LA Metro has some of the slowest escalators on Earth

I lived in DTLA for several years and regularly used Little Tokyo/Arts District station. It was not uncommon during peak hours to see people - myself included sliding down the railing.

I am 43 years old now and was much younger then (27-35) but I remember these days fondly. Now I live in NYC where public transit it so much better that this and many other issues that plague LA (especially the redline) do not exist but I do miss those days and look back on them fondly.

I still have at least 1 scar I can attribute to trying this whilst wearing the wrong pants (in terms of fabric).

	▲	TylerE 14 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Unfortunately NY transit sucks if you're disabled and can't deal with stairs.

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gniv 35 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I remember taking the escalators in Moscow in the 80s and thinking they were freakishly fast. According to this article they are not that fast. I wonder if they lowered the speed or it was just my lack of familiarity with long escalators.

	▲	qurren a minute ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I thought the escalators in the Budapest metro were pretty damn fast. I went there in 2005, not sure if they've changed them since. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tivS7U64Lc
	▲	clan 4 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		You are not wrong. I have tried some of the faster ones in Prague and Kiev. The difference in numbers does not sound like much but it sure does in real life. The speed combined with the wind can be quite wild. You might also enjoy this comparison with London: https://youtu.be/UWJot1Q2LgY

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talon8635 42 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Decades of fecal matters gumming up the gears

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Neywiny an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The longest escalators in the Eastern hemisphere, at Wheaton Metro, which I've ridden many times, are apparently the same speed according to Wikipedia. So my gut feeling of maybe they did that because maybe they're short doesn't hold

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big_toast 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

LA: 0.46 meters/s (1 mph)

Hong Kong: 0.75 meters/s (1.7 mph)

Kyiv: 0.9 meters/s (2 mph)

Kinda slower than I expected in general. I assume the speed is mostly dictated by boarding/alighting safety.

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Animats 34 minutes ago | parent [-]

Kyiv subway stations are also air raid shelters.[1] They may have decided that running the escalators fast to get people to safety is worth the risk.

[1] https://visitkyiv.com/visitor-essentials/kyiv-shelter-map/

	▲	nephihaha 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		That was standard across major Soviet cities.

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amelius 43 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

That's what smartphoness are for ...