Unsuck DC Metro: Elevator Hogs?

Friday, August 5, 2011

Elevator Hogs?

via @brownpau #WMATA #fail - PUSH FOR DOWM instagr.am/p/JO-Sw/

From CommutingMom:

As a commuting mom with a minimalist stroller, I would like Metro to post signs on elevators about the priority for who should ride an elevator.

Clearly, the disabled get priority over all others, but what about otherwise able-bodied people who take the elevator leaving those with limited ability to navigate non-working escalators (e.g., people with strollers) to wait and wait and wait for an elevator?

It is especially important for Metro to post people at elevator entrances when escalators aren't working so they can control the crowds of people trying to use the elevators.

Of course in DC, this will also raise the inevitable question about whether obesity qualifies one as disabled.

Other items:
ATU 689 press release about their pay raise (ATU 689) Examiner article

Comments (115)

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+70 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 711 weeks ago

Commuting mom, your child was a choice. Elevators are there for everyone. Wait your frigging turn and quit griping.

8 replies · active 710 weeks ago

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guest · 711 weeks ago

Why exactly should a person with a stoller get priority? Are you saying that you are handicapped?

8 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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BradK · 711 weeks ago

Requesting metro babysit elevators to ensure 'eligibility' is like requesting that someone babysit each railcar for seatards.

The problem is real, it is annoying, and the #1 deterrent to said violator is someone that speaks up.

I feel your pain, I am someone that often does need an elevator... the problem with a babysitter is that they will inevitability need to see some evidence of a disability, and I am sorry to break the news to you, but some disabled people such as myself have learned not to limp or walk with a cane, but still cannot manage stationary stairs all that well.

1 reply · active 711 weeks ago

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EJT · 711 weeks ago

Handicaps or physical disabilities aren't always visible. A young person who appears able bodied may have asthma (as I do), allergies that cause breathing trouble, a knee injury, vertigo, or a number of other conditions, chronic or temporary, that inhibit them from hiking up a long escalator in the heat. Don't assume that people standing in line for an elevator are doing it because they love waiting in lines and prefer it to exiting the station by foot.

I do think people with small children in tow should get priority seating on trains and buses, but I don't see how this would be logically extended to the elevator as well when the escalators aren't working. For that matter, if the escalators aren't working, I don't think visibly disabled persons should get priority either, for the reasons I've stated above. If escalators are working, then people who are unable to safely take even a working elevator should get priority over people who could use the elevator, regardless of the reason they're unable (wheelchair, stroller, bike, small children, whatever).

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Soylent Green Line · 711 weeks ago

Sidebar:

In Rosslyn this morning, 3/4 of the long escalators were out of service. The one in service was, thankfully, an up escalator.

The escalators from the lower level to the main platform were both also out of service. The down escalator was supposed to be fixed by yesterday.

I looked through the station and there were no - that is zero, none, nada - "support personnel" on scene.

Metro Forward!

+68 Vote up Vote down

guest · 711 weeks ago

We are begging you, please stop using metro at rush hour with strollers. They take up as much room as 4 people standing, and your kids end up sitting in seats anyway!

9 replies · active 709 weeks ago

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iolaire 71p · 711 weeks ago

How about that jpg press release from ATU 689? Did they actually send that out? I see a text version on the homepage.

7 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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FitDC · 711 weeks ago

I resent that you imply that DC Residents are obese. DC is one of the fittest cities in America. I'm from Pennsylvania where everyone is fat.

1 reply · active 711 weeks ago

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WRD · 711 weeks ago

So now it's Metro's job to make sure jerks don't use the elevator in front of you?

If they did babysit the elevators, how long would it be until we saw a post here about the "useless" sitter watching empty elevators?

1 reply · active 711 weeks ago

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iwill · 711 weeks ago

I take the elevators a lot these days, but it's because most of the muscles and ligaments in my back are inflamed and certain movements leave me gasping for breath and in agony for about four hours. You cannot tell any of this by looking at me.

Mommy Dearest, you can fold up your stroller (as most of us on the packed train would prefer you do, by the by) and take the stairs. I once saw a mom going through every item in her stroller while blocking the elevator doors, oblivious to the man in a wheelchair behind her.

I hesitate to even honor your snide comment about obesity with a remark, but I've definitely seen some people who have "limited ability to navigate non-working escalators" due to their weight or related health conditions. So by your own definition, they'd qualify for the same status as you.

Also when I bike, I'm not allowed to use the escalator. I don't understand why you feel more entitled to it than anyone else when you could take the stairs/escalator, too.

5 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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dcn8v · 711 weeks ago

From what I've seen, the elevators are so often used as urinals, why would any able-bodied person even *want* to take one if they didn't have to?

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Please · 711 weeks ago

You don't know who is and who is not "disabled," or capable of using the escalator. Wait your turn like the rest of us.

How is this imaginary issue remotely important??

-23 Vote up Vote down

@savemetro · 711 weeks ago

Wow, JD must be the same guy that won't give up his seat for a pregnant women.

-29 Vote up Vote down

dsfgsda · 711 weeks ago

sure there might be a few invisibly handicapped people who take the elevators, but from what i've seen, apart from those with bags, strollers and a visible handicap, most are just super fat.

Right on CommutingMom!

1 reply · active 711 weeks ago

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Dani · 711 weeks ago

Agreed with most of the above commenters. You don't know who has a disability that you can't see, and your choice to procreate doesn't make you any more important than the rest of us. Furthermore, your snide comment about obesity sure doesn't win you any points as a sympathetic character.

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Edward · 711 weeks ago

Well, if Metro would just fix the damn escalators, the fatties wouldn't have to use the elevators. Although walking up the escalator/stairs would do them some good. There's a public health initiative for you: force fatties to walk up the escalators.

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Mary B. · 711 weeks ago

They do have signs, people just ignore them.

Part of the problem, besides some people being overly lazy, was explained to me. Many tourists look up at the height of the escalator, are afraid of heights, and take the elevator.

That always struck me as hillarious if height fears are their excuse. On an escalator you have solid rock not far beneath you (and plenty of steel between you and it). On an elevator you are suspended over a long shaft by several cables. Yes, elevators have safety devices too, but would anyone here trust them after they can not even maintain the safety devices on escalators? Even in the worse case I would rather take my chances on sliding down an escalator than falling down an elevator shaft.

3 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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Anony Mouse · 711 weeks ago

Was feeling CommutingMom's pain until she whipped out the obesity comment. Now I just feel like she's a little bit of an a-hole.

3 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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John · 711 weeks ago

Crowds? I take the metro everyday, and very rarely do I ever see "crowds" of people taking the elevator. Get over yourself and wait in line like everyone else, or leave your kid at home with a babysitter or your baby daddy.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Red Line Slow · 711 weeks ago

I think OP requested that Metro employees better direct crowds in the event of an elevator outage (which other people have mentioned before related to escalator outages). While I also hope that parents and tourists avoid the Metro during rush hour and avoid taking extra items (i.e. giant strollers) that take up valuable space, I think this woman is merely trying to call attention to a much bigger problem. Given how inefficient Metro can be for those of us who are able bodied and do not have bikes or wheelchairs or children in tow (and yes- I realize that having a wheelchair is NOT a choice) - Metro must be much more difficult to use for others.

I'm sure most of us have seen inattentive parents with small children or babies and strollers perched precariously on the escalator. I haven't heard of any accidents but I'm sure the elevator would be more safe for these families- and perhaps if they were more frequently working and available, these families would use the elevator instead.

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Marvin McCheese · 711 weeks ago

I understand your concern and if I was standing in front of you in an elevator line, I would certainly let you in first - if you weren't making inappropriate jokes about overweight people at the time. Listen, mom. I have a right to ride an elevator. I understand that those who are handicapped deserve to ride it ahead of me and of course I let them through. But I also have back problems and shouldn't feel the need to labor down stairs or submit to the questions of a metro official (who by the way would be terrible anyway, as most metro officials are) every time I want to go to work. It is also possible for you to collapse your stroller and carry your kid, so as to make room for even one or two additional people to ride the elevator with you. It's not all about you. Or your kids. Or your propensity to arbitrarily add obnoxious comments about heavy people in your me-first blog commentary. Good day.

2 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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James · 711 weeks ago

Ugh....more of this blend of 'woe is me' victimhood coupled with the completely undeserved sense of entitlement that is sadly manifesting in an increasingly large number of parents these days. Having a child was your choice, and no one forced you to do it. I'm sorry, but your choice to have a child doesn't mean you get preferential treatment over those of us who chose not to.

The fact that the OP is suggesting that parents receive 'quasi-disabled' status is particularly offensive.

+11 Vote up Vote down

YTK · 711 weeks ago

Obesity is NOTsomething to make a Bullying remark about-- WHO are you to denigrate someone who may have a condition that is caused by edema, cancer, medication or the like????

2 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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thin man · 711 weeks ago

Obesity is a disease--an addiction to lard fried potato chips and other things anyone with a little common sense knows they shouldn't be eating too much of.

Fat people should be called out like smokers were as they're a drag on us all who take a few simple measures not to become blobs.

6 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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none · 711 weeks ago

riiiiight. it's a disease http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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MetroMorose · 711 weeks ago

It's not Metro's job to police the elevators and there are many, many, many disabilities that may not be visible. This is not to say that there aren't able-bodied people who take the elevator when they could very well take the escalator (or "temporary" stairs as so many of the escalators in the Metro system have become). Commuter Mom needs to hold her horses and wait in line!

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mr x · 711 weeks ago

the list of "it's not metro's job" is so long, i'm left scratching my head at exactly what's left that they could do.

what a bunch of excuse makers.

there. that's their job, and they do it so well.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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hrh king friday 13 · 711 weeks ago

WWCAD: What Would Casey Anthony Do?

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@Hell_on_wheelz · 711 weeks ago

Interesting post and even more interesting comments.... nice to know what goes on inside some people's heads.

As to who should ride first and when - geez, work it out among yourselves! I was taught that it was polite manners to let the elderly and the very young go first and absolutely insist on those folks going first when the weather is extreme.

The only wonderments I have in people's thinking that they must use the elevator are:

1. If you can RUN to catch the elevator, do you really need to use it?
2. If the elevator was not working- would you absolutely HAVE to go to another station?

As for me: elevators are not an optional, nice-to-have thing. .. so I probably notice the rude behavior of the "me first crowd" more. If people feel the need to crowd past me - so be it. I chalk it up to "mental disability" - NPD is listed in the DSM-IV after all.

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VeggieTart · 711 weeks ago

When I worked in Bethesda, I would use the elevator because it was right across the street from where the office is. The elevator is not just for the disabled and the stroller people. And I still remember the day when I waiting in a long line of people waiting to use the elevator, and some woman with a stroller cuts in line ahead of everyone to use it. I decided not to tell her to wait her turn because she probably would have pointed to the sign. However, "give priority" doesn't mean you can cut the line.

There are legitimate reasons for able-bodied people without brats in tow to use the elevator and not just when the escalators are out.

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Bob · 711 weeks ago

On its face I would say nobody deserves to ride an elevator over anybody else, but that would be ignoring the fact that in many instances time is an issue for some folks. It's not a rights issue, it's a respect issue. You don't hold the door for a stroller because you have to, you do it because it's respectful of another person's plight. Sure, a teenage kid has just as much right to ride, even before a mom and baby in a stroller if that teenager was in line first. However, babies have expiration points when it comes to lines. Stand still too long and everyone suffers because of the crying, which I'm sure many here would be just as inclined to complain about. These are simple facts, babies don't care about whether you have the right or whether their moms made a choice in delivering them. Knowing this, a parent will be put off when a group of five kids who are able bodied take the elevator before them and the parent has to wait an extra five minutes (and it is five minutes in many places like Woodley). Sure, they have the right, just like they have the right to listen to the baby screaming.

No guards needed, just some understanding.

1 reply · active 711 weeks ago

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VeteranRider · 711 weeks ago

OP should just get in line and wait her turn. It's none of her business why I am taking the elevator and it's not Metro's business either, whether or not the escalators are working. Of course handicapped people get priority but after that, it's first-come first-served, expecially if the excaltors are not working. What is it about pushing a stroller that qualifies her as a priority user, aside from her own view of her importance? Strollers can't use the escalator, correct, but neither can bicycles - does she expect bikes should get prioirty too? I may be invisibly handicapped, or obese, or lazy - it doesn't matter. If the escalators are not working of course everyone has to share, but everyone has a right to wait for, and use, the elevator - my lazy, obese, possibly handicapped self and her self-righteous self. What's the big problem for her to wait ? It goes up and then it comes back down; she gets in - problem solved. My using the elevator is not going to use it up. SHe could be role model - teach those kids in the stroller some patience.

1 reply · active 711 weeks ago

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Guest · 711 weeks ago

Commenters on this blog are so ridiculously anti-children/mothers/babies/everyone. Honestly, pregnancy or having kids is a choice? Of course it is, but if no one ever CHOSE to have kids again we'd be in bad shape. That's a pretty pointless counterargument, and one that makes you look like a bigger ass than you think the person complaining is, because you can't give simple courtesy to a woman who is 7 months pregnant but still commutes, or takes her kids to daycare, etc. JUST BE NICE! If someone was acting the way you do to your wife or girlfriend you'd probably be pretty upset.

6 replies · active 695 weeks ago

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Anon · 711 weeks ago

When I was commuting on crutches and a broken ankle, I found it very annoying to have to wait in line at Foggy Bottom to use the elevator behind able-bodied people who just didn't want to climb the escalator (or, more likely, didn't want to wait in the line just to climb the escalator). There's even a sign on the elevator that seniors and those with disabilities get priority, but I never got priority. And as inconsiderate as that is, in the grand scheme of things, it just wasn't that big a deal. I certainly wish that there was a way the enforce giving priority to those that need it, but I'd rather see long lines for functioning elevators than disabled and elderly people struggling up the broken escalators because the elevator doesn't work. Of course, I'd rather see working elevators AND escalators, but one step at a time, right?

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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Polite Police · 711 weeks ago

I understand that some people are offended by the overweight comment, but let's look at this for what it is. The real issue is the lack of common courtesy among metro riders. I'm sorry, but if I am able bodied, I will let someone with a stroller take the elevator before me because she has NO OTHER WAY to get up or down! Someone with a child in a stroller has just as much right to ride the metro at ANY time as anyone else. The common courtesy is lacking when people don't let people through the doors, or off the train, or on the train, or push their way to the front of EVERYTHING. Everyone feels entitled, but if we just remembered some human decency, I think suffering through the Metro experience will be easier.

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Stephen Kosciesza · 711 weeks ago

I'm astonished at the hateful comments here about "her choice" to have children. Children are children. There will continue to be people having children; when that stops, humanity is on its way to its end.

And yes, there are people who just can't deal with escalators--especially the long ones. And I do think that if people are afraid of escalators, they should be allowed to use the elevators; stepping onto an escalator half way and then changing one's mind is a good way to hurt oneself or someone else.

All that said, I thought there WAS an announcement about "Please give priority ..." on the elevators.

1 reply · active 711 weeks ago

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Stephen Kosciesza · 711 weeks ago

And in connection with my earlier comment on the announcement in the elevators ...

... in the elevators in Forest Glen, you're compelled to listen to an announcement, "Welcome to the Forest Glen Metro Station. Please give priority to senior citizens and persons with disabilities before using this elevator."

That makes absolutely no sense in the Forest Glen Metro. There's no other way into that station EXCEPT the elevators.

It is just one more proof of the argument I've been making for years. Metro is run by people who never ride and have no clue, but who think they know better than we do what we want and what's good for us.

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governmentbasement 70p · 711 weeks ago

I didn't realize that so many readers here are so anti-kids. I have kids and I've dealt with kids on the Metro, and its like getting your gums scrapped. YES, it was my choice, and I would probably do it again. When i see other parents on the Metro, i have a bit a sympathy for them, not ridicule and disdain. You feel entitled because you choose NOT to have kids? What is wrong with you people?

3 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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two cents · 711 weeks ago

i don't think the planning of metro elevators was very smart. take court house. that elevator, which is the slowest elevator in the world, lets you out to a certain part of that area nowhere near any other escalators. it's much more convenient to take it if you're heading a certain way. it has nothing to do with exercise, it's just the shortest distance b/w two points.

anyway, there are times when the line for that elevator is so long (when it's working) that i opt instead for the long way round.

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anon · 711 weeks ago

You know why Metro escalators are broken so much?

The fat plague has reduced Metro's capacity by several percentage points, and they're trying desperately to slim us down.

Just look at the 1970s sized benches. Soon we'll look at those as single seaters.

All the escalators really work...It's a plot.

Think about it.

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ThinkOutsidetheBox · 711 weeks ago

A better solution would be to use a child carrier. That way, noone else would be inconvenienced by an unwieldy stroller and she could more easily take the stairs/escalator/elevator.

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ConGrpThink 77p · 711 weeks ago

Just imagine the strain placed on Metro during a Teabagger rally.

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Lisa · 711 weeks ago

I am able bodied, not a bit overweight and young. But I have a death fear of tall escalators, aka Bethesda, Wheaton, etc. When I attempt to get on these escalators, and I have tried, I panic and am unable to get on. I like to use Metro too. I have discussed this with some other elevator riders and many have the same fear. I don't think that you should judge me for my anxiety any more than you should judge someone for having a child, or gaining weight or suffering from a disablity. Having a child does not give you priority over anyone else sorry! I am not being discourteous to you, but please understand no one wants to be the person behind me when I am trying to get on the escalator and freak out!

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Dukebdc · 709 weeks ago

The majority of people I see getting on/off the Virginia Square platform elevator (direction of VIenna) do so by running and/or outright spriting to get there before the doors close. I am confident that none of them (save for an anxiety attack) need the elevator over the escalator which is 100 feet away. The commuting blind woman with the seeing eye dog even takes the escalator for crying out loud! People who do not need the elevator cause unneeded wear and tear on old equipment that we know from experience will break down with frequency. Take the escalator unless you really can't so the elevators will work for those who have no other option!