7 ms·
Considering that an escalator is one of the few real-life powerups available outside of a video game, not walking up it is tantamount to wasting it, both travel
by thwarted 11y ago
Considering that an escalator is one of the few real-life powerups available outside of a video game, not walking up it is tantamount to wasting it, both traveling up and down. Like getting Haste and then just standing there, or being able to Deal Double Damage and not hitting the trigger.
I usually camp at the bottom, waiting for the crowd to disperse, then grab the powerup and use it efficiently.
- harryh 11y agoIf you walk while on the escalator, you spend less time on it, and gain less of an advantage from using it.
- sandworm101 11y agoIt depends. Sometimes the best time to speed is when something else is already accelerating you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberth_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberth_effect
- OscarCunningham 11y agoI don't think this is one of those cases though. See Terry Tao's take on a similar problem about when to tie your shoelace: https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/an-airport-inspired-puzzle/ https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/an-airport-inspire...
- mjhoy 11y agoI believe that is specific to how rocket engines work. I once thought it applied to bicycles, but that must be some other phenomenon...
- mabbo 11y agoDepends what you're optimizing for- energy or time. Some people, the goal is to expend the least energy. For some, it's to accomplish more things faster. This is true in realms outside of escalators, and in fact in all of life.
- harryh 11y agoSure, but "I usually camp at the bottom, waiting for the crowd to disperse, then grab the powerup and use it efficiently." optimizes for neither.
- corin_ 11y agoThe powerup can equally be used for "more speed" or "less energy", just because you prefer the first it doesn't mean others shouldn't opt for the second.
- colechristensen 11y agoIt's less energy whether or not you walk.
- p1mrx 11y agoIt's not less energy if you walk infinitely fast.
- louthy 11y agoThat sounds like a massive problem
- obastani 11y agoActually, it is a problem strictly for the massless :)
- mikiem 11y agoReally, for the masses.
- JeremyBanks 11y agoLeave the pun threads on Reddit, please.
- louthy 11y agoThis coming from someone who's previous comment was "Are you high?". Perhaps keep your lectures to yourself?
- jedberg 11y ago> I usually camp at the bottom, waiting for the crowd to disperse, then grab the powerup and use it efficiently. You do realize this means that you probably get to the top slower than if you just stood on it, right? :)
- thwarted 11y agoThe goal may not be to get to top faster, that is just one possible interpretation of efficiency. Dealing with the crowd and being bumped as people millaround vying for position isn't desirable either. Just like you may choose not to grab Double Damage if you don't have an appropriate weapon you are most effective with while having DD, but could decide to defend it for a teammate who is coming a long who is appropriately equipped. At least I have chicken.
- Houshalter 11y agoThere's nothing wrong with running up the escalator. The issue is people crowding to the right to make room for the people doing it, which decreases the capacity for everyone else.
- Grishnakh 11y agoOnly if the number of people running is small. If there's a large enough number of people running up the escalator, then the capacity will be increased over everyone standing. It's quite simple. According to the article, the problem they had was that on really long escalators, not many people bothered to run, so the capacity was indeed too low. The solution is simple: cattle prods for people on the left who run too slow. That'll get them up it faster. Seriously, what a bunch of lazy people. I can understand elderly or obese people not running up the escalator (which is why the right needs to be reserved for them), but the rest of you have no excuse.
- smacktoward 11y agoIn defense of those "lazy people," there are escalators and then there are escalators. Here in Washington, DC, for instance, our Metro system has several escalators that are 200 feet or more in length (http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/23038/what-are-the-10-longest-metro-escalators/ http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/23038/what-are-the-...). The longest one, in the station in suburban Wheaton, Maryland, is 230 feet long and climbs 115 feet vertically over that length. (Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheaton_station#/media/File:Wheaton_escalator_from_bottom_right.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheaton_station#/media/File:Wh...) Long, steep escalators like that make a challenging climb even for the young and fit.
- Terr_ 11y agoI used to live in Hong Kong, it has a network (mostly linear) that (in total) goes a half of a mile sideways and 443 feet up. Granted, the individual spans are less than that, but if you can rest on a landing between spans, you can also just... well, ride the step you're on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central–Mid-Levels_escalator_and_walkway_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central–Mid-Levels_escalator_a...
- thesz 11y agoWalking requires more space. Thus, you should stay for greater good.
- kazinator 11y agoThe space on an escalator is quantized. You don't stand on the same step as the next passenger, lest you be accused of frottage; the closest packing in the direction of travel is one person per step. The inter-step distance on escalators is large enough to acommodate walking motion.
- tim333 11y ago>The inter-step distance on escalators is large enough to acommodate walking motion...one person per step In theory possibly but I've never seen that. It's rare for standing passengers to be one per step. In the real world it's probably 3 per 4 steps standing, 1 per 4 steps walking. I think what we need are coordinated escalator classes taught in a similar manner to ballet, for greater utilisation.
- kazinator 11y ago1 per 4 steps indicates that it's not a busy time. Or it's one of those long escalators that don't have too many takers for walking. Once the walkers get through the crowd and get on the escalator, they suddenly have lots of space, if a large proportion chooses to stand. It's not because they need space; they aren't standing at the bottom waiting for a space of three extra stairs to open before they start to walk; it's just that by the time they get on, the previous walker is already that far ahead. The standers are creating the rate-limiting bottleneck, basically. I suspect that even if the mix is 50:50 walkers:standers, the walkers will spread apart more. You probably need something like 60:40 or 70:30 to fill the walking side to better capacity. Or some priority line for walkers, long before the escalator, so that walkers can aggregate together from the get-go. Let all the walkers rush by, and then the remaining standers can use both sides. Example: Suppose 300 people get off the same train, and face a long escalator. Nobody wants to walk, except for five people. Also, everyone respects the "stand on one side" rule. Now suppose those five people are mixed randomly into the crowd. They have to wait for all these walkers to board the escalator and end up spaced far apart from each other. Perhaps by the time the second walker gets on the escalator, the first one is already at the top. Now suppose that the walkers are given priority access, through a separate queue. (Which they should: I mean everyone is already reserving half the escalator for these guys, yet not letting them get to it, right?) So now, these five people can just march straight to the escalator as a group, get on it, and march on up, remaining closely packed. After that, no more walkers are left in the fast queue. Moreover, everyone else can see that. So, then remaining people start using the full escalator. Problem (mostly) solved, all-round. This is almost the behavior I seen in Japanese train stations. There isn't a formal separation of queues, but just about. People separate themselves into walkers or standers based on their intent and start to line up accordingly before reaching the escalator.
- 4rt 11y agoi like to go up escalators doing two steps at once because it makes me feel like john cleese taking giant strides up like 10 feet.