Conspicuously missing from TFA: any measurement of the escalator's width.
There's no shortage of single-file escalators in NYC. I wildly surmise they're seen as fancier than the two-person-wide kind associated with subway stations and malls.
The Marriott Marquis in Times Square has two single-file escalators side by side — presumably the height of decadent luxury. Video: https://youtu.be/35-2FAI2DKU
Japan has been pushing for people to stand on both sides of the escalator. My dad thought it was due to unbalanced wear. I assumed single-file escalators were more efficient given that most people stand, they want to discourage walking, and it gets rid of the unbalanced load problem.
> A trial in which Holborn's escalators became standing-only improved the speed customers got through the station, Transport for London (TfL) has found.
The USS Hornet, a WWII aircraft carrier set up as a museum ship in Oakland, has a very similar escalator.[1] It's a Westinghouse model, like the one in New York. You can visit and walk the escalator, but it hasn't worked in decades. Carriers had escalators to get many pilots in all their gear from the ready room to the flight deck, fast.
Curious how this guy can positively ascertain this is indeed the narrowest escalator in NYC. I surmise there are many narrow escalators in such an old city which predates the ADA. Has he undertaken a quest to take a shit in every building lobby in NYC (with tape measure in tow) and in the process checks out the escalators?
An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.
Really? I use active elevators in SF literally every day. Embarcadero and Montgomery Bart stations. Where in the city are you with no active escalators?
The Rockefeller Center in general is such a vibe. I was able to see a Seth Meyers taping there a few years ago, and while I obviously enjoyed the show, the building itself is what made the more lasting impression on me— all that black marble and gold trim, you can really feel the weight of a place that knows it's got some history to it.
Saw a Jimmy Fallon taping there a couple years ago, and echo this sentiment! Highly recommend trying to get into a taping if visiting NYC, one of the cheapest fun (and free!) ways to spend an afternoon.
Maintaining these escalators must cost a fortune, not only because it's an old model that probably doesn't exist anywhere else in the world, but also because the US elevator market is completely distinct from the rest of the international market. This leads to higher prices since parts can't be shared.
If the US escalator/elevator market were integrated with the global market, would there be a US escalator/elevator market, or would it have been offshored and the jobs lost?
Linked from that article, there's another article arguing that the US/Canada shouldn't adopt the European standard.
They give some examples of differences, but it's not clear (as a non-expert) whether these are necessary in the US/CA, examples of regulatory capture, or irrelevant details.
Standardization is a huge benefit if as here you can actually standardize so that things become interchangeable. e.g. I went out for an impromptu dinner yesterday, two different people had phones which were low, a friend had a power bank, everything speaks USB C so it all just works. I think one of them was an iPhone? I don't remember the brand of power bank, it doesn't matter, everything uses USB C.
It's not useful where "standardization" means either writing a document everybody agrees but nobody actually implements, or, the document just says do any of six things but each vendor chooses differently, or worst of all the document says it's basically dealer's choice so in practice the standard was worthless. In these cases the "standard" is just a thin barrier to entry, no real benefit to consumers since they can't swap supplier.
This often means accepting that maybe the global standard isn't quite ideal for you in some sense, but must be enforced anyway.
As a kid in Boston, a couple of Subway Stops and an interesting Escalator. They where a bit wider then this one, but had wooden "stairs". But the "stairs" were slanted downward. When wet, you had to be careful. I wish I had taken pictures of them.
They were ripped out in the 70s. I wish they had kept one of them as an historical oddity.
FWIW I have not been there for a while, maybe one I was not aware of still exists :)
https://i.imgur.com/N0oMono.gif
(I don't echo Calvin's sentiment, your comment just lined up so nicely with my memory of this comic that I had to share it)
I have memories of a similar escalator, probably at or near Downtown Crossing.
I don't remember it being made of wood, but I remember it being narrow and slanted downwards and kind of scary. Come to think of it, the station in general was very run down and a bit frightening to ~5yo me.
This would have been in the early to mid eighties.
Woah. The first comment gave me a wave of nostalgia I couldn't place. This must have been it. Couldn't have been older than 4 or 5 last time I was in G Fox.
Because they bought the wrong one which was on sale, so no returns on items on sale. Sometimes, those DIY projects really get expensive with these mistakes, so you end up with odd installs.
I bet it would be outrageously expensive to replace. Escalators aren't cheap to begin with and this one is no doubt built to its own standard so anything you replace it with would have to be heavily customized to fit.
There's a lovely walk in the UK around Lingmoor Fell which has a famous narrow squeeze between a rock and a cliff face called Fat Man's Agony. There's a good photo about half way down this blog post: https://www.walkmyworld.com/posts/lingmoor-fell-side-pike
There's no shortage of single-file escalators in NYC. I wildly surmise they're seen as fancier than the two-person-wide kind associated with subway stations and malls.
The Marriott Marquis in Times Square has two single-file escalators side by side — presumably the height of decadent luxury. Video: https://youtu.be/35-2FAI2DKU
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