Escalator technology (1 Viewer)

[EdR]

OK, this is a weird complaint, but has anyone else noticed how lame escalators are in terms of reliability?

I commute via subway every day (I live in San Francisco), and it never ceases to amaze me how often escalators fail. At least once a week, an escalator in either of the stations I enter/exit from is out of service. Sometimes a repair crew has it disassembled, other times it's just roped off.

Sure, most of the time the failed escalators are the ones exposed to the weather (which here is just rain), but if escalators can't handle rain, then why aren't they covered up with an awning or something??

What bothers me isn't so much the incovenience, walking up stairs isn't that big a deal (Yet, that is. I'm only in my 30s). What bothers me is the obvious cost of keeping them running...it seems like such a waste, an exorbidantly high-maintenence technology.

I'm not a person prone to conspiracy theories, but as I walk by the repair crews, who sometimes take an entire week to get the thing running, I can't help but wonder if the failures aren't an accident. If they are truly failing due to normal wear and tear, why do we settle for such awful technology? Are there no improvements to be made to the basic design to make them more reliable? Have we really reached the pinnacle of escalator design?

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Perhaps you should recommend they invest in a ESCalibrator™ as featured in the December 1997 issue of Elevator World Magazine.

If you can think of it... there's probably a magazine devoted to it.

 

[Leila Dougan]

Dave, if a 5 year old article is the best you can find, perhaps this is part of the problem! You'd think there's be SOME sort of innovation in the last 5 years.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I've stopped an escalator once. There were a bunch of people on it and I twisted the hand rails and rubbed my feet against the sides "applying brakes". The escalator went into auto shut off mode and it stopped moving.

I'm just glad I didn't get in trouble.

IMO, most escalators are for the handicapped or lazy. Why not climb a few stairs, it's better for your health.

 

[EdR]

What's funny is that the article seems to be about a product designed to find escalator faults earlier and easier...which is porbably quite useful. But it seems to me the problem is with the design of escalators and/or the fact that they should be covered to keep the elements out.

IMO, most escalators are for the handicapped or lazy.

I suspect there's a mass foot-traffic control use as well. In places like transit terminals, airports, etc where a lot of people walk, escalators alleviate botllenecks. It's obvious that when the escalator is down, it's much slower getting up the stairs, a big glob of people gathers around the base of the stairs waiting to climb. When the escalator is in service, this doesn't happen.

 

[Todd K]

It may also be the case the modern escalators are simply the best we can do, technology wise.

I've often thought the same thing about human eyesight -- how many people do you know in your life have poor vision or need corrective lenses? Probably quite a lot. But, there's nothing we can do about, so you just have to wear glasses (or in the elevator's case, keep making repairs as needed).

 

[EdR]

Yes, it could be the case that we've reached the pinnacle...but for some reason I doubt this. I don't have any facts to back up my position, but from my observations, it seems to me that escalators havent changed much, if at all, since I first started paying attention to them as a kid. Of course, I dont typically see the inner workings, but by all appearances, they are identical to ones in operation 25 years ago.

I've often thought the same thing about human eyesight -- how many people do you know in your life have poor vision or need corrective lenses?

Well, we aren't in control of the design of our eyes (yet). Eyes are also living, organic things which change over time. Eyes are 'designed' by evolution, which can only work with the materials available from prior generations and mutations in the genome...not an ideal process for designing anything complicated...of couse, evolution does have one thing in abundance - time. In a couple billion years, eyes have evolved many times independently. Owls have amazing eyes, humans have decent eyes, bats have poor eyes. But I digress...

The basic point is that we do have control over the desin of escalators, but we seem to have settled on a design with a good deal of inherent flaws. Maybe it is the best possible, but, again, I find that hard to believe.

 

[Allen_Appel]

An escalator is also constantly running, unlike, say, an elevator, so it's more prone to breakdowns.

 

[Mark Fitzsimmons]

Breakdowns?

The best thing about escalators is that they never break. They become stairs.

 

[EdR]

The best thing about escalators is that they never break. They become stairs.

If only that were true. Alas, the crew that fixes the escalator might not agree with you. Afterall, the can't fix it with people walking on it.

Besides that, usually the subway workers rope off the escalator if it's not working.

 

[Holadem]

Dave, if a 5 year old article is the best you can find, perhaps this is part of the problem! You'd think there's be SOME sort of innovation in the last 5 years.

My company just announced one I believe. I have no idea what it is, we almost never deal with escalators in my department, just elevators, which are electrically are infinitely more complex systems. It is a fascinating world, really.

--
Holadem

 

[Francois Caron]

IMO, most escalators are for the handicapped or lazy. Why not climb a few stairs, it's better for your health.

In the Montreal subway system (the Métro) where the tunnels were dug deep underground, there are plenty of stations that are about five floors deep. One of them is actually close to TEN floors deep! That's way too many steps to walk up especially if you have packages with you!

BTW, our escalators work very well. However, the down escalators are often shut down during rush hour in order to save electricity.

 

[Todd Hochard]

Consider that most systems were probably designed many years ago, when the population was much "lighter." The obesity epidemic has placed excessive loads on the drive motors, causing increased failure.

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

Consider that most systems were probably designed many years ago, when the population was much "lighter." The obesity epidemic has placed excessive loads on the drive motors, causing increased failure.

And the irony being that with the advent of escalators, more people opted to use them, thus leading to burning less calories...thus gaining more weight over time...and causing breakdowns. Escalators are victims of their own success

Bruce

 

[StephenA]

My local Barnes and Noble only has escalators to get to and from the second floor that break down often, which sucks. No stairs, and no elevator. When they break down, it's like you're at a traffic stop, because a few go up one side then a few come down while the other side is roped off or being fixed. Very inefficient. At least the local mall has and an elevator with the escalators.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

If you can think of it... there's probably a magazine devoted to it.

anyone else reminded of the george carlin bit about magazines? "can you believe they actually have a fucking magazzzzziinnneeeee, called WALKING! look dave, heres a new article, its called putting one foot in front of the other"

CJ

 

[McPaul]

It's not the weather, our escalators are always broken too, but are inside the stations, above ground. It's kids, plain and simple. We get tons of kids hanging around the stations playing on the escalator, I've seen so many announcements from 'transit security' telling them to get off the escalator, but it never happens. They are starting to make smoking on platforms a fineable offense, they should probably start fining the kids who 'break' the escalators.

I hate it when you're with someone getting off a train, really busy talking, you step on the escalator, and it takes you a minute to realize that you're not going anywhere!

but you're right, you should not be able to break these. How about moving sidewalks at airports, etc, how are they for reliability?

anyone remember the Simpson's elevator to nowhere?

 

[Tony-B]

Don't complain about the escalators being broken. As the comedian Mich Hedberg said "Escalators never break down. They only become stairs... Escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience."

 

[Max Leung]

Boy I hope NASA or some other space agency builds a more reliable space escalator than the ones I've seen in the malls lately.

You definitely don't want a kid to hit the shiny red candy-like Emergency Stop button in the midst of lifting a 1 billion spy satellite into low-earth orbit!

And there'll probably be some smart-ass astronaut that tries to run down the escalator when it is going up. That's annoying.