Why is it that you can have everyone on an escalator standing on the right
yet there's always one muppet tourist standing on the left who doesn't
seem to clock that fact? Where do these people leave their brains when they
visit London?

--
Spud

On Thu, 25 Jul 2013 10:02:41 +0000 (UTC),
d wrote:

Why is it that you can have everyone on an escalator standing on the right
yet there's always one muppet tourist standing on the left who doesn't
seem to clock that fact? Where do these people leave their brains when they
visit London?

It's usually groups of two or more people who stand side-by-side,
chatting. They're probably from places where you don't get a stream of
people walking up and down escalators. Indeed, even in London, people
don't usually walk up and down escalators in shopping centres.

Here's an example I took of people just standing and not walking on
even a very long escalator to one of the world's deepest metros:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/recline...57633424928749

On Thu, 25 Jul 2013 12:41:21 +0100
Recliner wrote:
On Thu, 25 Jul 2013 10:02:41 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

Why is it that you can have everyone on an escalator standing on the right
yet there's always one muppet tourist standing on the left who doesn't
seem to clock that fact? Where do these people leave their brains when they
visit London?

It's usually groups of two or more people who stand side-by-side,
chatting. They're probably from places where you don't get a stream of
people walking up and down escalators. Indeed, even in London, people
don't usually walk up and down escalators in shopping centres.

Here's an example I took of people just standing and not walking on
even a very long escalator to one of the world's deepest metros:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/recline...57633424928749

I guess when the escalator is SO long then no one will want to walk up anyway
it makes sense to allow standing on both sides.

--
Spud

In article , d
() wrote:

Why is it that you can have everyone on an escalator standing on the right
yet there's always one muppet tourist standing on the left who doesn't
seem to clock that fact? Where do these people leave their brains when
they visit London?

It appears to be a London-only convention. IME most people respond to a
polite "please stand on the right" request.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Thu, 25 Jul 2013 07:09:48 -0500,
wrote:

In article , d
() wrote:

Why is it that you can have everyone on an escalator standing on the right
yet there's always one muppet tourist standing on the left who doesn't
seem to clock that fact? Where do these people leave their brains when
they visit London?

It appears to be a London-only convention. IME most people respond to a
polite "please stand on the right" request.

I saw an even worse blockage at Heathrow T3 last Sunday. An Indian
family decided to stop to have a discussion just before a moving
walkway. Other pax were swerving both sides of them, but they remained
impervious to the traffic jam they were causing.

Once on it, there doesn't seem to be much of a convention which side
one should stand or walk on while travelling on a moving walkway.

In message , at 13:18:14 on
Thu, 25 Jul 2013, Recliner remarked:

family decided to stop to have a discussion just before a moving
walkway. Other pax were swerving both sides of them, but they remained
impervious to the traffic jam they were causing.

Tourists often stop dead in their tracks at the top of escalators, or in
the town where I live a significant proportion of the residents stop
dead about a foot inside any shop they enter (and then again a foot
outside when they exit). And that's if they haven't stopped *in* the
doorway to have a conversation with someone.

I suppose you'd have to be new to the area to notice it.

Try that in most big cities and you'd be flattened!
--
Roland Perry

On 25/07/2013 14:03, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:18:14 on
Thu, 25 Jul 2013, Recliner remarked:

family decided to stop to have a discussion just before a moving
walkway. Other pax were swerving both sides of them, but they remained
impervious to the traffic jam they were causing.

Tourists often stop dead in their tracks at the top of escalators, or in
the town where I live a significant proportion of the residents stop
dead about a foot inside any shop they enter (and then again a foot
outside when they exit). And that's if they haven't stopped *in* the
doorway to have a conversation with someone.

I suppose you'd have to be new to the area to notice it.

Try that in most big cities and you'd be flattened!

What I really hate is how people stop just before getting on an
escalator and then wait so they can put their foot at the exact centre
of a footplate.

That is truly annoying.

On Thu, 25 Jul 2013 07:09:48 -0500,
wrote:

[Standing on the right]
It appears to be a London-only convention. IME most people respond to a
polite "please stand on the right" request.

I've seen it all over Europe. "Rechts stehen, links gehen", or simply
an icon showing someone standing on the right and walking on the left
(difficult to show on one image!). Not always self-enforced, but
seems to work in Paris, for example.

Richard.

wrote in message
...
In article , d
() wrote:

Why is it that you can have everyone on an escalator standing on the
right
yet there's always one muppet tourist standing on the left who doesn't
seem to clock that fact? Where do these people leave their brains when
they visit London?

It appears to be a London-only convention. IME most people respond to a
polite "please stand on the right" request.

I say "excuse me, please" while my body language conveys that I am intending
to pass on the left.

That works, usually.

--
Brian
"Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."

Brian Watson wrote:
wrote in message
...
IME most people respond to a polite "please stand on the right"
request.

I say "excuse me, please" while my body language conveys that I am intending
to pass on the left.

My version: "Welcome to name-of-city, please stand on the right side!"