Rodger James Sillars’s Recent Comments

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  Escalators are more energy consuming than elevators with more un-counter-balanced dead weight. Still they generally move more people in any given time frame. For that reason they have to lift or brake more weight at any moment, but there are other considerations. First is the issue of security and many people avoid elevators for that reason.  All glass enclosed elevators are better, but keeping all that glass clean is not cheap. For high traffic volumes the escalator is unmatched for moving pedestrians and while many such might be better off walking the stairs for many that may not really be an option. Our local transit authority recently decided to not install any more escalators to keep down costs, but the station that will be the first victim of this short sighted-ness will go from subways with 10-15 foot level change to overpasses with a 22-25 foot change.  Yes, there will be elevators, but stairs will be congested with fast moving and slow moving patrons trying to co-exist. 

  Turning escalators off when not in use should be more widely practiced here in the US, but no one seems to be looking at generating power rather than just braking either the elevator or the escalator. .

  On Ask Umbra on escalators posted 6 months, 1 week ago 1 Response