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Have you ever walked up a broken escalator?

i was at the mall this morning sitting by this escalator eating a delicious cake, the escalator wasn't working but you could still walk up and i noticed that people lost their balance and almost fell as they were getting on it. this one kid who ran up it actually fell. :bricks:

when i finished my cake i tried it myself and had this funny sensation. i used it on the way down as well later and i guess i'm so used to it moving it still felt weird.

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Reply 1

Adam92

Yep. The one in Manchester Arndale is always broke so I'm kinda used to it :p:

Reply 2

SunderX

Well, I run up escalators going in the opposite direction all the time.

Walking up a static escalator is disconcerting because:

a) The steps are both higher and narrower than you'd expect from a regular staircase.
b) The steps have sharp teeth-like bits sticking out from the edge and
c) The steps aren't perfectly vertical, they tend to slant outwards a bit.

Reply 3

TheTallOne

It just feels so metal. You would expect the steps to be softer (like normal stairs).

If you do travel on a moving escalator, you don't take that many steps and therefore don't notice it as much as if you have to climb 25.

Reply 4

SirMasterKey

Yes I have and never had any troubles. Neither did anyone else at the time.

Reply 5

Torchskins

the escalator in lime street are always off at 9.15 when I go home from work

Reply 6

LetoKynes

SunderX

d) You can't tell whether you're going up the right away - if it starts up all of a sudden and you happen to be going up the wrong way.. I'd imagine I'd be in for one heck of a fall :o:

Reply 7

Ben_Broadhurst

We investigated the physiological basis of the 'broken escalator phenomenon', namely the sensation that when walking onto an escalator which is stationary one experiences an odd sensation of imbalance, despite full awareness that the escalator is not going to move. The experimental moving surface was provided by a linear motor-powered sled, moving at 1.2 m/s. Sled velocity, trunk position, trunk angular velocity, EMG of the ankle flexors-extensors and foot-contact signals were recorded in 14 normal subjects. The experiments involved, initially, walking onto the stationary sled (condition Before). Then, subjects walked 20 times onto the moving sled (condition Moving), and it was noted that they increased their walking velocity from a baseline of 0.60 m/s to 0.90 m/s. After the moving trials, subjects were unequivocally warned that the platform would no longer move and asked to walk onto the stationary sled again (condition After). It was found that, despite this warning, subjects walked onto the stationary platform inappropriately fast (0.71 m/s), experienced a large overshoot of the trunk and displayed increased leg electromyographic (EMG) activity. Subjects were surprised by their own behaviour and subjectively reported that the 'broken escalator phenomenon', as experienced in urban life, felt similar to the experiment. By the second trial, most movement parameters had returned to baseline values. The findings represent a motor aftereffect of walking onto a moving platform that occurs despite full knowledge of the changing context. As such, it demonstrates dissociation between the declarative and procedural systems in the CNS. Since gait velocity was raised before foot-sled contact, the findings are at least partly explained by open-loop, predictive behaviour. A cautious strategy of limb stiffness was not responsible for the aftereffect, as revealed by no increase in muscle cocontraction. The observed aftereffect is unlike others previously reported in the literature, which occur only after prolonged continuous exposure to a sensory mismatch, large numbers of learning trials or unpredictable catch trials. The relative ease with which the aftereffect was induced suggests that locomotor adaptation may be more impervious to cognitive control than other types of motor learning.

sauce http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12802549

Reply 8

- skyhigh -

SunderX

Well, I run up escalators going in the opposite direction all the time.

I can run down escalators going up but I have never managed to run up an escalator going down.

Reply 9

Captain Biggles

Ha! I know exactly what everyone means. It is one of the most disconcerting feelings I know - I always feel that I walk down them faster than normal stairs because of the momentum you produce since each individual stair is higher than normal. Bit weird when you get to the bottom and you're almost at a run and people look at you funny. Haha!

Reply 10

moody28028

The one going down into an M&S near me is always turned off, so seems normal to me.

Reply 11

DarkWhite

Yeah, but I kinda found it just... normal. Maybe I've walked up too many staircases to notice lol

relevant

- skyhigh

I can run down escalators going up but I have never managed to run up an escalator going down.

I've had several races involving running in both directions. It gets real hard after a few drinks!

Reply 14

Steveo92

- skyhigh

I can run down escalators going up but I have never managed to run up an escalator going down.

Hmm, I have ran up plenty of moving escalators going the wrong direction, but never ran down one.

Reply 15

Norfolkadam

Where I work we have the staff briefing upstairs on the Saturday before the shop opens so you have to climb up the escalator as it's not switched on yet and I've always noticed that the steps are alot further apart than on normal steps and it feels as though it should be moving.