Who decides how fast escalators go?

[Mersadeon]

The title says it all - I sometimes wonder about the most trivial things and can't get them out of my head before I answered them.
Who decides that? The place that owns the escalator, i.e. the mall or train station? Or the manufacturer? And do you change these right there, or can the speed only be set during manufacturing?
And if it is the manufacturer - how do they decide? Is there one norm? Does every manufacturer decide for himself? Do they use statistics for it, like how many tripped at a given speed? IT JUST BOTHERS ME

Captcha: marry me
I didn't know you had those feelings for me, Captcha. Sometimes you're so hard to read.

 

[Comocat]

According to a company that makes them, it is set by local code. For example I learned that escalators in the US cannot not exceed an angle of 30 degrees. Look at page 13 and 14 to begin your quest!

http://www.thyssenkruppelevator.com/downloads/escalatorplanning.pdf

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I think its a secret government psychology test. They change the speeds purposely every once in awhile and study the differences it causes in how people interact while on it.

Use stairs. Stairs will never spy on you.

 

[Someone Depressing]

The fucking assholes at the front who stand in the center, just staying there, and everyone else's too polite to tell them to get the fuck out of the damn way because they have places to be.

...sorry. I went overboard. I think I broke the... no, all of the "Fx" buttons on my keyboard. And the keyboard. It burns when I type.

I think there are rules in each country about how fast they can and can't go.

 

[Mersadeon]

According to a company that makes them, it is set by local code. For example I learned that escalators in the US cannot not exceed an angle of 30 degrees. Look at page 13 and 14 to begin your quest!

http://www.thyssenkruppelevator.com/downloads/escalatorplanning.pdf

Thank you very much! And since that is Thyssenkrupp, I can probably find one of those for my country and compare them. I can finally put my mind at ease.

The fucking assholes at the front who stand in the center, just staying there, and everyone else's too polite to tell them to get the fuck out of the damn way because they have places to be.

...sorry. I went overboard. I think I broke the... no, all of the "Fx" buttons on my keyboard. And the keyboard. It burns when I type.

I think there are rules in each country about how fast they can and can't go.

Yeah, those are the worst. Here, you even have big stickers on the sides and fronts of escalators explaining you should STAND on the right side and GO on the left. It's not hard, people!

 

[Anarchemitis]

The speed is likely set by those most credible, or appointed, to judge what is a safe speed for the amount of traffic that regularly mounts the escalator.

It's also easy to assume that they aren't strong since they move slowly. However, escalators have a deceptively powerful system behind them. They have to be able take weights like 50 tons or more, and not flinch in the slightest, keeping the speed. (80 steps * 3 people standing on each step * 200 pounds for each person = 48000 pounds, not including the weight of the step or the gravity drag of lifting those people higher.)

 

[thiosk]

As stated, building code.

But mostly, those codes were established after visits by

Spoiler: this guy

 

[sky14kemea]

The fucking assholes at the front who stand in the center, just staying there, and everyone else's too polite to tell them to get the fuck out of the damn way because they have places to be.

In the London underground they have an unspoken rule that if you just want to stand on it, you have to be on the left-hand side.

The right hand side is the "fast lane" where people who are in a rush/ just like to walk up the escalators go past you. If you don't follow these rules you get an amazing amount of dirty looks before someone tells you to "move your arse".

OT: This sounds like a Gavin Or Google question, but others have already linked that it's set by a local code, which is actually kind of interesting.

What I've really wanted to know is how sudden is the "Emergency stop" button that's on all of them. I've never seen it used so I have no idea if it's a button that makes it stop dead, or just slows it down really fast. o_o

 

[EvilRoy]

The fucking assholes at the front who stand in the center, just staying there, and everyone else's too polite to tell them to get the fuck out of the damn way because they have places to be.

In the London underground they have an unspoken rule that if you just want to stand on it, you have to be on the left-hand side.

The right hand side is the "fast lane" where people who are in a rush/ just like to walk up the escalators go past you. If you don't follow these rules you get an amazing amount of dirty looks before someone tells you to "move your arse".

OT: This sounds like a Gavin Or Google question, but others have already linked that it's set by a local code, which is actually kind of interesting.

What I've really wanted to know is how sudden is the "Emergency stop" button that's on all of them. I've never seen it used so I have no idea if it's a button that makes it stop dead, or just slows it down really fast. o_o

In Edmonton and a number of other cities in Canada there are actually little plexiglass signs that request people stay right to stand and stay left to walk on escalators. Sometimes they get ignored after a sports game when it's too congested to really move, but otherwise people seem to follow them.

As to the emergency stop buttons - they're typically designed to stop dead although that would be a local code thing again. Its recognized and documented that people can get limbs and clothes caught in the stairs, resulting in mangling or strangulation in some cases, and the stop buttons are designed for those cases. Unfortunately that carries the danger of catapulting people up or down the stairs, but that's a trade you have to make.

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

These are the kinds of questions that I love the internet for. Like, before the internet, you could wonder about this, but unless you really went out of your way you'd never learn the answer. But thanks to the internet, our strange mind can be satisfied!

I had a similar experience with programming recently. I have for a long time wondered what the longest word consisting entirely of "bubble" letters is (that is, letters with enclosed gaps, like abdegopq) and what the longest word with no bubble letters is. Until I learned Javascript, I couldn't even come close to answering the question. But it only took a half hour of scripting to find the answer (for those wondering, "baggage" (along with a bunch of words that aren't commonly used) and "citriculturist/silviculturist").

In short, the present is the future! and its pretty damn cool.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Speaking as an industrial designer, I'd say it's the manufacturer. It's in the manufacturer's best interest to make an escalator that works well, so they'll do their own ergonomics research, or at least I hope they do. You'd be surprised how many companies just make products based on lucky guesswork. There are loads of papers and books that give usuable ergonomic data. Throw in some statistics and you'll find a decent speed at which to operate an escalator. It might involve some user testing, but that's all up to the company in question.

In some cases there will probably be some talk and research with the company who will actually buy the product. Not every situation needs the same type after all. But I doubt there are many specific government guidelines concerning these things. It has to be safe and according to code, but that's basically it.

 

[lacktheknack]

The fucking assholes at the front who stand in the center, just staying there, and everyone else's too polite to tell them to get the fuck out of the damn way because they have places to be.

In the London underground they have an unspoken rule that if you just want to stand on it, you have to be on the left-hand side.

The right hand side is the "fast lane" where people who are in a rush/ just like to walk up the escalators go past you. If you don't follow these rules you get an amazing amount of dirty looks before someone tells you to "move your arse".

And around here, there's signs on the railing of every escalator saying "Stand on the Right". The other difference is that if two assholes block the escalator, everyone behind them coughs politely and shifts awkwardly until we reach the top.

OT: I was going to guess that it was a state/provincial/national code, and it looks like I was right. The escalators all move at the same speed, and it's exactly fast enough to comfortably step on and off without getting impatient on the way up.

 

[Senor Koquonfaes]

The fucking assholes at the front who stand in the center, just staying there, and everyone else's too polite to tell them to get the fuck out of the damn way because they have places to be.

There are worse people, unfortunately. I was once riding an escalator three or four steps behind two elderly ladies standing side-by-side. Once they got to the end, they took one step to dismount, and then just fucking stood there and continued discussing whatever the hell was more urgent than the fact that they were about to get mowed down by me and my ridiculously heavy shopping.

 

[sky14kemea]

True but the wrong way round, you stand on the right and the left is the fast lane, it mirrors the UK road system.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23444086

.... Okay, time to confess. I don't actually know my left from my right, and I was going off memory. ;_;

Thanks for correcting me!

 

[Mersadeon]

Well, since this thread is pretty much done (and thanks again for answering my question! The hivemind did well ), I just wanted to make one last comment on the left-right thing the UK and some associated countries have going:

I once did a short student exchange, and sleeping in a car in England became impossible for me. Whenever my eyes even slightly opened, my brain started panicking "OH MY GOD WE ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE SOMEONE WILL CRASH INTO US AND WE WILL DIE WAKE UP IDIOT SCREAM IN TERROR GRAB THE WHEEL". Just this little moment of utter shock and terror whenever I looked at the street. It always took a few seconds before I realised we were, in fact, on the right (as in, not wrong) side of the road.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

The Gremlins do, of course.


Skip to about 1:38 for relevance.

 

[FalloutJack]

The lowest common denominator does. Failing that, Dara O'Briain [http://www.nme.com/nme-video/dara-obriain---live-clip---saving-lives-nme-exclusive/678806885001], because he's a heroic escalator man.

 

[TallanKhan]

The fucking assholes at the front who stand in the center, just staying there, and everyone else's too polite to tell them to get the fuck out of the damn way because they have places to be.

Thank you God, at last someone else who understands. I once asked a couple who were stood on an escalator holding hands to move to one side so i could pass, the way they looked at me you would have thought i had just murdered a todler...