To think people who walk up escalators

[TiggyD]

are idiots?
It's free up!

Up is normally so hard because of all that bloody gravity you get nowadays that you really should take advantage of any up you can get. (It must have been wonderful before the apple man invented gravity.) You don't get people trying to scale the walls in lifts to get themselves a bit of extra up, so why escalators?

Madness.

lol at this
never thought about the free up before
But by that logic it is boosting the 'up' effort they are willing to put in, giving them so much more 'up' for their expended effort

No I always walk up them. They piss me off cos they're too slow.

I have no idea, but I love the idea of "free up". :o:o

So by your logic OP you should just hurl yourself down a down escalator / set of stairs, bypassing the steps?
gravity - the ultimate 'free down'

I love to walk briskly along the flat escalators (?) at airports. I feel like some freakily wondrous physical specimen.

Because it's faster. And free exercise. I walk up escalators on the tube. And there is a seventh circle of hell reserved for people who ignore the signs about standing on the RIGHT, leaving room for everyone else to walk past.

I accept this only applies to the tube; non-Londoners apparently do not understand the principle (the poor benighted fools). But they can get out of my ruddy way when they DO come to London and start cluttering up the escalators.

And don't get me started on people who arse about major London tube/rail stations with their ruddy suitcases on wheels. Look where you are ruddy going, people, and don't stop suddenly or turn round 180 degrees!

YABU

There's a very good reason why I was 2 stone lighter when I lived in London. There is no reason to spend one more minute underground than you have to, and thighs of steel and a tiny waist are a happy side effect.

The right side of the escalator is for tourists and hungover people.

A free up is a slippery slope to a world of humans like on Wall-E.
Do you eat junk food while on a free up?

Stealth - Free down is pretty good too but does tend to end in an unpleasant bump. Or splash for longer down journeys.

Escalators could be improved by adding some kind of seat so you could sit down when going up.

So, I guess your idea of heaven is riding on a cable car, OP :)

Question why don't people who walk up escalators use the stairs, providing of course there are stairs.
I had a woman ask to pass me and several other people, on the escalator and I thought out loud "Why don't you use the stairs" which incidentally,were next to the escalator?

Why would one be an idiot to want to get a little bit closer to those 10,000 steps a day?

Bounding up the escalator at Hyde Park tube station is good for the soul and inner thighs.

Bounding down though can give you 'Guitar Hero eyes' (TM) which makes the floor move in an unpleasant fashion when you get to the platform

If they like to walk up so much, they should get on the down escalator. Keep them happy all day.

Have you ever tried walking up a down escalator? Now that is good exercise.

My DCs are always begging to be allowed to run up the down escalators in our local shopping centre.

Freaks.

They make me go cold after being exposed to those public safety films of t'olden days.

This thread just made me LOL

Walking up escalators is brilliant because you get there twice as fast and it makes you feel like superfast woman with superpowers. It's not the same as walking up the stairs - that's just boring.

Not just me then, Eric.

It is like being The Flash when everyone slows down and he goes about his crime-stopping, villain-foiling business.

Except it is just walking.

OK, so you walk up the escalator, and you get the following advantages:
a) You get to feel morally superior to the lazy, good for nothing moochers who just stand there, slack jawed and incapable
b) You get to feel superhuman, as you mount the stairs at a superhuman rate
c) You get to accidentally twack tourists bags with your own bag. You apologise, but smile inside. Nothing is hurt, but you feel like you have asserted your superiority - win, win.

Overly keen on superhuman. But it darn well is.

I always walk up escalators.

But then I used to live in London so I get annoyed by people elsewhere who stand in the middle.

Just like I hate it when people (who have clearly never driven in the Smoke, OK lucky them) wait for an invitation from the Queen before venturing on to a roundabout.

Some of us have somewhere to get to double quick, grrr

Ah yes edam I am with you on the escalator standing zone I see

I always walk up escalators. There are usually more of them to be found than stairs. I would still walk up the escalators because it is faster.Love striding it out on travelators too.
I have always harboured a desire to run up the down escalator. Just never had the brass neck to do it.