What's the point of escalator grooves? @JulianOShea
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- čas přidán 28. 04. 2024
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And in addition to all that, the grooves provide a good amount of grip too, compared to a flat or almost flat pice of metal.
Oh man imagine how absolutely horrible flat metal steps would be for anyone with snow or water on the bottom of their shoes. 😮
Yep, prevents slips from wet steps for sure!
The gooves are there to slice you into thin slices when you get pulled in.
Until your shoes are wet then they can become extremely slippery
Or to shred your knees when you lise your balance and fall on them. Dont ask me how I know
That mop fitting perfectly between the grooves was so satisfying.
Just like my life
It's a rubber broom. I just saw one at the dollar store.
It is pure perfection bliss the pinnacle of the universe 😊
Is life that boring for you ? Oh dear.
LIES! The brushes ARE for cleaning your shoes, teleology 101 man!
"Have you ever wondered why escalators aren't flat?"
"No, but I'm listening..."
Have you ever been to a large airport? They are spread out all over.
@@Cookie-ri9pz do those ones escalate you ??? Huh Karen
@@user-xm7uw6uc7g why call her "Karen"? Is that your go to word when you don't have any sensible and meaningful arguments?
there is flat escalators in some shopping malls,which you can go with your shopping cart and the grooves hold the wheels like literally the wheels are on brake doesn't slide
@@BoskiM oo we have a white knight here
I’m not scared of escalators, I’m scared of lack of escalator maintenance.
just make sure to never visit china, lest you want to end up human mush
Elevator mechanic apprentice here. Be afraid. 80% of the journeymen in the elevator industry hate doing even simple maintenance on escalators. They pretend they havent recieved training to work on escalators even if theyve worked in the business for 25+ years🤣 Ive already recieved training to work on them so ik they be bullshitting too. Its kinda wild but we call elevators "gators" because theyre all teeth and they chew you up real bad.
Escalators don't break, they just become stairs.
This escalated quickly.
_ba dum tssss_
ba dum tssss
ba dum tssss
It's pronounced "lifts" in Aussie English btw
Watch your step with those kind of puns
But those brushes are *perfect* to clean beach sand!
I want one. Idk what I'd use it for but it looks fun and satisfying.
Sand... in the contraption... 😨
Wow. So you really try to destroy it? Why are people such a holes?
@@itsgonnabeanaurfrommeit’s a joke
@@lonewalker6916It's not a joke, they are super useful for cleaning sand off. It also won't break anything, just might cause some mess.
When I was a kid I was wearing pants that were a little too long and they got caught at the top of an escalator. So yes, the grooves prevent most things from getting stuck where the step meets the top but not everything! Be careful out there!
God that's such a big fear of mine 😖
I remember falling down an escalator and having an irrational fear of down escalators for a decade. It was a weird time for me 😂😂😂
@@jaquanpowell4605 Oh my GOD that's an even bigger fear of mine... falling down an escalator eeek!!! I think you having that fear after you fell was completely valid!
@@jaquanpowell4605 Ooh, be glad it wasn't the up escalator... I knew a guy who fell down one of those once... He's still there. We have to bring him a couple cheeseburgers every month.
My shoelace got caught once when I was a kid, I was afraid of it for a while after that.
I knew a guy who had a laboratory with an electron microscope. Usually he specialized in Aircraft accidents. But one of his jobs was to examine the combs of an escalator that has killed a woman. It was winter and she tripped and fell. Her winter scarf got caught in the broken teeth of the combs. She was strangled before anyone could find the emergency stop button.
So elevators are safer than escalators. Last I heard there had never been a non non-maintainance death caused by an elevator.
I've witnessed this sort of thing multiple times. In all cases the person was extricated without serious injury, but only thanks to quick thinkers rescuing them. It was scary and could have gotten BAD.
I always look to see where the emergency button is
The shoe laces falling on the side of the escalator and getting stuck was a fear I never had and now I wont be able to forget it. thank you :)
Velcro shoes my friend, they're wonderful
I feel grateful I've managed to survive so long without this critical information
Honestly yeah he gave me a new fear by helping me understand escalators 😂☠️
I’ve known this since I was ATLEAST 10… I’m turning 20 soon..
Can't believe I never realized this before...
I live in constant fear
Me too
I got my arm stuck on one as a child and it took me years to get over it. Recovery is possible for all but it won't be easy
@@impaler331if you dont mind me asking, how did you get your arm stuck?
Fully agreed. This video is propaganda from big escalator trying to get us to ride their stairs of rotating horror.
@@ShayxLAI love this lol
1977 my grandpa lost his big toe in a escalator at Stratford square mall in Bloomingdale IL
A kid on my field trip when I was in elementary school got his finger in one.
When i was 5 i got my hand stuck in an escalator grill and it ripped off almost half the skin on my hand. I'm always a little hesitant on them... plus i saw a raw video from China of the upper landing platform of an escalator complete fall through while a mother and her child were on it. The mother threw/handed the child to an attendant (common in richer Chinese shopping malls) and the mother literally got ground up in the gears. It was incredibly heroic of her to save her child's life, as hers was being taken...and incredibly haunting! I imagine if all safety protocols are adhered to, escalators are likely safe. But my experience, and that Chinese mother... I'm always quick to get on and off those things!
My Dad was an escalator engineer for London underground in the early 60's, I think of him every time I use them 😊
I imagine God with a sense of humor and when your father passed away God sent an elevator. 😇
I remember the many wooden escalators in the London Underground
@@jerseyjoyride1316 😁 Dad would have crawled underneath it, and taken an hours kip, just like he did when he was supposed to be working.
Bless him
The old wooden ones
And they're not just metal either. St Anna's tunnel in Antwerp is one of the last functional wooden escalators in the world - works just like the metal ones but the slats are much larger, similar to standing on a wooden park bench. Went this year and it was pretty interesting to see, especially since it's almost all visibly made of wood
Macy's in NYC also has a few wood escalators.
@@TheBusyJane oh that's cool, I'll have to visit the States someday
@@TheBusyJaneI think that Macy's unfortunately closed.
The Sydney city stations used to have some wooden escalators as well. All gone now. Modern and shiny.
Miss wood escalators!
Escalators are still not particularly safe. There are more accidents than you'd think. I got my skirt caught in one once. Fortunately the escalator stopped and I wasn't dragged into the works or anything (as has actually happened in a few cases). The skirt didn't come off because it had a drawstring rather than elastic waist. When the workmen were unable to fix it immediately, I did untie the skirt and step out of it, as I didn't feel able to stand there for long. Fortunately I had a long sleeved button-up shirt I was able to tie around my waist, which gave me some coverage while I went back to my room for another skirt (also fortunately, I was at a hotel at a science fiction convention, so my room was in the building, and also being oddly or partially dressed didn't really stand out much in that environment).
It was a shall inconvenience and slight embarrassment in my case. I got my skirt back later. But it sure made me aware that escalators can be dangerous! I've since learned that they can be especially dangerous to dogs, and of course to small children. Never let kids play on them. And avoid going on one with loose clothing. Tuck in / pull close anything loose as best you can, and watch the edges, especially where the steps meet the wall.
I am glad you were not injured and made it out safely! I agree, escalators aren’t the safest of inventions. It’s critically important that one pays careful attention when riding one and has the proper attire to do so. I was a bit scared of them as a kid and still am very cautious of them to this day.
Shoelaces as well. I tuck my shoelaces and pull up my pant legs every time I step on one. I am an elevator mechanic/constructor in training.
If those brushes are there to prevent things from falling in the sides, things will fall *under* the brushes in order to fall into the sides anyway. Inanimate objects are oddly passionate and clever about getting stuck where they don't belong.
Look up the Kings Cross underground station fire if you need to know why those brushes are there.
when I was around 7 years old the aglet of my shoelace got stuck in between the ridges (shoelace was untied)
and got sucked in at the top as it was merging together.. no horror story here! just fell like a plank of wood 😂😂😂 very safe but very funny!
Aglet! Haven't heard that word in awhile🥹 Took me back to Phineas and Ferb days🤩
@@avinesh7668was just thinking that 😂😂
@@avinesh7668dang you kids I learned about aglets from Monster Farm on FOX FAMILY lol
lmao my shoelace got caught in one in high school and I hardcore panicked and got it yanked out somehow, tie your shoelaces kids
Same thing happened to me when I was young (I also once got my thumb sucked in and fairly well-crunched under the edge of one of the old-fashioned turnstile grocery rotating things, but that's a different story).
Not sure about your 'very safe' though; have you ever looked up 'escalator accidents' online? 😱
I always assumed the brushes were to touch your ankles to alert you to the fact you’re standing too close to the edge, lol
Do you have no feet and just walk on round ankle stubs
no i just wear shoes typically
When I was a kid I would always have my ankle against the brush the whole ride because it felt nice but growing up I realize how dirty those things probably are lol
Huh, I think that's also... Neat?
@sleepingguard01 you are correct…..
British Hank Green can’t hurt you he isn’t real
British Hank Green:
British Hank Green: is Australian Hank Green 😁
Not British but Australian.
British Hank Green has an Aussie accent
Why are americans completely incapable of discerning accents?
“An escalator can never break down, they can only become stairs” - Mitch Hedberg
When I was around 5 or 6, I fell on an escalator. Those spikey bits gashed my leg open and 30 years later I still have the scar. 6 stitches was a huge hole in my leg that young.
I remember screaming my head off in fear that I was going to get pulled under 😅
I'm lowkey STILL afraid I'll get pulled under. Lmfao
YES! A similar thing happened to me as a kid and I feared going on an escalator for like a decade after 😭
the same thing happened to me as a kid, a bleeding hole in my calf. still got the scar.
Oh I did the same thing except my shin broke.
OMG!! its been 10 years since the same thing happened to me, i thought i was just stupid 😭 i dont think i have a scar. i was running up the escalator like the little adhd kid i was when i tripped and fell, i dont remember how big the cut was but all i remember was that my white uniform tights were DRENCHED in blood…ive been (and still am!) afraid of escalators ever since 😢
I worked at a bi-level Starbucks in a mall. Wed have to mix some drink bases upstairs then bring them downstairs. Im talking gallons and gallons of yhe stuff. We were forbidden from using escalators to move them but new hires didn't know that. One of the weirdest things I've ever seen is a sudden frappuccino waterfall where moments before there was an escalator.
People always act like I'm insane for being scared of escalators, but I'm so glad seeing comments of people validating my fears and agreeing with me. I'm an adult now, and I still have my legs lock up and have to clutch someone's hand when forced to go on one
I'm sure driving in a car is less safe than escalators. I've never known anyone who had an accident on an escalator, whereas I know plenty who were hurt to varying degrees in a car accident.
They have their purpose, but that doesn't negate the fact that those ridges tear you up if you ever happen to fall on an esculator.
On moving floors (i.e. escalators that don’t turn into stairs), the grooves trap the wheels of shopping trolleys to stop them from running away downhill. The groove combs at the end kick the wheels back out at the end of the journey.
These intrigue me we don't have these in the US that I've seen I really want to see one. Just flat moving walkways (mostly in airports, there is a old school rubber one at the national gallery of art
Travelators
@@ybunnygurl I've never seen a flat one in Australia apart from airports. Generally they are more like the ramp equivalent of an escalator if that makes sense.
@@stephaniethompson469must vary by state.
That's not true, at least not in all cases. Some trolley wheels have "normally on" brakes that require a particular RF signal that's projected around the entire store and out to a certain distance, to unlock them. The travelators usually have a very localised way to block or override that signal. It's nothing to do with the grooves.
for flat escalators (the one that allows shopping cart) the wheels lock on the surface allowing the shopping cart to not slide down as well
I think they’re called travelators, at least that’s what we call them in Australia as far as I’m aware
God I'd pay so much to see the first time they tried using carts on an escalator before they realized they should lock in place lololol
@@ultrainstinctshaggyalmight6429You are correct :)
You don’t have to listen to me, but I used to be an actual elevator mechanic (I was in maintenance in Otis and Schindler) and I can tell you that even with those grooves, they are still EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, you might think I am exaggerating, but I’m not. Elevators have safety equipment, such as not closing the door of something is stuck in them, and possibly shutting down (according to situation). They have buttons to call for help, and even though you are in a shaft way hundreds of feet in the air, you are in a safe little box, where you can play games on your phone until I (the elevator mechanic gets pinged on that button) get you out. Also, contrary to Hollywood movies, you will fall UP if the elevator breaks (most of them fall up, depends on the counterweight). In my 25 years of work, I never heard of a single person dying in an elevator (I work in ATLANTA!) However, escalators have no safety equipment. If you somehow get your fingers/leg caught in the escalator, it’s not stopping. You will keep on going until that limb gets severed by that very same wedge at the top of the stairs. I have heard of the deaths on them before. The ONLY thing stopping you from getting serious injury is if someone notices your stuck (in the 10 seconds before you get to the end, sometimes sooner, depends on model) and presses the Emergency button at the bottom or top of the escalator. If they don’t, goodbye whatever limb is caught. So yeah, don’t be fooled.
“Preventing anything from getting caught”
My shoelaces: “Bonjour”
One thing I noticed in a big supermarket is that some shopping carts are designed with wheels that make contact with the ground only with two outer discs, and the middle of the wheel is further inside and made of soft rubber. So when you take one on the flat escalator, the discs fall into the ridges and the shorter rubber part is the one making contact and stopping the cart from rolling down
Or you can just go to a store that has its own escalator for shopping carts.
@@JimAllen-Persona This works really well, no need for extra escalators when the same can be used for both people and carts. The one I had in mind was one to reach the second floor on the two level parking of a Carrefour, also another similar one in an Auchan, but I recall there's one in the local IKEA too, but that one has big elevators already
I remember seeing some impatient guy slowly kick his shopping cart forward while I was in Spain.
They were all over Brazil when I was there
i have a very vivid memory of when i was about 8 or 9 there was a show on tv, i was watching forensic files and it was like that, played on the same channel and had a similar narrator, and it was a story about a women who fell on an escalator and her hair got caught in the escalator and it scalped her. it had very graphic video to go along with it, i imagine some real and some acted out. but i never EVER forgot. i’ve never been able to find the episode if it was forensic files, or the exact show if it wasn’t, or the exact story about it, but it traumatized me so much that i am terrified of escalators. i even had a night light that would rotate between the colors of the rainbow but i had to stop using it because everytime the light went red all i could see was that lady with her scalp peeling off. 😭
A healthy fear of escalators is a useful thing to have. They have quite a body count. I’m always careful on them.
Man
:'(
For me it was 'Mall Rats'
FELLOW STAYYYY?!?!
"And they are not to clean your boots" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
There have been incidents where people have fallen on escalators due to over crowding after big events etc, where the grooves have done serious damage to shins or thighs, depending on how people fell.
when he was a toddler, my nephew stumbled at the bottom of an escalator and got the edge of his hand caught in the teeth. he has a pretty bad scar now, 20 years later.
Yikes. I remember almost having a similar incident.
Spoiler, those side brushes don’t work. My sisters shoe lace went down it and it destroyed her shoe and gave her scars on her foot.
Yeah I do think those do work for preventing stuff falling from getting into the sides but not shoe laces that's already on the steps under them. Also the much more accurate explanation that the video has badly simplified is those brushes were never meant to stop shoe laces and stuff, they're there just to insist people to not to stand too close to the edges to minimize the chance of things getting stuck.
@@nationeerwhich is funny because they always made me want to press up against the brush like I was getting my shoe shined by those roller machines.
They are haptic alert that your food is on the edge and should stay away. lol
do u think a pp could fit inside that way?
Yeah I was going down on an escalator once and this boy's shoelaces got caught on the side of the escalator right when he was about to reach the bottom. The boy was lucky as he managed to get his foot out of his shoe just in time. I almost fell off the escalator too but thank goodness I was holding onto the hand rail.
The brushes are super helpful for polishing areas if you shoe that are hard to reach with a brush!
“Boot cleaners,” I can relate.
Well I got my toe stuck in an escalator I was about 6 there was a sign that said toes can’t get caught and I took this as a challenge ( I remember thinking yes I can! ) luckily we were a few blocks from a hospital and my toe wasn’t broken just popped open like a cherry tomato
yikes!
“…popped open like a cherry tomato”
Huh. You have a certain way with words. Do I mean that as a compliment? I cannot say
*signpost* "Toes cannot get caught in this escalator. Anti-toe-catching devices have been installed"
*OP* "Challenge accepted. Mom, hold my milk"
*1 minute later*
*OP* "Ha! I KNEW I could do it, in your face sign...... Mom I think I need the hospital..."
@@phi1688I mean I sure got a real strong visual with the description 😂😂 so idk if I'd compliment either lmaooo
@@giftofthewild6665what was the point of your comment? you just wrote exactly what he said. just in a more cringe way.
The broom at the end that covered the whole thing and fit into the slots was perfect to watch.
There was once a wooden escalator, it caught fire.
I like escalators so much that my first fashion collection for university was inspired by them! I like looking at the stairs open and close, and I love the clicking sound they make.
I’m genuinely terrified of escalators and this doesn’t help but I am happy to know more about them
If anything, this should help as it shows the safety if the machines
@@aerenae I just can't bring myself to ride them especially the fast ones, like they go so fast!
I have this fear too I thought I was alone on this 😭
Big mood
Same
PSA if you go to Austria: Right half is for standing, keep the left half free for people that are walking. Leave at least one step between you and the person in front.
Same in UK
But so many people don't seem to know that rule and stand on the left holding people up 😅
Opposite in Aus. Stand on the left, keep the right free. And of course leaving the step between
@@themightygregor at least in vienna it's written on the escalators. But some people don't care. Still, MOST of them you can ask to let you pass and it shouldn't be a problem. (but yeah, i wish they would just follow the rule in the first place)
Most escalators in the US are simply not wide enough for two people to be side by side without crawling over each other. And no, this is not a "hurr durr fat Americans" joke, and _of course_ there are escalators in some places that are wide enough, but most of the ones I've seen just aren't.
Couples can't hold hands side to side on most escalators, so they're forced to do the "reach around" hand hold, the "I'm trying to hug/ spoon you from behind and now I have to pretend that I don't have my face shoved in your ass in public" position, or, most commonly, the "don't touch me I have a 12 second window to stare at my phone and I'm gonna use it" stance.
Also fun fact: the high voltage power switches that controls the supply to these escalators are known to explode, rather violently in fact
“They are there to prevent any material from getting caught.” Unless you’re wearing crocks! 😂😂
I used to shuffle off escalators. Well, one day I was wearing rubber galoshes (rain boots) and they got caught in the combs. I couldn't pull free, and then people started falling over me. It was looking like I would get trampled and crushed - - and then the escalator stopped and I was able to pull my feet free, uninjured. I still don't know if it stopped by itself or someone pressed the emergency button.
All that tech and I still got my shoelace caught in an escalator… I guess it was a canon event 😂
When I was a kid, I really thought the brushes were meant to clean your shoes.
Thank you so much for this info 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
Those last few seconds actually rearranged my brain, I've always used the brushes for cleaning my shoes! XD
wow, whenever I’ve accidentally let my shoe touch those brushes it’s left behind ugly black marks on my shoe…
I wonder if escalators are better these days about not being able to grab on to things and pull them under.
When I was in high school my friend’s canvas shoes got caught in the part where the escalator step disappears. There was a gap there that grabbed on to the toe of her shoe and once it was in there, there was no getting it out.
We had to help our friend stay upright and pull her foot out of the shoe so it wouldn’t pull her foot in and injure her.
The mall wouldn’t even replace her shoes. They said that we must’ve been goofing off for that to have happened, but we weren’t.
I’d heard of other people at my school that had lost jackets in the other escalators in the mall and couldn’t get those replaced either.
But since then everything got remodeled, the old escalators got ripped out, and I haven’t heard of people getting anything stuck in the new ones.
…they still make me nervous, though.
Don’t worry, most modern models will stop if anything gets sucked in. Also they have emergency stop buttons at the top and bottom if anything goes get stuck
Yeah it was only in the 2010s that escalators became much much safer. I still remember a case in my country back in the 2000s where a little girl got her sandals caught at the end of the escalator and sliced off her pinkie toe.
They're better.
"you'll find escalators in shopping centers" thanks
This guy is such a brilliant writer he actually took the time to explain that escalators can be found in malls.
“That kid is back on the escalator!”
I was hoping someone said this quote! 😂
If Some adult, I don't care which one, would just get that damn kid off the escalator.
“That damn kid is on the escalator again!!”
I have seen a lady get her toe caught while riding with flip flops. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
no, those brushes are for cleaning our boots and you can't convince me otherwise
The groves provide ultimate grip when they pull you into the floor :)
The escalator was designed by a man who went to Lehigh university. It’s a university built on the side of a mountain. I did a college visit there and at the time was just off of the swim season, so I was the only one besides the tour guide that wasn’t winded and struggling.
so there’s no escalators there?
The escalator was patented a decade before Lehigh was even open. They tell kids that on tours as a joke because of how many stairs we have here and how sick everyone is of walking up them (Im doing a PhD at Lehigh)
I remember a top floor wooden escalator in downtown Toronto Eatons department store approximately 1964.
One of my biggest flex is that i can use them with my Wheelchair
I once fell over on an escalator and one of the teeth went deeeeep into my shin :)
I have wondered this before!! But I will forever be nervous around them. 😂😂
Y'know what, this actually did alleviate my fear of getting caught and sucked up into the side of an escalator a bit LMAO
He looks like the mario we don't speak of anymore
That old Itchy and scratchy skit had me terrified of them for a solid two years.
The brush also stops friction shock that could trip you up
i still prefer to use them as boot cleaners
The top of the escalator when a Chinese child is near: 🍽
still aint gonna stop me from cleaning my shoes 😂
Misinformation those are to clean your shoes
With the dirt from everybody else's shoes. xD
Pinnacle of journalism
You know this isn't the regular journalist part of the ABC, it's the fun science part. Stop being a boob.
Love this. Thank you
"Escalators can't break. They just temporarily become stairs. Apologies for the convenience."
😭😭 ive always been terrified of elevators and escalators. Ive seen too many horror things with both and when youre a small kid that doesnt realize theyre a moving staircase and they stop moving all of a sudden, kinda freaks you out. Because you dont realize you can walk up... i wasnt the brightest child 😅😅 but other than that, ive just seen too many fatal accidents with both of these machines. 😅😅 so of theres a stair case, im gonna take the stairs more than half the time 😂😂
FATAL??? what? source? 😭 /gen
@memechild2025 it was when best gore was a thing and im pretty sure just a Google search will suffice 😅😅 yeah. I'm Gucci on them lmfao
Stairs are significantly more dangerous, statistically
@@memechild2025wtf is gen
@@Teuwufel its a tone indicator, meant to indicate that the text is meant in a genuine tone and not like, in a rude or sarcasitc way lol. gen is short for genuine.
I've got a very nasty scary from the corners of those grooves but better than getting sucked in to an escalator I guess
My brother got a nasty scar from running up an escalator and tripping the teeth basically took a junk out of his knee
There are also some "tilted" ones, like they're all one platform and with special shopping carts that also have those grooves on the wheels. The wheels then stick to those grooves and you can move them between floors
Wynyard and Town Hall Stations still a couple of the old wooden escalators up until about 15 - 20 years ago.
Thank you for telling us, British Hank Green
He's Australian
@@kizza8585 Wh00ps
I'm so glad to find other people are scared of escalators too, it makes me feel less silly for using an elevator to get to the next floor (bc fire exits are locked)
I wouldn't say I'm scared of them, but the ANXIETY is real. Everything can and WILL kill you. Your freaking Panera sandwich for instance is full of glyphosate that will absolutely give you lymphoma 20 years down the road. (source: "Toxins found in popular cereal brand and fast food chains across America" by KATVchannel7)
I always used the brushes on escalators as shoe cleaners
The grooves also help with water drainage from the surface and that’s also why W class trams originally had wooden grooved flooring which was pretty good at providing grip and helping with draining water but did unfortunately wreak havoc on any high heeled shoes that dared to step on them! Pretty much my mom had her high heels destroyed by the floors on W class trams in the 1980s and on multiple occasions almost injured her feet/ankles when the heels got stuck in the grooves.
The complimentary shoe cleaners
In big convenience stores, the wheels of carts are designed to latch into the groves of flat escalators allowing you to traverse the escalator (down to parking lots for example) with your filled carts without them slipping a millimeter
They are perfect grooves for shopping cart wheels.
this is actually really comforting, i’ve never been able to get on an escalator without my stomach twisting and turning, but now i think i’ll feel at least a little but safer!
This reminds me of one day when I was running up the escalator to catch the train when I tripped and banged my shin so hard on the grooves. So hard in fact, that I ended up with a kind of deep, gross, open wound. I ended up missing the train and had to sit and wait. I was more embarrassed that people saw me fall going up than in pain. Now it’s all healed but left me with three scars and a lil dent lol. Wasn’t a fun day. Don’t rush even if you’re running late, increasing the risk of accidents which in turn make u more late than u already were!
In turkey(from my experience living here all my life), these grooves are perfect with shopping cart wheels so most shopping carts just slot in and it prevents them from slipping down the escalator
In the late 50s my British mum told me her heel from her fashionable stiletto heels got stuck in a groove on an escalator in London while going to the tube station. Thank God her knight in shining armor was behind her & rescued her! Alas, the shoe wasn't so fortunate 🤣
I will still never forget the time when i saw someone's knee get eaten by an escalator when they fell. The grooves were like teeth marks tearing it up. I couldn't go on an escalator for years. Still to this day, i have to shuffle, watch, & prepare to get on & off one
Got my shoe lace stuck in one as a kid freaked me out. 😂
Appreciate the explanation!
In Germany, we have some escalators without steps. They're like airport conveyor belts but tilted up. The ridges grip into grooves on your shopping cart wheels, locking it in place on the belt until the scoop at the end leverages it free again and it naturally rolls off the belt.
I have went on escalators and those ridges also help with grip to prevent slipping and the combs are their to prevent any object from getting under it and those side brushes prevent people from putting their feet to close to the edge of the escalators
Something neat that I experience a lot about escalators is the complete "flat" escalator; instead of steps, a wheel-chair-friendly escalator. The best thing about it is that wheels of *ANYTHING*, the moment it rolls onto the escalator, the wheels instantly lock and prohibit movement but the moment when you get to the top, or get to the bottom, the momentum of the escalator flattening out unlocks the front wheel, allowing the person (if it is a trolley/cart) to push, or push themselves (if in a wheelchair).
Used these for almost 20 years going to work. crossed no less then 6 of these a day. So used to them and never had an incident. Was more strange when they were not working, felt a phantom motion when getting on stopped ones so used to the motion change.
Those were my guesses on why the steps have ridges on the side and on top, but I didn’t know that was the role for the brushes on the side!
I stopped an escalator in a department store once when I was a toddler because my laces got stuck on those grooves.
Also, on walkalators, special shopping trolleys make use of the grooves to keep it in place. I remember a basement grocery store cheaping out on the trolleys so they ended up with an unused walkalator months after opening.
Another thing to mention is that shopping carts are designed specifically with the grooves of escalators in mind; their wheels latch onto the grooves adding a lot of grip.
When I was like 6, I would put my foot into the brushes on the side thinking they would clean my shoes. One time I must have stuck my foot too deep and it got caught by the sides and literally ripped the skin off my toes. Was an interesting experience
I remember taking my 86 year old Grandmother on an escalator for the first time in the 1980’s…she was terrified🤣
My grandpa several years ago once saved a little girl (somewhere around 4) from a modern elevator. Her and her mom were behind my grandma and grandpa on it, and her dress got sucked into the escalator as my grandparents stepped off. Without really even thinking my grandpa turned around and picked her up, literally ripping part of the girls dress as he did. She was fine just scared, and her mom was very thankful.