pee for the more brisk and varied outside smell of pee.

I'd almost rather just having stairs so BART use the money savings on getting their elevators to work for those who need them. Probably an unrealistic suggestion though.
 
J

jstripes

Banned
It's the same in Toronto. The TTC even used to have signs that said "Stand Right, Walk Left". (They took the signs down to discourage the practice, because some people complained about being "rushed".)
 
Oppo

Oppo

Member
Well... story checks out.

We have walk-left/stand-right rule on Toronto TTC escalators and those things are constantly breaking.
 
T

The Dutch Slayer

Member
Serious question:

Answer me this then in London this should happen all the time right?
So why is this not news from England where is common to keep to this rule.
 
S

StayDead

Member
The Dutch Slayer said:
Serious question:

Answer me this then in London this should happen all the time right?
So why is this not news from England where is common to keep to this rule.
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I hate people who do not keep this rule in London.

Half the time I need to walk up the escalator quickly or I'll miss my train.
 
P

Pop-O-Matic

Banned
They just need a separate flight of regular stairs for anyone dumb enough to actually walk up/down a machine literally designed to let you avoid walking.
 
L

Lesath

Member
John Kowalski said:
Time standing on escalators is time you can spend enjoying your surroundings. Frantic slavery to the pace of ultimately fruitless endeavours is what i'd call a waste of life.
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We'd all appreciate it if you'd keep your nihilism indoors, within walking distances, or if possible, off peak hours of commute traffic. Would that we could all find peace among the throngs of tired masses breathing stale subway air, but alas, some of us have people to go to work and to go home for.
 
Z

zoku88

Member
John Kowalski said:
Time standing on escalators is time you can spend enjoying your surroundings. Frantic slavery to the pace of ultimately fruitless endeavours is what i'd call a waste of life.
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When I think of enjoying surroundings, I'm definitely thinking of BART stations.
 
B

Brannon

Member
If there are two escalators next to each other or in pairs nearby, switch the directions every other month, then the wear will be even.

Dunno what to do about the human waste angle; people just want to be nasty little shitnugglets, I guess.
 
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