Express Escalator |
January 9th, 2013 |
| ideas |
While in general we probably run escalators at a good speed-safety tradeoff, considering the variety of people riding them, when you have two you ought to be able to run one faster and one slower and do better. You'd need to put up clear signs so people could choose which one to take, and you'd need to make sure that traffic patterns weren't going to push people onto the fast escalator when it's not good for them.
Looking at escalator safety, it doesn't sound like people falling over when getting on or off is a problem. Instead people get hurt when their clothing gets caught, escalators catch fire, or people ride on the railings and fall off.
A bit of looking suggests ASME A17.1 specifies escalator speeds:
6.1.4.1 Limits of Speed. The rated speed shall be not more than 0.5 m/s (100 ft/min), measured along the centerline of the steps in the direction of travel.How fast is that maximum (1.1mph) compared to normal escalators? Has anyone done experiments on the maximum safe escalator entrance and exit velocities?
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If the escalator is long enough to bother, how about having a moving sidewalk at either end at half speed so there's less delta?
@Peter has anyone solved the problem of escalator-to-escalator transfer-at-speed? I think that's required for your suggestion.
Apparently escalator steps are required to be at least 16" deep and at most 9" rise. Using those numbers, the diagonal distance is about .47 meters. So the max speed is about 1 step per second which feels like the normal speed. It's really too bad we can't make them faster.
I wonder what sort of things could be done to reduce things getting caught in railings and such. I wonder if you could make the walls move at the same speed as the railings and such. Keep everything that is still well away from the user.
I've seen moving-sidewalk to moving-sidewalk transfer at speed.
@Peter Where? The only system I know of for doing this is the one they used to have in Paris where people would stand on metal rollers and let the handrail accelerate them to full speed before they got on the main walkway. But people kept falling over and they had to abandon it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trottoir_roulant_rapide
I've been on two speeds of moving walkway, with the slower leading into the faster (and back to slower at the other end) in an airport somewhere. But no idea where offhand. Don't remember how the handrail worked.
I think some stops on the Tube in London have barriers around entries and (I think) exits of escalators, presumably to keep the area clear during crowding. I think SFO's rental car area has a similar thing for getting onto the people-mover after you drop off your car.
@David German Your expanding/contracting proposal exists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIjO41aIjbk
Apparently people don't die.
I think I've been on that Toronto one. Also, I remember thinking the escalators in the Budapest metro system went (uniformly) noticeably faster than US escalators, but I will admit that I didn't measure in any way.
I remember the ones in Russia going much faster.
As I remember the Budapest metro system also has trains that open the doors before they come to a full stop in the station. The safety/speediness trade-off that they make is different than the one used in the US.
@Katherine , I don't remember the doors opening while the train was moving, but I do remember that they would close on your umbrella (or your arm) and stay closed. (I saw this happen to an umbrella and am inferring about the arm.) So definitely a different safety/speed trade-off!
In this more comprehensive (and goofy) video, it looks like the Toronto walkway expands by a factor of 3 or 4. Now I want to go to YYZ just to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9yUrur6N8Q