>>The stand-on-the-left controversy is no exception. Harrison, Stoneman and their colleagues believe it could make a noticeable impact on congestion at some of London’s busiest stations, congestion that will only get worse as train design, frequency and reliability improve, as the trains get faster and the doors get bigger, and ever more passengers are dumped on the platform at a time.
THAT is a very british approach. Planners know that a problem is approaching, a problem created willingly by infrastructure improvements elsewhere. But rather than address that spillover issue with money/time/new bricks, yet another code of behavior is to be enforced. The people are to shoulder the burden yet again. Heaven help the tourist in a hurry who gets an asbo for not maximizing the carrying capacity of tube escalators. I wait for the day the escalator stops and everyone stands motionless for fear of being ticketed.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyL5mAqFJds where shoddy architecture is answered by suggesting that things will be ok so long as only lightweight people enter the building.
And i thought there was an obesity crisis? They've been telling us for years to keep moving and now here is a government agency telling people to stand motionless? I say encourage people to burn calories by running the escalators in reverse!
In terms of resource use, that is a spectacularly efficient solution. They are not "shouldering" a burden, they are using existing capacity to a fuller extent, which is just about the most efficient solution to any problem anywhere. It's cheap and gets the job done.
Also, frankly, if you're unwilling to follow the local code of conduct, you deserve an asbo/death sentence/stern tut-tutting and disapproving glares.
It is efficient only when the escalator is running near capacity, not when the escalators are less than 1/2 full. I suspect that this experiment will result in new rules to be applied 24/7 no matter whether they are anywhere near capacity.
Why would you expect that? Given how pragmatic most Brits are about rules and etiquette, at least once social norms have been established and people have become used to how things work, your assumption seems rather pessimistic.
> But rather than address that spillover issue with money/time/new bricks, yet another code of behavior is to be enforced
Well it's the opposite isn't it, the current code of behaviour is being removed if anything. You suggest simply building more escalators? How would that not cause yet more congestion problems due to infrastructure upgrades?
It depends on which infrastructure you upgrade. Adding more trains/lines/stations will certainly bring more traffic/passengers. But escalators just move people within stations, they do not add new routes/destinations and so aren't going to bring people to a station that would otherwise not be there.
> escalators just move people within stations, they do not add new routes/destinations and so aren't going to bring people to a station that would otherwise not be there.
They would, if they removed queues. It's not uncommon for people to avoid particular stations because they're often overcrowded, especially if their destination is only slightly further from the previous or next station.
(Transport For London encourage this — the line diagram on Piccadilly Line trains advises against using Covent Garden station in the evening, since it only has lifts, and queues form.)
That's some fine dystopian fiction you've written there. Back in the real world though, its not like there's police enforcing the current norms of standing to the left, pulling people aside to issue tickets for blocking the right hand side. At the worst someone doing so will be asked to move by a walker.
What makes you think we'll suddenly see some sort of escalator police formed to enforce these norms?
THAT is a very british approach. Planners know that a problem is approaching, a problem created willingly by infrastructure improvements elsewhere. But rather than address that spillover issue with money/time/new bricks, yet another code of behavior is to be enforced. The people are to shoulder the burden yet again. Heaven help the tourist in a hurry who gets an asbo for not maximizing the carrying capacity of tube escalators. I wait for the day the escalator stops and everyone stands motionless for fear of being ticketed.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyL5mAqFJds where shoddy architecture is answered by suggesting that things will be ok so long as only lightweight people enter the building.
And i thought there was an obesity crisis? They've been telling us for years to keep moving and now here is a government agency telling people to stand motionless? I say encourage people to burn calories by running the escalators in reverse!