Because the escalators stopped working?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A63fIeInpeM
It is absolutely amazing how stupid people are…the escalators are not moving so instead of stepping along people just stand there waiting for something to change. Meanwhile, the more intelligent are going around those standing on the stopped escalators and walking up the stairway. Sheep follow sheep, and if the sheep don’t move, the rest of the sheep don’t move! Amazing!
Henry, I was absolutely astounded to see the majority of the people just standing, waiting for the escalators to begin moving again. You can wonder about their basic intelligence or their ability to think things through. Of course, if no one in front you is moving up, and there is a solid wall of stationary people in front of you, it is a bit difficult for you to move up.
Henry:
It may not be as it appears. I have been trapped on an escalator in DC. There was a train broken down in the station so a crowd was gathering on the platform. I was fortunate to be there at the beginning and was able to just shove a couple of people at the foot of the escalator out of the way. It angered them, but it enabled my wife, two grandchildren and me to get off the moving escalator. They did, however have to stop the machinery so they could herd the morons to the middle of the platform. Many people behind us were trapped on the escalator for a few minutes. They were NOT waiting for it to move again.
It is as it appears…the escalators are exits. If there was a huge crowd holding things up it would be on street level. You see those on the stairways moving up OK. But that is about a two or three story climb out of the PATH complex and many cannot walk or do not want to walk but rather wait for the escalator. I wonder what the elevators nearby looked like…Oh, and I’ve been there when the escalator is working and the crowd is just as bunched up.
Listen to the announcement at the very beginning of the video and look at the crowd at the top of, but not on, the escalator.
If even a few cannot walk up the stairs no one will be able to move on the escalator. A few years ago I pulled a ligament in my ankle. I could not go up or down stairs. But in Newark Penn Station everything is up or down stairs. I learned that there are elevators. Many are in out of the way places but they are there. And of course, there are escelators up to the tracks. Narrow escelators. Had an eleclator stopped with me on it I could not have walked up or walked down.
Actually, the PATH platforms are on the 7th level underground.
ROAR
My own experience is that railroads, at least in the New York area, have trouble keeping there escalators running that airlines just do not have. I cannot recall an escalator in an airport to be stopped or out of service although it must occasionally happen. At the same time, at any given time there seem to be about a quarter of rail transportation escalators out of service or stopped for no apparent reason and many people walking up several long flights of stairs. I cannot explain why.
Airlines do not run escalators. Airport authorities do. And they are all indoors. And unlike airports with their security and all, NYCT escalators are just simply right there where any orc can tamper with it or push the emergency button just for the fun of it. Things like escalators are just not built for the abuse they receive in New York City Transit.
ROAR
Lion,
I accept your point about airport authorities. But the fact of the matter is I have never known an escalator in an airport to be out of service.
I also understand your point about escalators in the New York City subways and similar places. But that the escalators should be out of service so often is not entirely clear. After all, a country that can send a man to the moon ought to be able to design an escalator that is both vandal resistant and would stand up to the weather. No doubt it would be more expensive. However, no doubt the repair costs could be sgnifiantly reduced.
Finally, this post comes a few days after I have traveled through New York Penn Station. The escalators are indoors and the people using them are fare paying rail riders just as those who use airport elevators are largely fare paying fliers. Yet in the staton a lot of escalators are our of service. I can’t understand why. If you have any insight I would appreciate it but I don’t expect that you will necessarily know the answer.
A lot of vandals ride on the subways, on PATH not so much. This is of course attested to by the graffiti (about which we are not supposed to talk), and while that has been controlled other acts of vandalism have not. Hundreds of school kids get on all at once and each one wants to the the head macho.
Beyond that, the LION cannot say.
ROAR.
Why do you believe subways get a larger proportion of vandals than PATH trains?
And if that is true why aren’t subway escalators built with vandals in mind? After all, turn styles have been made far more vandal proof than they used to be.
The NYCTA Subway probably gets more vandals than PATH for several reasons. It’s larger, it goes into all parts of New York City and it has an incredible passenger volume. Turnstiles are also a revenue source so they are more likely to be armor-plated than an escalator.
Escalators are an Off-the-shelf item. They are made of standardized parts and are required to have an emergency stop switch which is a red flag to vandals.
Turnstiles on the other hand are custom made 100%, and can be built to any specification required. They no longer collect any money so are not as much as a target like they used to be. Vandals do jam the ticket vending machines, and then “sell swipes” at the turnstiles. The vending machines do collect money, and they are armored, but they can still be jammed. MTA spends a lot of money keeping those things working. It would almost be cheaper to put the sales clerk back in the booth.
ROAR
But what I am saying is that escalators don’t have to be off the shelf items, especially escalators that face special problems. No doubt the necessary emergency switches are also a problem. Perhaps if that problem were to be focused on improvements might be found.
Yes, these things are challenges. But if we have the will to face the challenges of space travel why don’t we have the will to face the challenges of getting people to work?
Today’s Daily News reports that subway crime id down significantly since last year:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/donohue-don-fooled-safer-subways-article-1.1284648
There are other reports that it might be reduced further but the MTA dclines ito install security cameras in the large majority of its stations.
Maybe Hurricane Sandy had a hand in this
Nah, this happened the day I posted it.
ROAR
Yes but the cause could be rooted in damage linked to Sandy.