You know that feeling you get when you see someone walk past you on an escalator? The feeling that you’re a lazy bum? Turns out you’re not lazy, you’re just correctly using the escalator.
According to The Guardian, the practice of using the left side of the escalator solely for walking increases the amount of people waiting and slows down the entire riding process. So, the amount of time the person who passed you would take to walk up/down the escalator had already been wasted waiting in line to get on. However, if all passengers stood on both sides of the escalator, there would be less congestion at the entrance, reducing the total amount of time it took to use the escalator. No need to run to get to work on time!
Some specific calculations were done at a particularly congested commuter entrance at the Holborn station in London, which over 56 million passengers use every year: It turned out that if riders stood on both the right and left sides of the escalator, 31 more passengers, or 28%, would be able to get on the escalator per minute, especially since more riders of the riders were less willing to walk and were more likely to stand.
This new process was implemented at the Holborn station between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., peak commuting hours. But the commuters weren’t too keen on it…after being told to stand still on the left side, one rider flipped staff off, and many complained that it was “terrible”, “loopy,” “crap”, “ridiculous”, and just a “very bad idea.” In fact, 18 people called it stupid in one hour, says The Guardian. Maybe in a few years we’ll all have adopted the practice and it’ll feel more normal.
The real question is will this prompt the creation of an escalator just for those who need to walk? Or maybe more people will end up using the stairs—but what are the odds of that happening?