The Manhattan Project
Morning Roundup: Second Helpings Edition
Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
Compromise Uncertain on Same-Sex Marriage Law
Sculpture Garden Ice-Skating Rink Remains Closed
Unsuck DC Metro looks back in time at a novel proposal ever so briefly considered by WMATA, one that never loses its commonsensical appeal: Screw the broken escalators, let's have stairs! A look at the minutes from the 2006 Customer Service, Operations and Safety Committee meeting finds that Metro could save some $1.2 million in annual operating expenses by replacing escalators with stairs -- you know, turning the escalators off -- at some 14 Metro stations. Stations with three or more escalators were only to see one set of escalators turned into stairs (but why?), while stations with those 12 kilometer-long escalators like Tenleytown would be unaffected (but why not?).
It's my understanding that the disabled and the elderly are advised to take Metro's elevators and to plot their Metro routes by elevator availability whenever using Metro. So the argument that strikes me as the obvious case against stairs is mitigated. On the other hand, stairs promote health and would save the Metro system money. On the other other hand, it seems that at any given time there are a fixed number of Metro escalators that are (broken) stairs anyway.
Would stairs slow ridership? Would tourists make moving onto and off of station platforms even more difficult if they were responsible for their own locomotion? Would this happen on a large scale? My guess: Like all healthy, cost-saving measures, the change would be both positive and super annoying.
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lots of nyc subway riders get by without escalators. but then again most of their stations arent 1000 feet below sea level
and don't forget all the ramps in NYC.
Do you think DCers could handle gentle inclines without protest?
Do you think DCers could handle gentle inclines without protest?
I don't know. But I'm pretty sure the tourists would just stand on the left of the ramps.
If they made escalators into stairs, don't you think most people would just cram into the elevators instead of letting the elderly and people with strollers on first?
Oh and a thing about people with strollers on the metro (in the zoo, in the supermarket, etc.) they're not weapons. Please stop ramming them into me and then getting mad at me for not giving your ability to spawn enough deference... **rolls eyes**
I just wish the morons with the strollers would stop taking them on the escalators. There are notices against this posted on the escalators, but Metro doesn't enforce them - unlike the anti-bike notices.
(And as an aside: Mitch Hedberg, definitely gone too soon.)
I would pay a million bucks to see Monkey tackle the stairs at Dupont...
Better Dupont than *ahem* Rosslyn.
i bet congress would find dedicated funding for escalators or someone would notice that the constitution demands escalators.
in other words, fat chance.
Ugh what a dumb idea... people just switch to using elevators and since they're out most of the time that could be a problem... I wouldn't mind using stairs at most of the green line stations or other stations that are a reasonable depth... but at Dupont?! Oh HELL NO! I'm winded by the time I get to the top there if I walk up... ick!