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.

Exercise and impatience for me!

Next time you see an empty one redpanda go for it. It is every bit as good as you can imagine!

Ah Edam - you put it so well! I always walked up escalators, ran up them if necessary to catch the sodding train, loved that you got there twice as fast as the poor saps going up the stairs!

I don't understand people who just stand around and block "travelators" in airports either. Why? you get there faster walking off the travelator, and MUCH faster if you walk on the travelator. Super-speed walking is half the fun! Can the people who block travelators join your circle of hell, Edam? bloody annoying when you only have half an hour to cross most of Bangkok airport for your connection and there are all these people just standing on the damn thing with their suitcases blocking everything.

This: If they like to walk up so much, they should get on the down escalator. Keep them happy all day made me actually laugh out loud!
We non-Londoners (in Liverpool) have the same rules with left and right on underground escalaters in our (all 4!!) underground stations. We are not as provincial as you might think!
Definitely free exercise here, though I get very cross when I've walked up all them all and still miss my connection by 1 minute and have to wait 14 minutes for the next, and could have spent some of the 14 minutes taking my time. I have possibly overthought this one a bit much though :)

I walk up escalators. Can't bear standing still. I have some hyper-activity issues though.

Not sure if its still there but I always walked up the 100+ covent garden tube station stairs instead of the lift.

YABU they are too slow.

wow - I did not know Liverpool had an underground!

OP - YABU - escalator climbing is my only hope to get the pre DS thighs back now I'm back doing the soul distroying commute. It's not a 'free up' it's a 'free work out'. Esp if you're late for your train and have to run up the three sets at London Bridge (oh, that second set is a killer!)

Of course you walk up if people don't block them-they are slow!

We should replace all escalators should be replaces with DOUBLE height steps. Let's see you get a free up now...

I always walk up them, They are so very slow. I see it as my free gym.
When their is a lift (unless its for a very high rise) I use the stairs. Free gym and I'm not using electricity.

bollocks. their is supposed to be there. I'm not utterly dunceish.

foundwanting your first post made me laugh like a drain! I love those flat escalators. There is a great one, really long, at an airport near us. We had to get an early flight once and the whole thing was empty. Just me, DH and about eight miles (might be an exaggeration) of go-faster strip. We sprinted. Sprinted . I thought I had broken the sound barrier when I heard a big bang, but it was just DH falling over.

I do occassionally walk up an escalator but only if we are the only people on it.

I dont feel right walking past others.. I dont know why

The london tube escalators are mad!!! As a Glaswegian I learned the hard way you do not venture from the right hand rail . People literally run in London.. .. where are you all going at 90mph

PMSL Spammead! "thought I had broken the sound barrier but it was just DH falling over"

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

PMSL - YES definitely. And also agree about the 7th circle of hell for people who stand gossiping on the left side.

Also walking up the escalator makes you feel marvellously whizzy and fast, like those moving walkways at airports where you feel you suddenly have superpowers and can walk at 10 miles an hour without effort.

oh sorry - just saw spamhead had made the same point about the walkways! Nice to know I'm not the only one who feels like wonderwoman at heathrow.

Forget who posted it, but love the 'Guitar Hero Eyes' observation - PMSL and too blimmin true!

Standing on escalators is good because:
A) It's up for no effort on your part.
2) It gives you some free time in your day to engage in hobbies such as needlecraft or marquetry.
iii) It's only being polite to the installers and makers of escalators to use their product.
Blue) You can strike a cool pose. Running up them and getting all sweaty is not cool.
Peppermint) You get to laugh in the face of god and at his failed attempt to keep you at ground level with his evil gravity.

Noteveamousie, I have to point out that I visited my mum in the 'pool at New Year, and we fumed while we stood in a massive, bovine queue for the escalator once we got off at Central.

Tres disappointed with my own tribe.

Meglet - am full of respect for you. Climbing the stairs at Covent Garden is a major achievement. (Note to non-Londoners - Covent Garden has no escalators, only lifts. And lots of ruddy tourists who have all day to amble around instead of striding straight for the next available lift and making room available for everyone else to get on it too.)

Am delighted to hear Liverpool has the same rule. Shame so many tourists in London are non-Liverpudlians and have never heard about it/apparently can't read, though.

I've done the Covent Garden stairs as well; and Elephant & Castle, which has (had) the same system. E&C was my regular as I was at university in that area - often ran (ha!) down all the stairs, didn't often run up them. I don't think E&C is as deep as CG though; although I think they both have health warnings at the foot of the stairs, against attempting them if you have heart ishoos.

Hampstead is the worst for stairs - deepest shaft in London. I decided to walk up once when I was going through one of my hyper-fit phases and thought I was going to die

I went to Covent Garden with my cousin a few years back and had to walk up the bastard stairs. Just before the top where there's a corner, some tosspot had graffitti'd "halfway there!". I had to physically restrain my cousin from sitting on the step and crying :o

I always walk up the escalators, can't understand people just standing there, unless you're really not able or have a huge suitcase or something. Walking is quicker and good for your legs as well.

Hate not being able to get onto the escalator because of the mass of people queueing to stand on the right hand side. If everyone who was able to walk did walk, everything would 'flow' much better and there would be less congestion.

Don't get me started on people who walk most of the way up then stop when they're a few steps from the top

I ran up the stairs at Russell Square once because I was late for an interview (admittedly wasn't running any more by the time I reached the top!) and didn't want to queue for the lifts. This was a false economy as I had to spend at least as much time waiting to stop wheezing at the top as I would have spent waiting for the lift, and had to go into my interview with my face still red and a burning sensation in my chest .