How escalators work. [When escalators attack.]
This kind of relates to transportation.
A department store escalator in Japan holds the Guinness World Record for being the shortest:
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Inexplicably, the escalator is immediately followed by a normal flight of stairs.
This escalator in San Francisco is beautifully curved:
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Westfield San Francisco Centre, the first spiraling escalator in the western hemisphere.
This one in an Atlanta MARTA station is freakishly long:
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But Wheaton MD’s metro station claims to be the longest:
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Here’s one in Washington DC that has a mind of its own, speeding up and throwing people at the floor:
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Apparently no one hit the emergency stop button.
Here’s an idiot attempting to ride an escalator in a wheelchair:
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Finally, here’s a girl who turned an escalator into a personal rotation device:
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No matter how many warning signs you post, no matter how idiot-proof you design a machine, someone will find a way to do something stupid with it.
To see how they work, here’s an animation.
A broken escalator with missing steps reveals its inner workings:
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An escalator is basically a long chain of moving steps involving a bit of mechanical genius. Since 1899, escalators have saved Americans billions of calories… in exercise. Now you can share your wealth of escalator knowledge with strangers at dinner parties. You’ll be admired for it. I promise.
If that wheelchair guy wasn’t paralyzed before…he is now…
Yes, indeed, can’t have a discussion about escalators without discussing the champion when it comes to escalators: WMATA. Of course, finding a WMATA escalator that’s actually working, and not acting as glorified stairs is a challenge…