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myenglishisno
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Geumchon
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 Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, this behaviour drives me nuts. I don't think escalators are dangerous and why are so many people to adamant about this one safety issue in a country where you can smoke indoors, run red lights and drive a vehicle on the sidewalk or on a pedestrian walkway...
If you're dumb enough to injure yourself on an escalator then Darwin would say that you probably deserve to die.
I was at those huge escalators in 서울역 for transferring to the airport line and two girls were holding up me and about ten others. When I said 잠시만요 they didn't react so I said it louder and tried pushing. They wouldn't move. I had to practically jump over them to get past and they shrieked because they weren't expecting it. Frustrating. |
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Savant
Joined: 25 May 2007
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:09 am Post subject: |
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It's weird: Koreans drive fast as if the end of the world is coming but walk (meander) as if they have all the time in the world.
How about the Koreans who confidently walk up the left side thinking it's easy just to stop half-way up cause it got too hard and they can't merge into the right side. |
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akcrono
Joined: 11 Mar 2010
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Ribena
Joined: 07 Apr 2011
Location: UK
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:51 am Post subject: Re: Lack of escalator etiquette in Korea |
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| Yaya wrote: |
Ever notice how Koreans will just stand on the left side of the escalator when it should be the passing lane? I hear the Seoul city government tried to get people to stand on the right and pass on the left but it seems to have backtracked.
I've seen this behavior in Manila and other Asian cities as well but I've also had incidents where Koreans wouldn't move and I argued with them. |
People standing on escalators blocking it is common in the UK, unless its London underground where they have lots of signs up telling you where to stand. Of course you still get people standing on the wrong side. Unless the escalator is 10 times bigger than the one at Angel Underground station why get into an argument with anyone about moving. |
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The Floating World
Joined: 01 Oct 2011
Location: Here
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:51 am Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
I give people who stand on the left side the mean look and they move. In Japan, you're supposed to stand on the left side and walk up or down on the right, which is fine by me.
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I've heard the Japanese are about as obsessed with this as the British are about the queue. |
Damned Brits and Japs, placing importance on ettiquete in public! |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:08 am Post subject: |
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| I hate this too. How many people actually get injured from walking on the escalator? Is it any more than the number of people who, say, die from plastic bags every year? There's a risk to everything and if you really wanted to eliminate risk, you'd make the speed limit 10 kph. |
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Ribena
Joined: 07 Apr 2011
Location: UK
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:52 am Post subject: |
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| cdninkorea wrote: |
| I hate this too. How many people actually get injured from walking on the escalator? Is it any more than the number of people who, say, die from plastic bags every year? There's a risk to everything and if you really wanted to eliminate risk, you'd make the speed limit 10 kph. |
Transport For London actually put up figures on posters in the underground about escalator related injuries. I think one of the posters said a high number of them were alcohol related. Not sure about anywhere else but I imagine drunk people were at a much greater risk of falling and injuring themselve on escalators than anyone else. After all its hardly a dangerous activity if you are paying attention. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:55 am Post subject: |
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| The Floating World wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
I give people who stand on the left side the mean look and they move. In Japan, you're supposed to stand on the left side and walk up or down on the right, which is fine by me.
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I've heard the Japanese are about as obsessed with this as the British are about the queue. |
Damned Brits and Japs, placing importance on ettiquete in public! |
Seriously, this is one of the most perplexing things.
Everyone seems in a rush here, but the one thing that would shave serious minutes off your commute is seldom practiced.
The strange thing is I have been at stations where this IS being practiced and everyone is on the right and a clear path goes up the escalator. Get off at the next stop and its like everyone is like you're in some 80s arcade game where you have to swerve and dodge around everyone to get to the top of the mountain. |
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DejaVu
Joined: 27 Jan 2011
Location: Your dreams
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:06 am Post subject: |
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Walking in general makes me so frustrated here. I like to look around while I walk but it's impossible here.
The worst is when people cut corners in subway hallways... that's a dangerous practice. They should put up mirrors to avoid these idiots.
But yes, the Japanese treat it too well, perhaps. I've been pulled to the left side by my Japanese friend when there was no one else in sight... |
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Stout
Joined: 28 May 2011
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 3:30 am Post subject: |
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| There's a lot more to look at in Japan (Tokyo)'s neverending network of underground passages connected to subway stations to department stores, etc. Unfortunately it also brings out a certain breed of, shall we say, spectacle seeker (especailly in the vicinity of escalators, stairwells, and in subway cars). |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:32 am Post subject: Re: Lack of escalator etiquette in Korea |
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| Yaya wrote: |
| I hear the Seoul city government tried to get people to stand on the right and pass on the left but it seems to have backtracked. |
I heard that standing only on one side harms the mechanics of the elevator, and that its better to have the weight evenly spread.
Not sure how much truth there is to this...
| cdninkorea wrote: |
| How many people actually get injured from walking on the escalator? |
Accidents
There have been reports of people falling off a moving escalator or getting their shoe stuck in part of the escalator; shoe laces are a hazard when loose. Some accidents are caused by improper or unsafe use such as riding the hand rails (see bullet points below) or by escalator spinning.
A few fatal accidents are:
Eight people died and 30 more were injured on Wednesday, February 17, 1982, when an escalator collapsed on the Moscow Metro. Wrongly set up service brakes were later blamed for the accident.[6]
31 people died after a fire, begun in the undercarriage of an MH-type Otis escalator, exploded into the ticketing hall at King's Cross St. Pancras station in 1987.
On Monday, December 13, 1999, 8-year-old Jyotsna Jethani was killed at New Delhi's international airport. Jethani fell into a gaping hole that resulted from improper maintenance.[7]
On Saturday, June 15, 2002, Andrea Albright, a 24-year-old J.C. Penney employee in Columbia, Maryland, was critically injured while riding the store's escalator from the first to the second level, and died from her injuries 10 days later. She somehow got her head caught between the escalator rail and a low ceiling. In 2005, her parents sued the property manager, two design firms, and the escalator company for $5 million.[8]
On Wednesday, July 2, 2003, 30 people were injured when an escalator at Coors Field in Denver malfunctioned, and one victim eventually had to have a leg amputated. The accident is believed to have been caused by a combination of overcrowding and an improperly installed safety switch. [9][10]
On Friday, December 31, 2004, escalators at the Taipei City Hall Station kept moving commuters onto the overcrowded island platform. A woman whose hair got caught in the escalator received 20 stitches to the scalp.[11]
Francisco Portillo, a Salvadoran sushi chef, died after being strangled when his sweatshirt got caught in an escalator at the Porter Square MBTA station in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 21, 2005. He was allegedly drunk at the time.[12]
On Saturday, September 13, 2008, an 11-year old boy died after falling off an escalator in Lyngdal, Norway.[13] On Monday, April 20, 2009, a teenage boy died after getting very serious skull injuries after falling off an escalator in Falun, Sweden.[14] On Friday, June 26, 2009, a man died after falling off an escalator in Helsingborg, Sweden.[15] All three were riding the handrail.
On Tuesday, July 6, 2011, a 13-year old boy was killed and dozens of people were injured when they were thrown off an escalator that suddenly changed direction in a busy Beijing subway station. In response to concerns regarding China's safety standards, officials have identified the manufacturers of the escalator as a possible reason for the accident. The escalator was built by Otis and was still in its guarantee period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalator |
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actionjackson
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Location: Any place I'm at
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 4:48 am Post subject: |
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| DejaVu wrote: |
| Walking in general makes me so frustrated here. I like to look around while I walk but it's impossible here. |
Just might have solved this one. It's the cell phone's fault.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019172628.htm
Furthermore, the cell phone users had difficulties performing even the simple task of walking, an action that should require relatively few cognitive resources. They walked more slowly, changed direction more often, were prone to weaving, and acknowledged other individuals more rarely. |
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Ribena
Joined: 07 Apr 2011
Location: UK
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:22 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| 31 people died after a fire, begun in the undercarriage of an MH-type Otis escalator, exploded into the ticketing hall at King's Cross St. Pancras station in 1987. |
There was alot of investigation into this incident. It would never happen now. It didn't really explode. There was a fire that spread from beneath the escalator because parts of it were still made from wood and smoking was still permitted in the underground at this time. A lit cigarette fell down the side of the escalator igniting collected dust and spread to wodden escalator fixtures.
Most of the accidents with escalator are due to technical faults, its not dangerous if they are properly maintained and your not acting like an idiot on one.
You mention a lady got her hair caught in an escalator, I'm curious how this happened. How did her head come near any moving part of the escalator unless she was on the ground at the time. |
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fermentation
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:44 am Post subject: |
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| Walking on an escalator is more dangerous than running into moving traffic or running red lights. |
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:12 am Post subject: Re: Lack of escalator etiquette in Korea |
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That explains it. When I first came here, the left side was almost always clear for movers. More recently it's almost always blocked by someone standing still. |
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