I usually camp at the bottom, waiting for the crowd to disperse, then grab the powerup and use it efficiently.
You do realize this means that you probably get to the top slower than if you just stood on it, right? :)
Just like you may choose not to grab Double Damage if you don't have an appropriate weapon you are most effective with while having DD, but could decide to defend it for a teammate who is coming a long who is appropriately equipped.
At least I have chicken.
According to the article, the problem they had was that on really long escalators, not many people bothered to run, so the capacity was indeed too low.
The solution is simple: cattle prods for people on the left who run too slow. That'll get them up it faster. Seriously, what a bunch of lazy people. I can understand elderly or obese people not running up the escalator (which is why the right needs to be reserved for them), but the rest of you have no excuse.
Here in Washington, DC, for instance, our Metro system has several escalators that are 200 feet or more in length (http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/23038/what-are-the-...). The longest one, in the station in suburban Wheaton, Maryland, is 230 feet long and climbs 115 feet vertically over that length. (Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheaton_station#/media/File:Wh...) Long, steep escalators like that make a challenging climb even for the young and fit.
Granted, the individual spans are less than that, but if you can rest on a landing between spans, you can also just... well, ride the step you're on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central–Mid-Levels_escalator_a...
Long, steep escalators like that make a challenging
climb even for the young and fit.
The normal situation with escalators on the tube is that the flow of people onto the escalators is less than that which would cause a queue to build up.
That is not surprising, as the system has been designed so that there is sufficient capacity on the escalators to handle the flow of people.
However, at one or two stations during rush hour the situation can be different.
Sometimes the flow of people can be such that a queue builds up.
It is debatable, though, what would happen then if people walked on both sides of the escalator.
The queue would not move twice as fast, as people will not walk on side by side.
Another problem is that people with luggage take more than one person's width.
Standing two abreast may jam up the escalator, so that people are unable to get off easily at the top.
Yes, the problem is the people crowding right to stand still. People that won't even make the effort to climb the escalator at all should just stay home with fast-food delivery and watch their butts grow. The rest of us have places to go and enjoy making a little effort to get there.
Instead of walk-left, stand right it should be walk right, run left, and stand at home where serious people don't have to waste time queueing behind you.
There is no reason for anyone to run up an escalator unless they are in a hurry, and it's only going to save them a couple seconds. Then you are still going to get stuck behind a crowd of people walking up a regular stairs or hallway, where people aren't expected to crowd to the right for you to run past. Why should it be different on escalators?
* According to current knowledge.
Some people, the goal is to expend the least energy. For some, it's to accomplish more things faster. This is true in realms outside of escalators, and in fact in all of life.
In theory possibly but I've never seen that. It's rare for standing passengers to be one per step. In the real world it's probably 3 per 4 steps standing, 1 per 4 steps walking. I think what we need are coordinated escalator classes taught in a similar manner to ballet, for greater utilisation.
The standers are creating the rate-limiting bottleneck, basically. I suspect that even if the mix is 50:50 walkers:standers, the walkers will spread apart more. You probably need something like 60:40 or 70:30 to fill the walking side to better capacity. Or some priority line for walkers, long before the escalator, so that walkers can aggregate together from the get-go. Let all the walkers rush by, and then the remaining standers can use both sides.
Example:
Suppose 300 people get off the same train, and face a long escalator. Nobody wants to walk, except for five people. Also, everyone respects the "stand on one side" rule.
Now suppose those five people are mixed randomly into the crowd. They have to wait for all these walkers to board the escalator and end up spaced far apart from each other. Perhaps by the time the second walker gets on the escalator, the first one is already at the top.
Now suppose that the walkers are given priority access, through a separate queue. (Which they should: I mean everyone is already reserving half the escalator for these guys, yet not letting them get to it, right?) So now, these five people can just march straight to the escalator as a group, get on it, and march on up, remaining closely packed. After that, no more walkers are left in the fast queue. Moreover, everyone else can see that. So, then remaining people start using the full escalator.
Problem (mostly) solved, all-round.
This is almost the behavior I seen in Japanese train stations. There isn't a formal separation of queues, but just about. People separate themselves into walkers or standers based on their intent and start to line up accordingly before reaching the escalator.