I Love Escalators - @juliank @photocontest

Escalators. Pretty clever things, an endless loop of up and downness. They are absolute marvels of engineering.

So, to celebrate this moving magnificence, a few escalator facts and some escalator etiquette (I was going to try combining the words escalator and etiquette into one word to add some comedic value but failed!) or your bemusement or boredom...

The longest escalators in the world are on the St. Petersburg, Russia metro stations Ploshchad Lenina, Chernyshevskaya, and Admiralteyskaya which have escalators 138 m (453 ft) long and 69 m (226 ft) high.

However, the longest escalator which is only supported at its ends is in CNN studios, Atlanta, USA and rises up 8 floors and is 62m long.

In Hong Kong, a moving walkway-escalator system runs for 790m between central and mid levels to help get commuters to work but it only runs one way for half the day, and the opposite direction for the other half a day! The question arises, what happens if you're on it when it changes direction?...hmmmm

In Bangkok, I read that the longest is at Silom on the MRT, but it runs for just 43m and 21.5m deep......I have an idea for a dtube video.......

Ok, etiquette.
Its usual to stand at one side of the escalator so the other side can be used for people walking, but as usual, it's not quite that simple.

In the UK , US, Taiwan, Germany and Hong Kong, you stand on the right and walk on the left butnin New Zealand and Australia, the opposite is true.

Those wacky Japanese compound the confusion as in Tokyo and most other Japanese cities, you stand on the left and walk on the right, but in Osaka, its stand on right and walk on the left. Got it ?

Of course in Bangkok, they just stand and walk wherever the mood takes them......

Finally, this picture was taken in Zeer Mall Rangsit, Thailand

Thank you to Wikipedia and Otis elevators for the last thirty minutes of mind numbing research. I really need to get out more!

@juliank #architecturalphotography