Yesterday, we begged Metro for a better PA system. Today, in the second installment of our newest transit feature, What Metro Wants, we go international: London, to be exact.

Stand Right Signage: While in London recently, we observed that the Underground had made an effort to remind riders to stand to the right when using the system’s many escalators. The result was nothing short of absolute escalator efficiency — coupled with the frantic London pace, riders coming in or out of stations took the escalators with ease, rarely fearing the errant tourist blocking the left-side lane of walking traffic on the escalators. Even the most clueless of tourists seemed to understand that the Underground’s default pace is that of the fastest rider on the escalator, and for their own sake, they should step to the right. Metro used to have these signs. We don’t understand why they were taken down. It would be a significant step forward in tourist-resident relations — especially in the coming travel-heavy months — if Metro once again took to reminding the blissfully unaware of the system’s most basic etiquette: Stand right, walk left.

Faster Escalators: The Underground, much like Metro, relies heavily on escalators to get riders from platform to platform and in and out of stations. All told, the system has some 410 escalators. But unlike Metro, the Underground’s escalators run at a breakneck speed (well, for escalators) of 145 feet per minute, moving roughly 10,000 people per hour. While we don’t know how fast Metro runs their escalators, we know it’s somewhere on the lower end of the scale, possibly closer to 90 feet per minute. We’re not advocating that they dramatically ramp up the speed of the system’s escalators, but a little boost might do wonders for moving people in and out more quickly.

Picture of sign snapped by DCist Martin, picture of escalator taken by MatthewBradley.