UKC

Who decided escalators are an H+S nightmare?

Barriers to stop you using your suitcases on them have sprung up at airports (with clearly insufficient lifts available as an alternative). And now at Manchester Piccadilly there is a lifesize cardboard cutout of an ambulance man telling me not to run or use them with luggage. I will make a point of bounding up.

In reply to MG:

You know it makes sense, Martin. Behave.

In reply to MG:

Turn your suitcase sideways and it will still fit.

Neil

In reply to MG:

Do you own a chin-up bar? If you *really* want to protest...
http://xkcd.com/954

In reply to MG:

Holy cow, was bit worried when I saw that thread pop up. Thought it might have been from someone that I'd been climbing with. Phew.

In reply to MG:

Walking up the down escalator would be great for building mountain fitness for a night shift railway worker

In reply to MG:

I've been taking my daughter up and down them in her push chair, despite the signs telling you not to.

Heck of a lot quicker than finding and waiting for lifts

In reply to MG:

When I was five, an escalator in Derby ate my trousers.

Martin

In reply to MG:

An old video, but entertaining none the less - youtube.com/watch?v=fFqQOlYE4EE&

In reply to maisie:

Goodness! I grew up there. Must have had many close escapes.

In reply to maisie:

woollies?

No they were crimpaline...

In reply to MG:


I still can't get on one without checking out the emergency stop buttons. I'm pretty sure it was the old Boots store, but it was 40-odd years ago: I suspect I wasn't the only child to get chomped by an escalator. Those were the days when kids got mangled and it was all part of growing up. Much cheaper than installing trouser guards.......

Martin

In reply to wilkie14c:

Quite the opposite, on the bits and bobs I've done on the Reading station project the escalators are well handy for getting tool bags up!

In reply to MG:

London Underground thankfully has very helpful signs to tell you just how dangerous they are. Very, apparently.

It's no surprise that all the safety posters on the underground show suited men getting themselves into various pickles. Actually, weighing up the evidence, they're probably correct in treating their average customer as someone with the hazard perception and situational awareness of a lemming

In reply to MG:
Check out this realistic and believable scene from the pen of Stephen Volk (who wrote Ghost Watch which seemed to have genuinely convinced and traumatised about 10% of the UK population) and directed by Curtis Hanson who later did L.A. Confidential:
http://bit.ly/1sFIgWy

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Nice flash of gusset too.

In reply to MG:

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3opoqy

In reply to MG:

In my experience escalators seem to be increadibly fragile things that constantly break down, I wouldn't be surprised if all these rules and warning were more about protecting the escalator than protecting the public.

In reply to maisie:
I'm lingeringly vaguely perturbed by escalators, it's to a very small degree, but there's something mechanically remorseless about them I think.

I've never seen The Kiss.

In reply to Timmd:



It has a "scary possessed cat" played by a puppet that is as convincing (and scary) as Mooncat with Beryl Reid

In reply to LastBoyScout:


Me too. I have also nearly been caught out when the front wheels of the buggy decided to jam on exit causing me very nearly to topple over a pram that would have also toppled.

The sad fact is that people do hurt themselves pretty badly on escalators. One mustn't forget that machinary stops for no one and especially those who get into trouble.

In reply to MG:

One of my kids, aged about 6 or 7, took a ride up the outside of an airport escalator by hanging from the handrail. Fortunately my wife managed to grab his foot and pulled him down before he reached the ceiling.
We all thought it was pretty funny at the time...

In reply to ByEek:

I bet more people have horrific accidents on stairs than they do on escalators - gravity stops for no one!

In reply to girlymonkey:

True. But at least on the stairs if someone falls those around can stop. If someone falls at the bottom of an escalator those behind end up piling into the victim.

In reply to MG:

There was the Kings Cross station escalator fire too.

In reply to Timmd:


Does this explain why so many people appear to be unable to muster the courage to walk down them, instead of just standing there, presumably gripped in silent terror, holding up everyone (ie me) behind them?

In reply to nufkin:


Who knows what such people would do if faced with a Paternoster lift...

In reply to Chris Harris:

I used to study at the university of Sheffield, which had the longest paternoster lift in the world - 21 floors if I remember correctly. The start of term was a nightmare as all the new students let loads of compartments go past and the queue got longer and longer! I was on crutches for a while in my 4th year and got some appalled looks as I hopped on and off it on my crutches! lol

In reply to MG:

took a while to find a link but i vividly remember the news in 1987 about a woman in america being EATEN ALIVE BY AN ESCALATOR...

http://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/woman_swallowed_by_escalator/

In reply to nufkin:

It could do I guess, I do walk down them, but they do vaguely perturb me.

In reply to girlymonkey:

I work there. It's amazing how many people are unwilling/ scared to get into a car if there's already a person in it. Then there's the school outings that decide to pop in on the way past and have a laugh on the paternoster.

In reply to girlymonkey:


I did my degree at Leeds - one there as well, if rather shorter.

In reply to girlymonkey:


I remember that. I used it a lot (in about 1983) but was never brave enough to stay on board to see what happens when it gets to the top.
I'm amazed to hear it's still running - I'm definitely calling in next time I'm in the area.

In reply to Paul Robertson:

I was there 10 years ago, I believe the arts tower is no longer used for students. Although my memory is that it was a listed building, so probably still in existence but maybe not accessible.
Over the top and underneath were non events! I used to jump the queue at the start of term by going down and underneath.

In reply to MG:

At the Earls Court boat show several years ago I was afforded the entertainment that is a fully loaded escalator going in to reverse. Four or five made it off the top by running the rest ended up in a pile at the bottom! The really weird thing was the number of people who still tried to get round the pile to get on the escalator.

In reply to Paul Robertson:

The LSE had one of those too, when I used it once I was trying to work out how it all packed flat so that it could go round at the top and bottom...

My mother in law wrote off a zimmer frame on an escalator. As said - machinery stops for no one,