I find it most often happens when two people are together and want to stand next to each other while talking. Someone who's alone and stands on the left anyway is a sociopath.
I usually find someone blocking me on the sidewalk or the escalator, or driving down the street, to create a good opportunity for reflection about why I'm in such a damn hurry anyways.
While 1 through 4 likely are correct, still, in a just world you could maim them. However, it is not a just world, so you can only write bad things about them in your blog.
I decry your corporatist escalator policy, LB, which is part and parcel of larger latent fascist tendencies in our society. Walkers Unite! Anarchy on the Escalators!
They go to the circle of hell in which there are infinitely looping conveyor belts and they're forced to run, and devils probably whip them, along with the people in airports who stand on moving walkways and let their luggage stand next to them while they glide by looking bored at the scenery.
Maybe they're, like, hicks? I know it took me a couple of days at least after I started to commute to Stockholm before I caught on to that rule. That's what I charitably tend to assume.
I've been sworn at, rather nastily, by middle-American tourists for politely suggesting that it was conventional to stand on the right. (There's a really long escalator at the 53d&3d station -- I they would have been blocking people for a solid couple of minutes.)
Come on people -- if you want to walk, why'd you get on the moving walkway -- it makes no sense. If you're in a hurry far better to walk along briskly next to the moving walkway.
There is possibly some excuse for 11, as walking with luggage is often no fun and there may be some tippy bags that are awkward to deal with if you don't put them next to you. But as a rule, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY.
Coming up from some of the really deep underground stations in London with heavy luggage it can be pretty hard to safely get your luggage onto the escalator in a way that leaves the left hand side free for people walking up.
The bags can go behind you. Or in front. Most people have roller suitcases anyway, and those are pulled behind. But it's usually the people that put the briefcases down that bug me.
Offer does not apply to driving. As a rule, when driving, GET THE HELL OFF MY ASS, or LET ME IN I ONLY JUST REALIZED I NEED TO BE IN THE LEFT LANE, except when GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY applies.
I don't like driving, only somewhat because it makes such a hypocrite of me.
The problem with the really deep underground stations is that sometimes the escalators are teh steep and teh busy. Which makes getting bags either in front or behind pretty difficult. Obviously, that's what you *ought to do but it's not always easy.
Escalators are different regarding where to put the luggage. But a moving walkway is flat, and it's not an excuse to move off to vacation land while you watch the pretty lights on the O'Hare ceiling. It's like putting your backpack on the seat next to you on a crowded bus.
(I've heard those lights are supposed to be soothing, but they generally just make me think, oh, fucking O'Hare.)
I'm pretty sure people still generally walk up the left hand side. I may be wrong though. I just usually get on and stand at the same side everyone else is standing at.
A helpful soul informs me that it's Stand Right Walk Left in the UK too; which might be considered 'wrong' relative to their driving habits. I don't know.
20: Some people have cheap-ass roller suitcases that tip over if you don't hold on to them. Still, such people IME can put them down in front. Behind would be very awkward.
Wait, so this entire thread is just recapitulating a CT thread? I'm so disappointed ...
re: 27, I guess my original question was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it *is* still fun to think about the relationship between driving and escalator behavior, and the fact that the two do not seemed to be linked. Which seems wrong to me. Clearly, not everything is a structural property...
I have a cheap ass tippy suitcase (that, or I pack it lopsided). It pulls behind, so you can ride the moving walkway, watchen sie den blinkenlights in dem O'Hare, while pulling it with your right hand, slightly behind you and to the right where it will bother no one.
Of course, I'm usually the one barrelling through the airport because my two hour layover is now a negative ten minute layover, and I've learned that when running at a dead sprint, avoid the moving walkway.
I once witnessed an exchange on the long elevators at 53rd & Lex, where a guy on the left, yelled up to the woman a few people ahead of him blocking the line, "Move your ass!" And she, a large Jamaican woman, yelled back, "I might have, if you'd asked nicely, but I'm going to stay right here now, and I'm going to come and find you every damn morning and stand in front of you."
As a rule, when driving, GET THE HELL OFF MY ASS, or LET ME IN I ONLY JUST REALIZED I NEED TO BE IN THE LEFT LANE, except when GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY applies.
All three may indeed apply on one eighth mile segment of, e.g., the Liberty Bridge (motto: if yinz ain't from arahnd here, yinz don't wanna be going aht ta oaklin anyway.)
It's like putting your backpack on the seat next to you on a crowded bus.
Or the 'splayed legs' thing -- taking up three seats worth of space on the subway. On that one, I just ask "Pardon me, is there room to sit down?" It works pretty much all the time -- they look moderately embarrassed and sit up. I plan to be really good at being a mean old lady when I get there.
30: CT doesn't have "at the mineshaft." Anyway, I just noticed that the helpful soul linked in 28 says that escalators in the Underground are organized so you take the one on the left; the NYC subway is the opposite, I think. So that tracks driving patterns (except insofar as the driving pattern in NYC is "don't").
Back on the veldt, while everyone else was getting eaten by tigers that approached from the right, the ancient Aengles had to deal with fierce jabberwocks, which primarily attacked from the left.
This explains both the driving patterns and political leaning, and is therefore unassailable by the power of LOGIC.
Re: splayed legs. I just sit down next to them anyway (which makes them un-splay), or say something like "can I sit down?" What're they going to say, "no"?
I am very pleased that it seems to be protocol at the L station I get off at for there to be no "standing" lane on the escalatorin the morning, it's all just walking. Peer pressure is teh awesome.
42: I think at my current age and appearance it comes off more as 'castrating bitch'. Which may be why I've been so successful at getting men on the subway to snap their knees together.
Oh yes, also a well-known problem in DC, and one that irks me even more now that I'm commuting by Metro. This public awareness campaign is an interesting way of dealing with it, though I don't know how effective it's been.
No, no... ac's a regular, and now I'm embarrassed.
I'll just hijack a random thread and start live-commentin' on games, unless someone puts up something proper (and then I'll just use that thread, instead).
I plan to be really good at being a mean old lady when I get there.
Usually I don't even have to speak--I can do it with an eyebrow. But if not, I stand in front of the guy and when the train jerks to a stop I stumble a bit and tread on his instep.
Meh... If no one else wants to write something about it, and someone really wants something written, then I'd be happy to write something. God knows I obsess about it enough.
But the damned thing lasts for a month, so people have some time to step up.
And as for banning, I was on my way out anyway! Leaving the office to go home and watch the first match. My productivity has already declined.
OT: I know there was talk about some mermaid festival in NYC this weekend, but the less prissy big event is the Big Apple BBQ. I wholeheartedly recommend stopping by the Salt Lick station for some serious Q.
The standing-on-the-right thing is particularly bad in Los Angeles, what with the newness that is subway travel here. Unhelpfully, the transit authority didn't think to put up a few signs in the stations explaining proper escalator behavior - an oversight I attempted to personally correct with helpful, friendly statements to stangers, with predictable results. Now I take the elevators rather than lose my temper.
Smasher, that was why I said I really doubt I could attend that mermaid thing, though I'd like to because never had. I went to the Barbecue thing last year. It features live music, inexpensive & tasty meat, and beer that you can only drink while standing in particular cordoned off areas. Also, Madison Square Park was tied for the park with the highest user satisfaction ratings in the last survey.
It's a lot better if you participate in the parade, frankly. I went one year just to watch, and I kept wondering why I was just standing there watching other people have fun.
It's basically an ocean-themed, afternoon-lengthed Burning Man. With bemused working-class spectators.
I got out of the train at an Underground station and unhurriedly got in the line leaving the platform, expecting things to speed up when we got to a wider corridor. Instead, the crowd moved one step at a time. After turning a corner to where the escalators were, I found out why.
It turned out they were doing maintenance and only one of the escalators was working. It was quite long and the crowd was so dense that if you stepped onto the left you'd have to walk all the way up; no one would let you back in on the right. So everyone stuck to the right and moved in sync with the escalator.
I found this vaguely disturbing, stepped to the left and walked up.
78.--No, the Cyclone is awesome precisely because of its age. The Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz has the same crik-crik-OMG this thing is going to collapse! appeal.
I've been sworn at, rather nastily, by middle-American tourists for politely suggesting that it was conventional to stand on the right.
My usual tactic isn't to suggest anything, but just to say, in a loud but exceedingly perky and friendly voice, preferably with a broad Southern accent, "Excuse me, y'all."
I have thought about making a little card or flyer to hand to them once I pass that explains the strange customs of the civilized.
This isn't usually a problem for me in San Francisco except when there is a baseball game. Then everybody getting off of BART to the Muni clog up the down escalators pretty much every time.
Where I grew up, walking up the escalator was viewed as odd and slightly rude. I realize now that this is not the case, and I realize that customs are different in other places, and I do in fact stand on the right when riding an escalator so that if someone wants to walk by they can (I can't remember when I learned to do this, but I do remember I was an adult and I had to be told, have it explicitly explained to me, and had to get over the feeling it was a little rude). Still, there are probably a lot of people who, as you suspect, are simply clueless in this regard.
Still, there are probably a lot of people who, as you suspect, are simply clueless in this regard.
They're the same sort who like, for example, to stand oblivious in a busy doorway or narrow hall and have a long but vapid conversation with a similarly oblivious cohort.
The sort who stand at the counter mulling over their order for five minutes despite the fact that they were in line for ten or fifteen minutes beforehand yapping on their cell phone and there are scores of people behind them waiting to order.
There's a little corridor to exit the cafeteria in my building. One day I was coming through and two ladies were looking at the bulletin board, blocking the way. As I was trying to come through, they saw me coming. One of them said, "OH YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE IN A RUSH, BUT WE'RE NOT." WTF? I was just trying to get through, and whether I'm in a rush or not, you're the idiots blocking the path.
Where I grew up, walking up the escalator was viewed as odd and slightly rude.
Really? Maybe that explains the hostility -- your compatriots making a stand for their version of good manners. I'd sympathize somewhat if not for my need to maim.
Kobe!: Actually, yes. Many people have an attitude that can roughly be summarized as "why on earth would you walk on an escalator?" These people are unlikely to be aware of the proper etiquette for walking on escalators.
Where I grew up, there isn't a (widespread) subway system, and offhand, I'm not sure it has escalators, so escalators tend to be encountered mainly in suburban malls, where, clearly, there is no need to climb them like stairs because the Gap will still have the bland clothing whether you wait patiently or charge like a rhinoceros.
A lot of people do seem to be carry around a lot of pent-up/latent fury that comes out in these situations or in situations where they are dealing with people who can't fight back -- waiters/waitresses, shop assistants, etc.
In fact, I often take the stairs just for that reason, and while doing so think ill of the escalator-bound. The fools! Don't they realize that it's faster to take the stairs? Look at them standing dumbly like cattle!
In my time in Shanghai it was relatively common to see people who had just come to town from the countryside and were actually encountering an escalator for the very first time ever in their lives.
I always found their trepidation as they very cautiously approached the launch point, and then their unabashed wonder as they started ascending, to be both lovable and heartrending, like some kind of metaphor for the shift from an agricultural society to an industrial one. Or something. Most all of the native Shanghainese would just laugh at them and make loudly with the bumpkin jokes though. It reminded me of a joke book I saw in the States in an antique store; it was from the 20s or 30s and was just chock full of jokes at the expense of them uncultured rubes from the country.
All that said, I'm a pretty brisk walker (even in a place full of brisk walkers like NYC, I'm faster), while in general Chinese walk (and bicycle) much much slower than your average American. Plus there's very little concept of lines/queues, and noone walks on escalators. Also little notion of personal space, everybody bumps into each other all the time. So the sidewalk rage just kept building up and building up in me, until finally I had to leave, because foreigners maiming locals was frowned upon there.
104 gets it exactly right. There's a sort of 'check out that dumbass walking up the escalators, don't they know it'll do the walking for them? what do they think they are, important?' to it. It's probably hugely classist and weird, because I'm Southern and everything is ultimately a complex combination of some of the following: classism, racism, sexism and weird.
OMIGOD. i feel so much better that other people encounter the splayed leg space-aggression thing. so it's not happening just because i'm a smaller female person - it's universal space aggression. good. i also hate it when people not only take the armrest in airplanes or movie theaters but lean beyond it too, into a good third of my seat space(unfortunately saying "you're crowding me, could you stay in your own seat?!" works far better than elbowing, which is far more satisfying).
also people who get on the subway and just stand in the door, blocking it so others can't enter, just suck. for some reason this doesn't happen in new york and i wonder if it is the design of the subway cars somehow...
This is the one thing that I have to say about DC civil society. People do ride on the right and walk on the left. When in NYC, I am appalled that this connvention hasn't taken hold. Part of it though, is that in NYC on subways and such, if you're in a hurry, you just go for the stairs anyway.
The really horrid people are those who stop moving at the top of the escalator, staring wonderingly around them, and thus making it impossible for other people to get off the escalator. I will start carrying a fork in my bag any moment.
The really horrid people are those who stop moving at the top of the escalator, staring wonderingly around them, and thus making it impossible for other people to get off the escalator
These are called tourists, and they make a vital contribution to the economic welfare of your city, so you can't kill them. Comfort yourself that they are building a tenth circle in Hell to accommodate them later.
I find it most often happens when two people are together and want to stand next to each other while talking. Someone who's alone and stands on the left anyway is a sociopath.
Posted by SP | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:43 AM
Those are angels, LB. Tragedy would have struck had you reached the top a few seconds sooner. Just be thankful they were there looking out for you.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:44 AM
I usually find someone blocking me on the sidewalk or the escalator, or driving down the street, to create a good opportunity for reflection about why I'm in such a damn hurry anyways.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:48 AM
maybe they're British, blissfully wondering why everyone else is so rude?
Posted by mike d | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:51 AM
While 1 through 4 likely are correct, still, in a just world you could maim them. However, it is not a just world, so you can only write bad things about them in your blog.
Posted by Idealist | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:52 AM
Someone who's alone and stands on the left anyway is a sociopath.
Thank you. This is the truth.
in a just world you could maim them.
And this.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:54 AM
I find "either start walking or move the fuck over" usually gets results.
Posted by gswift | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:54 AM
I decry your corporatist escalator policy, LB, which is part and parcel of larger latent fascist tendencies in our society. Walkers Unite! Anarchy on the Escalators!
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:56 AM
And you don't have to maim him. A couple seconds of stun gun pressed firmly into the small of his back should do the trick.
Posted by gswift | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:57 AM
I think sometimes it's deliberate aggression.
E.g. when you are walking towards someone and you make eye contact and they still walk/barge straight into you.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:01 AM
They go to the circle of hell in which there are infinitely looping conveyor belts and they're forced to run, and devils probably whip them, along with the people in airports who stand on moving walkways and let their luggage stand next to them while they glide by looking bored at the scenery.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:02 AM
Maybe they're, like, hicks? I know it took me a couple of days at least after I started to commute to Stockholm before I caught on to that rule. That's what I charitably tend to assume.
Posted by David Weman | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:04 AM
I've been sworn at, rather nastily, by middle-American tourists for politely suggesting that it was conventional to stand on the right. (There's a really long escalator at the 53d&3d station -- I they would have been blocking people for a solid couple of minutes.)
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:05 AM
Come on people -- if you want to walk, why'd you get on the moving walkway -- it makes no sense. If you're in a hurry far better to walk along briskly next to the moving walkway.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:06 AM
IPosted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:08 AM
The moving walkway is labelled!
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:09 AM
Just consider it an opportunity for a fun, spontaneous game of Escalator Kancho.
Most people don't want to play for long, though...
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:10 AM
There is possibly some excuse for 11, as walking with luggage is often no fun and there may be some tippy bags that are awkward to deal with if you don't put them next to you. But as a rule, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:11 AM
Coming up from some of the really deep underground stations in London with heavy luggage it can be pretty hard to safely get your luggage onto the escalator in a way that leaves the left hand side free for people walking up.
Other than that, show them no mercy...
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:12 AM
The bags can go behind you. Or in front. Most people have roller suitcases anyway, and those are pulled behind. But it's usually the people that put the briefcases down that bug me.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:12 AM
Offer does not apply to driving. As a rule, when driving, GET THE HELL OFF MY ASS, or LET ME IN I ONLY JUST REALIZED I NEED TO BE IN THE LEFT LANE, except when GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY applies.
I don't like driving, only somewhat because it makes such a hypocrite of me.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:13 AM
I thought that, in England, people walked on the "wrong" side of the escalators... am I incorrect?
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:13 AM
I've been sworn at, rather nastily, by middle-American tourists for politely suggesting that it was conventional to stand on the right.
Unfortunately, "polite" is usually a mistake in these situations.
Posted by gswift | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:14 AM
GET THE HELL OFF MY ASS, or LET ME IN
ATM.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:14 AM
re: 20
The problem with the really deep underground stations is that sometimes the escalators are teh steep and teh busy. Which makes getting bags either in front or behind pretty difficult. Obviously, that's what you *ought to do but it's not always easy.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:14 AM
Escalators are different regarding where to put the luggage. But a moving walkway is flat, and it's not an excuse to move off to vacation land while you watch the pretty lights on the O'Hare ceiling. It's like putting your backpack on the seat next to you on a crowded bus.
(I've heard those lights are supposed to be soothing, but they generally just make me think, oh, fucking O'Hare.)
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:14 AM
re: 22
I'm pretty sure people still generally walk up the left hand side. I may be wrong though. I just usually get on and stand at the same side everyone else is standing at.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:16 AM
A helpful soul informs me that it's Stand Right Walk Left in the UK too; which might be considered 'wrong' relative to their driving habits. I don't know.
20: Some people have cheap-ass roller suitcases that tip over if you don't hold on to them. Still, such people IME can put them down in front. Behind would be very awkward.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:17 AM
Behind would be very awkward.
At the Mineshaft, of course.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:18 AM
Wait, so this entire thread is just recapitulating a CT thread? I'm so disappointed ...
re: 27, I guess my original question was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it *is* still fun to think about the relationship between driving and escalator behavior, and the fact that the two do not seemed to be linked. Which seems wrong to me. Clearly, not everything is a structural property...
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:19 AM
Just consider it an opportunity for a fun, spontaneous game of Escalator Kancho.
The problem with this strategy is that, if it catches on, it may actually cause the number of people standing on the left to increase.
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:19 AM
More on the left --> fewer on the right.
Law of Conservation of Escalator Riders, etc etc.
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:20 AM
It's like putting your backpack on the seat next to you on a crowded bus.
One petty urban social warfare tactic I use all the time: sitting next to the person who puts his backpack on the seat. SERVES EM RIGHT I SAY
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:21 AM
also, completely off-topic, but I'm not getting any work done anyway, so...
are we gonna get some World Cup live-commenting going on up in here?
or will I have to hijack some other thread around noonish?
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:21 AM
I have a cheap ass tippy suitcase (that, or I pack it lopsided). It pulls behind, so you can ride the moving walkway, watchen sie den blinkenlights in dem O'Hare, while pulling it with your right hand, slightly behind you and to the right where it will bother no one.
Of course, I'm usually the one barrelling through the airport because my two hour layover is now a negative ten minute layover, and I've learned that when running at a dead sprint, avoid the moving walkway.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:21 AM
I once witnessed an exchange on the long elevators at 53rd & Lex, where a guy on the left, yelled up to the woman a few people ahead of him blocking the line, "Move your ass!" And she, a large Jamaican woman, yelled back, "I might have, if you'd asked nicely, but I'm going to stay right here now, and I'm going to come and find you every damn morning and stand in front of you."
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:22 AM
As a rule, when driving, GET THE HELL OFF MY ASS, or LET ME IN I ONLY JUST REALIZED I NEED TO BE IN THE LEFT LANE, except when GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY applies.
All three may indeed apply on one eighth mile segment of, e.g., the Liberty Bridge (motto: if yinz ain't from arahnd here, yinz don't wanna be going aht ta oaklin anyway.)
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:23 AM
they generally just make me think, oh, fucking O'Hare
I've only been through the mystical blinky part of O'Hare once, but it made me think, "Oh man, I wish I was on mushrooms."
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:24 AM
It's like putting your backpack on the seat next to you on a crowded bus.
Or the 'splayed legs' thing -- taking up three seats worth of space on the subway. On that one, I just ask "Pardon me, is there room to sit down?" It works pretty much all the time -- they look moderately embarrassed and sit up. I plan to be really good at being a mean old lady when I get there.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:24 AM
30: CT doesn't have "at the mineshaft." Anyway, I just noticed that the helpful soul linked in 28 says that escalators in the Underground are organized so you take the one on the left; the NYC subway is the opposite, I think. So that tracks driving patterns (except insofar as the driving pattern in NYC is "don't").
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:27 AM
I hate the splayed legs thing. Fellas, I don't care what you'd like me to believe; your penis does not need that much room.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:27 AM
being a mean old lady when I get there.
You seem already to be there.
Posted by Idealist | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:28 AM
re: 40
Yes, left is usually UP if you are coming out of the train and heading back towards the surface.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:29 AM
41 -- are splayed legs on a continuum with flashing?
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:30 AM
Why are British people's brains arranged like that? How odd.
Clearly culture is genetic.
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:30 AM
Back on the veldt, while everyone else was getting eaten by tigers that approached from the right, the ancient Aengles had to deal with fierce jabberwocks, which primarily attacked from the left.
This explains both the driving patterns and political leaning, and is therefore unassailable by the power of LOGIC.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:36 AM
44: No, or anyway I don't think so. It's not sexual aggression, it's social aggression -- claiming more space than you're entitled to.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:36 AM
re: 47
Yeah, it happens to me. The splayed leg thing. And I am 200lb+ guy. It's not a sexual thing, it is the social agression thing.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:38 AM
Re: splayed legs. I just sit down next to them anyway (which makes them un-splay), or say something like "can I sit down?" What're they going to say, "no"?
I am very pleased that it seems to be protocol at the L station I get off at for there to be no "standing" lane on the escalatorin the morning, it's all just walking. Peer pressure is teh awesome.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:40 AM
42: I think at my current age and appearance it comes off more as 'castrating bitch'. Which may be why I've been so successful at getting men on the subway to snap their knees together.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:41 AM
Oh yes, also a well-known problem in DC, and one that irks me even more now that I'm commuting by Metro. This public awareness campaign is an interesting way of dealing with it, though I don't know how effective it's been.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:42 AM
are we gonna get some World Cup live-commenting going on up in here?
So far the drama seems to be about whether injured players will go on, Rooney, Ballack, &c.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:56 AM
You want to guest post something on the World Cup? I don't know a thing about it, but if you email me something I'll put it up.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:02 AM
Poor ogged.
(NB: Link has nothing to do with cancer.)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:05 AM
The games don't really get going until later and tomorrow.
The Enemy are playing tomorrow, so my interest will rise then.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:06 AM
LB, who are you asking?
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:07 AM
Well, I was asking ac, because she sounded as if she had some sort of thoughts going on, but I'm easy -- if you want a soccer post, email me one.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:09 AM
re: 54
Man, he knows nothing about football!
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:10 AM
Threads for soccer? Isn't that what Crooked Timber is for?
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:11 AM
No, no... ac's a regular, and now I'm embarrassed.
I'll just hijack a random thread and start live-commentin' on games, unless someone puts up something proper (and then I'll just use that thread, instead).
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:11 AM
59: didn't someone cover this already in this thread? Unfogged = CT + Mineshaft, right?
So, soccer (football, whatever), but ATM.
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:13 AM
No, no... ac's a regular, and now I'm embarrassed.
You aren't? Then get out! Artegall is banned!
(but the offer remains open.)
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:15 AM
I plan to be really good at being a mean old lady when I get there.
Usually I don't even have to speak--I can do it with an eyebrow. But if not, I stand in front of the guy and when the train jerks to a stop I stumble a bit and tread on his instep.
Posted by mcmc | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:18 AM
Meh... If no one else wants to write something about it, and someone really wants something written, then I'd be happy to write something. God knows I obsess about it enough.
But the damned thing lasts for a month, so people have some time to step up.
And as for banning, I was on my way out anyway! Leaving the office to go home and watch the first match. My productivity has already declined.
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:19 AM
OT: I know there was talk about some mermaid festival in NYC this weekend, but the less prissy big event is the Big Apple BBQ. I wholeheartedly recommend stopping by the Salt Lick station for some serious Q.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:31 AM
The standing-on-the-right thing is particularly bad in Los Angeles, what with the newness that is subway travel here. Unhelpfully, the transit authority didn't think to put up a few signs in the stations explaining proper escalator behavior - an oversight I attempted to personally correct with helpful, friendly statements to stangers, with predictable results. Now I take the elevators rather than lose my temper.
Posted by Goofyfoot | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:33 AM
Smasher, that was why I said I really doubt I could attend that mermaid thing, though I'd like to because never had. I went to the Barbecue thing last year. It features live music, inexpensive & tasty meat, and beer that you can only drink while standing in particular cordoned off areas. Also, Madison Square Park was tied for the park with the highest user satisfaction ratings in the last survey.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:45 AM
I don't know that I'm the best person to guest post about the World Cup. I'd probably just write a lot about David Beckham's hair.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 9:48 AM
Good on you, w/d. I really wanted to make it up there, but this weekend just wouldn't work. Eat some Elgin sausage for me.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:02 AM
I think TMK said that the Mermaid Parade was in two weeks. You can still go, w/d!
For me, the parade has always been something of an excuse to take the train out there. I love the roller coaster...
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:09 AM
JM, is it worth it?
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:12 AM
Kickoff! And my internet goes down, and doesn't come back up before GER scores.
(Nice goal, btw).
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:13 AM
and Wanchope!!!!!
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:13 AM
Yep, Mermaid Day is on the 24th. It is so worth it. I can't go because of the dang Tenafly street fair but will be there in spirit.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:14 AM
I'll move my lame commments to another thread, since this one appears to be still-in-use.
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:15 AM
It's a lot better if you participate in the parade, frankly. I went one year just to watch, and I kept wondering why I was just standing there watching other people have fun.
It's basically an ocean-themed, afternoon-lengthed Burning Man. With bemused working-class spectators.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:28 AM
"Burning Man" is probably right. I was thinking "Mardi Gras" but that didn't seem to quite capture it.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:30 AM
70 - The Cyclone is truly, truly awesome. And that's an "awesome" without the qualifier of "for its age".
The Wonder Wheel is also awesome but gets the qualifier.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:34 AM
78: the Tilt-a-Whirl gets insufficient respect.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:37 AM
I got out of the train at an Underground station and unhurriedly got in the line leaving the platform, expecting things to speed up when we got to a wider corridor. Instead, the crowd moved one step at a time. After turning a corner to where the escalators were, I found out why.
It turned out they were doing maintenance and only one of the escalators was working. It was quite long and the crowd was so dense that if you stepped onto the left you'd have to walk all the way up; no one would let you back in on the right. So everyone stuck to the right and moved in sync with the escalator.
I found this vaguely disturbing, stepped to the left and walked up.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:42 AM
Walk on which side.
Splayed legs.
You're all banned...to hell!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:45 AM
Yeah, yeah. Whatever happened to Bob, anyway? It's like having the prophet Elijah as a co-blogger.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:47 AM
That's a nice comment on the splayed legs post.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:52 AM
Bob is your Unfogged source for all the information you need on necking.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:55 AM
On some European transit systems, large bags require their own tickets.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:55 AM
78.--No, the Cyclone is awesome precisely because of its age. The Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz has the same crik-crik-OMG this thing is going to collapse! appeal.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 10:59 AM
Ogged had a blog?
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 11:03 AM
I've been sworn at, rather nastily, by middle-American tourists for politely suggesting that it was conventional to stand on the right.
My usual tactic isn't to suggest anything, but just to say, in a loud but exceedingly perky and friendly voice, preferably with a broad Southern accent, "Excuse me, y'all."
I have thought about making a little card or flyer to hand to them once I pass that explains the strange customs of the civilized.
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 11:10 AM
This isn't usually a problem for me in San Francisco except when there is a baseball game. Then everybody getting off of BART to the Muni clog up the down escalators pretty much every time.
Posted by Joe O | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 11:16 AM
I sometimes stand on the left, b/c I tend to carry my bag on my right shoulder, and otherwise it bumps up against the railing. So nyah.
I find, however, that when I am the one in a hurry, a simple "excuse me" often does the trick. So double nyah.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 1:32 PM
Where I grew up, walking up the escalator was viewed as odd and slightly rude. I realize now that this is not the case, and I realize that customs are different in other places, and I do in fact stand on the right when riding an escalator so that if someone wants to walk by they can (I can't remember when I learned to do this, but I do remember I was an adult and I had to be told, have it explicitly explained to me, and had to get over the feeling it was a little rude). Still, there are probably a lot of people who, as you suspect, are simply clueless in this regard.
Posted by Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 1:48 PM
What Is So Hard About "Walk On The Left, Stand On The Right?"
Hillary Clinton manages it just fine!
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 1:49 PM
Thank you, thank you, you'll be here all night? Nice....
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 1:52 PM
Hey 10, isn't that agressive on both of your parts, assuming that the person doesn't swerve towards you, they just wait and assume you'll move?
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 2:00 PM
Still, there are probably a lot of people who, as you suspect, are simply clueless in this regard.
They're the same sort who like, for example, to stand oblivious in a busy doorway or narrow hall and have a long but vapid conversation with a similarly oblivious cohort.
The sort who stand at the counter mulling over their order for five minutes despite the fact that they were in line for ten or fifteen minutes beforehand yapping on their cell phone and there are scores of people behind them waiting to order.
The sort who KEEP WALKING ACROSS MY LAWN!!!1!!
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 2:02 PM
92 gets it exactly right.
Posted by Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 2:03 PM
Okay, I'll agree that standing in a doorway and chitchatting is just loathesome.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 2:17 PM
You can maim them.
There's a little corridor to exit the cafeteria in my building. One day I was coming through and two ladies were looking at the bulletin board, blocking the way. As I was trying to come through, they saw me coming. One of them said, "OH YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE IN A RUSH, BUT WE'RE NOT." WTF? I was just trying to get through, and whether I'm in a rush or not, you're the idiots blocking the path.
Posted by stroll | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 2:19 PM
Here's another vote for a world cup thread.
Posted by David Weman | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 2:43 PM
Where I grew up, walking up the escalator was viewed as odd and slightly rude.
Really? Maybe that explains the hostility -- your compatriots making a stand for their version of good manners. I'd sympathize somewhat if not for my need to maim.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 2:45 PM
David, I think you'll find what you're looking for here.
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 2:48 PM
99: See the Sopranos thread. But it's stoppage time already.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 2:48 PM
Kobe!: Actually, yes. Many people have an attitude that can roughly be summarized as "why on earth would you walk on an escalator?" These people are unlikely to be aware of the proper etiquette for walking on escalators.
Posted by teofilo | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 3:29 PM
Where I grew up, there isn't a (widespread) subway system, and offhand, I'm not sure it has escalators, so escalators tend to be encountered mainly in suburban malls, where, clearly, there is no need to climb them like stairs because the Gap will still have the bland clothing whether you wait patiently or charge like a rhinoceros.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 3:55 PM
There is clearly a need to ascend escalators by means of stepping even in the suburban malls because I'm going somewhere so get out of my way.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 3:57 PM
Ben apparently goes to different suburban malls than the ones Cala and I go to.
Posted by teofilo | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 4:01 PM
There are stairs there for that purpose.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 4:05 PM
102: Bah.
Posted by David Weman | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 4:19 PM
Ben's just in a hurry to get to the Gap.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 4:21 PM
Mind the Gap.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 4:24 PM
Is it cluelessness or some kind of perverse aggression?
I hadn't noticed that the two are mutually exclusive. Often just the opposite, in fact.
Posted by DaveL | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 4:44 PM
A lot of people do seem to be carry around a lot of pent-up/latent fury that comes out in these situations or in situations where they are dealing with people who can't fight back -- waiters/waitresses, shop assistants, etc.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 4:47 PM
We also walk on the left, but on streets we theoretically walk on the left (in practice as much on both sides).
Posted by David Weman | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 6:29 PM
We also walk on the left, but on streets we theoretically walk on the left (in practice as much on both sides).
Posted by David Weman | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 6:29 PM
There are stairs there for that purpose.
In fact, I often take the stairs just for that reason, and while doing so think ill of the escalator-bound. The fools! Don't they realize that it's faster to take the stairs? Look at them standing dumbly like cattle!
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 6:58 PM
In my time in Shanghai it was relatively common to see people who had just come to town from the countryside and were actually encountering an escalator for the very first time ever in their lives.
I always found their trepidation as they very cautiously approached the launch point, and then their unabashed wonder as they started ascending, to be both lovable and heartrending, like some kind of metaphor for the shift from an agricultural society to an industrial one. Or something. Most all of the native Shanghainese would just laugh at them and make loudly with the bumpkin jokes though. It reminded me of a joke book I saw in the States in an antique store; it was from the 20s or 30s and was just chock full of jokes at the expense of them uncultured rubes from the country.
All that said, I'm a pretty brisk walker (even in a place full of brisk walkers like NYC, I'm faster), while in general Chinese walk (and bicycle) much much slower than your average American. Plus there's very little concept of lines/queues, and noone walks on escalators. Also little notion of personal space, everybody bumps into each other all the time. So the sidewalk rage just kept building up and building up in me, until finally I had to leave, because foreigners maiming locals was frowned upon there.
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:18 PM
MOO.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:24 PM
I hate to say it, but 115 gets it exactly right.
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:27 PM
You were in Shanghai?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:28 PM
104 gets it exactly right. There's a sort of 'check out that dumbass walking up the escalators, don't they know it'll do the walking for them? what do they think they are, important?' to it. It's probably hugely classist and weird, because I'm Southern and everything is ultimately a complex combination of some of the following: classism, racism, sexism and weird.
Posted by Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:30 PM
Whether on the right or the left, walking down escalators going up tends to lead to much yelling on the part of BART station agents .
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:34 PM
You were in Shanghai?
Rumor has it.
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 7:38 PM
I'm Southern and everything is ultimately a complex combination of some of the following: classism, racism, sexism and weird.
Don't forget pork.
Don't they realize that it's faster to take the stairs?
Don't you stair people realize you'll never attain a truly American physique if you keep exerting yourselves?
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 06- 9-06 8:06 PM
OMIGOD. i feel so much better that other people encounter the splayed leg space-aggression thing. so it's not happening just because i'm a smaller female person - it's universal space aggression. good. i also hate it when people not only take the armrest in airplanes or movie theaters but lean beyond it too, into a good third of my seat space(unfortunately saying "you're crowding me, could you stay in your own seat?!" works far better than elbowing, which is far more satisfying).
also people who get on the subway and just stand in the door, blocking it so others can't enter, just suck. for some reason this doesn't happen in new york and i wonder if it is the design of the subway cars somehow...
(vent) (vent) (vent)
Posted by mmf! | Link to this comment | 06-10-06 10:18 AM
This is the one thing that I have to say about DC civil society. People do ride on the right and walk on the left. When in NYC, I am appalled that this connvention hasn't taken hold. Part of it though, is that in NYC on subways and such, if you're in a hurry, you just go for the stairs anyway.
Posted by benton | Link to this comment | 06-11-06 12:47 PM
The really horrid people are those who stop moving at the top of the escalator, staring wonderingly around them, and thus making it impossible for other people to get off the escalator. I will start carrying a fork in my bag any moment.
Posted by pendlerpiken | Link to this comment | 06-12-06 6:44 AM
The really horrid people are those who stop moving at the top of the escalator, staring wonderingly around them, and thus making it impossible for other people to get off the escalator
These are called tourists, and they make a vital contribution to the economic welfare of your city, so you can't kill them. Comfort yourself that they are building a tenth circle in Hell to accommodate them later.
Posted by OneFatEnglishman | Link to this comment | 06-12-06 7:07 AM