LA Metro has some of the slowest escalators on Earth

bbig_toast 2 days ago 26 commentsRead Article on basin.la

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dmurray•3 minutes ago

Some stations in Prague were at 200 cm/s, according to some sources, before EU regulations cut it to a maximum of 90 cm/s (TFA puts Prague at 65 cm/s.

I can't find a better source for just how fast the Prague escalators were, but as an occasional user they seemed more than twice as fast as London or Paris which TFA gives as 65-75 cm/s.

They felt dangerous to step onto, but I never saw anyone actually have an accident. The metro in Prague is also deeper than most.

[0] https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/prague-s-speedy-len...

arionhardison•about 1 hour ago

I lived in DTLA for several years and regularly used Little Tokyo/Arts District station. It was not uncommon during peak hours to see people - myself included sliding down the railing.

I am 43 years old now and was much younger then (27-35) but I remember these days fondly. Now I live in NYC where public transit it so much better that this and many other issues that plague LA (especially the redline) do not exist but I do miss those days and look back on them fondly.

I still have at least 1 scar I can attribute to trying this whilst wearing the wrong pants (in terms of fabric).

raegis•9 minutes ago

> I lived in DTLA for several years and regularly used Little Tokyo/Arts District station. It was not uncommon during peak hours to see people - myself included sliding down the railing.

The Little Tokyo stop had no stairs or escalators before 2023, since it was at grade then. Do you mean a different stop?

Also, the busiest stations with huge escalator length, like Union Station or Wilshire/Vermont, have so much open space that escalators are rarely a bottleneck in my experience. 7th St/Metro station is crazy crowded, but the escalators are short and people usually give you room to run down the escalator.

The only station I worry about for future congestion is the Grand Ave station, which has no escalators, but is so deep that you have to take an elevator since walking stairs is not reasonable except for emergencies.

TylerE•about 1 hour ago

Unfortunately NY transit sucks if you're disabled and can't deal with stairs.

arionhardison•38 minutes ago

I didn't know this but given the multiple: "This is an accessible station" alerts it makes sense. Hopefully this is something that can change soon.

lokar•25 minutes ago

A bunch of the congestion fee $ is going towards more elevators (and maintenance).

rayiner•31 minutes ago

> It was not uncommon during peak hours to see people - myself included sliding down the railing

How uncivilized. Never saw anything like this in DC.

cucumber3732842•6 minutes ago

Yeah of course. Because DC, the seat of f-ing government, attracts the boot lickers and the compliant like no tomorrow. The metro could be on fire and people would go through the fire to exit before they went out an entrance.

Many years ago I ran out of gas in DC traffic but was luckily able to coast the shoulder to an exit ramp and make it to a gas station across the intersection only barely running a red light in the process.

I was followed by not one, but two "very clearly law enforcement but not beat cop" types who proceeded to heckle me about how riding the shoulder is illegal and it's a $500 fine and blah, blah, blah. I was young then and just kinda shrugged it off. These days I'm old and jaded and hate people like that and I don't know if I'd have the self control to de-escalate that kind of thing.

neom•28 minutes ago

Wonder if this article was inspired by this youtube video that came out a few weeks back. One of my top 5 watches of the month I'd hazard.

Where are the fastest escalators in the world? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWJot1Q2LgY

gniv•about 2 hours ago

I remember taking the escalators in Moscow in the 80s and thinking they were freakishly fast. According to this article they are not that fast. I wonder if they lowered the speed or it was just my lack of familiarity with long escalators.

clan•about 1 hour ago

You are not wrong. I have tried some of the faster ones in Prague and Kiev. The difference in numbers does not sound like much but it sure does in real life.

The speed combined with the wind can be quite wild.

You might also enjoy this comparison with London:

https://youtu.be/UWJot1Q2LgY

The video also explains that escalator speed is now set via international standards.

lostlogin•23 minutes ago

That video is surprisingly interesting.

Thank you.

qurren•about 1 hour ago

I thought the escalators in the Budapest metro were pretty damn fast. I went there in 2005, not sure if they've changed them since.

Barbing•about 1 hour ago

> [increasing speeds would save] about 670,000 hours a year.

Are they the bottleneck? How many fewer/additional injuries would result from increasing escalator speeds? (Do people get good thinking done during their climbs and descents?)

Anyway, using the escalator would mean not jogging up/down the stairs as is my instinct.

lostlogin•19 minutes ago

According to the video from clan, speeding up escalators above about .75m/s results people leaving gaps between each other, so the speed increase is negated by a volume decrease.

big_toast•2 days ago

LA: 0.46 meters/s (1 mph)

Hong Kong: 0.75 meters/s (1.7 mph)

Kyiv: 0.9 meters/s (2 mph)

Kinda slower than I expected in general. I assume the speed is mostly dictated by boarding/alighting safety.

cucumber3732842•4 minutes ago

3mph is a pretty solid walk. 2 doesn't sound bad for an escalator.

Animats•about 2 hours ago

Kyiv subway stations are also air raid shelters.[1] They may have decided that running the escalators fast to get people to safety is worth the risk.

[1] https://visitkyiv.com/visitor-essentials/kyiv-shelter-map/

lostlogin•18 minutes ago

> Kyiv subway stations are also air raid shelters

When building them, they probably didn’t expect to be hiding from Russian attacks.

fragmede•3 minutes ago

That would be a naive reading of the history of the USSR.

big_toast•27 minutes ago

I was wondering if there’s something different about the escalator manufacturer or design. Like longer landing areas or boarding area with extended hand rails. If you had any familiarity with them.

jen20•about 1 hour ago

They were running much faster than the “west” in 2015-2020 too, so I doubt that is the reason.

nephihaha•about 1 hour ago

That was standard across major Soviet cities.

Neywiny•about 2 hours ago

The longest escalators in the Eastern hemisphere, at Wheaton Metro, which I've ridden many times, are apparently the same speed according to Wikipedia. So my gut feeling of maybe they did that because maybe they're short doesn't hold

talon8635•about 2 hours ago

Decades of fecal matters gumming up the gears

amelius•about 2 hours ago

That's what smartphoness are for ...