Australia’s Longest Escalator is the Most Dangerous
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2024
- The longest escalator in the southern hemisphere is at Parliament Station in Melbourne. It turns out that it’s also the most dangerous. Here’s what it feels like to ride it and why its caused so many injuries.
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When I was very new to living in Melbourne I had a woman ask if she could hold onto me while travelling down the escalator. She kept her face buried into my shoulder and was having an awful time. Now I understand why.
Thanks for being a nice escalator buddy and for sharing.
I don't.
I used them may last year and I had my friend stand in front of me so I could focus on him
I had an opposite experience when I was travelling on one of the escalators at Flinders St. when a lady fell backwards towards me almost creating a domino effect back down the elevator. That was not fun.
@@johnsmith-fz5pz you dont understand why?
Legit, instead of adding a bunch of signs, make the "tunnel" not look like a flat path. It's like they built it to make it feel like an illusion.
Exactly. If they put some sort of horizontal lines or subtle patterns on the walls, it might be a subconscious/perihperal reminder that people are going up & down, rather than travelling horizontally. Not everyone can rely on their sense of balance to stay upright, so this illusion is bound to put people off balance.
The fact that the photo boxes in between the escalators are truly vertical is the worst part. The photos encourage you to look at them, which gives you a reference point to true vertical even though nothing else around you is. It’s very trippy.
It's Melbourne. They're a bit weird in the head.
Or put posters on the sides which are positioned upright. Most escalators on the London underground are like diagonal tunnels
Parliament station really needs to fix their lighting over the Escalators because it causes a glare & that is really dangerous especially for Escalators this long & those Escalators are 38m which is really long for Escalators & I'm glad we don't have Escalators this long in Christchurch & if I went to Parliament station I'd take the lift so I don't get injured or even die
On the London Tube, the escalators have posters along the walls. They're upright (actually slightly inclined toward the top of the escalator) so you have a good frame of reference. A simple and clever solution.
Some the escalators on the Tube are also substantially longer than 30m as they travel a VERTICAL distance of almost that. IIRC the Piccadilly line has some of the deepest, longest & steepest ... Hardly surprising as it's the deepest line on the Tube network.. But the deepest/longest on the underground is Angel station at 27 m deep and ~200 feet/61m but it's not the longest in the UK ... THAT's at Heathrow T5 and there is 60m WOODEN escalator in Newcastle, all the wooden ones in London were replaced with metal ones after the Kings Cross Fire tragedy.
Same in stockholm
Same in Turkey, also makes for good ad space apparently because shitty ads are all I see on the walls. Oh well. Atleast I don't fall down thanks to them
Stockholm, Solna station, has one that is just a bit longer than this one at 66 meters going 33 meters deep. There are commercials on the walls in much the same way as the London Tube, apparently. Never even considered that thing as dangerous. I hated the cave like feeling of the Stockholm tube always so much more.
Singapore's Bras Basah MRT station has 2 pairs of ~43-48m long escalators, which are located directly beneath a skylight & fountain though that makes the environment appear more spacious & relaxed
Maybe painting some horizontal, bold, black stripes on the walls would provide at least a reference for which way is down.
Exactly my thought.
yeah, i called the cause pretty quickly on seeing the design. Hell, putting up posters on the walls oriented to the actual horizon would help too, and give them either advertising space for events, works notices, and safety art. I wouldn't be surprised if they were considering multiple options as a committee, which probably means that the eventual solution will come late, overbudget, but at least a solution will probably come along.
Or actually make money by plastering the walls with advertisements, which would provide the references...
Dangle some ornaments from the ceiling and let gravity do it's job
So this is what you watch when you're not fucking around with macros. Interesting
I've always felt uneasy on those escalators but no one ever said anything so I thought it was just me haha
Those escalators are interesting. I unknowingly had a middle ear infection and felt like the world had spun around. I didn't fall over but caught the lift from street level for the return journey.
Me too I hated going up them every morning while I worked in the CBD.
@@murdo601 I go to parliament station most days. Thankfully, there is a lift.
Same then one day when my friend and I where on it I brought it up on how I hated going on those escalators to find out everyone who was with us (about 6 other people) felt the same way lol
Me too
I’m a maintenance employee with Metro. You should try walking up both flights from platform 3 and 4 to the exit level after hours at night when they turn off both the elevators and escalators!
I have had to do it when they break down....
For years I would speed walk/jog (to the extent possible during morning peak) up both flights each weekday. Of course, the fact they were moving made for a far less taxing and much quicker ride than having to climb stationary escalators (aka stairs!).
Rip up your gym membership then...Free health!
@@intrograted792 lucky you didn't trip as those steps would rip you to pieces like a cheese grater!
Who needs a gym. I used to run up both of the down ones in a row while they were going! (Quite a few years back now!)
Had a dog that used to do it for fun too. Living in the area, sometimes if he really wanted a walk at night and it was cold and raining we'd just take him down there and he'd have a ball running up the down and down the up!
I love how rather than fix the problems with the design, they just put SIGNS everywhere. This is just like putting up speed limit signs to try to make people drive safer, instead of fixing the damn problems.
With the added irony that if those very warning signs were mounted in the escalator tunnel itself (as many others have pointed out), they may actually work (although not due to their content)
If they put the signs on the walls next to the escalator they would help orient the rider. This is like putting speed limit signs across town that you can't even see.
Wait how can we stop speeding without the signs? I mean the cops can’t be there all the time
@@APersonOnCZcamsX well they could manufacture slower cars lmfao but they wont because car go brrrr haha
@@hezerd7184 there are a whole bunch of problems with that idea if a government wanted to enforce it:
1. how do you limit the speed of cars made out of your country? stop importing them USSR style? that's kinda a recipe for a whole bunch of economic problems
2. there are roads where it's perfectly OK to drive fast af. highways, autobahns, etc. making people crawl at 100kmph through the whole country sound like a nightmare, especially since many trip can be business-related
3. slower cars mean slower acceleration which can actually make avoiding certain situations harder
4. and most crashes happen below theoretical speed limits for cars anyway, so I don't feel like it'll help much
limiting speed to smth like 40kmph is a perfectly fine solution in many areas where you need it. though apart from signs, you can make cars slower by making the road less straight, for example
They seem to have designed the escalator roof and walls to cause as much accidents as possible, it doesn't seem to be fair to say its all the escalators fault
I still remember after a night out, I used to sit down on these escalators at 5am and ride them down scattered af
Safety first.
I once sat down on them and a disembodied voice told me to stand up.
I remember sitting down on them after a long night working at The Palace - must've been 7am by the time I was heading home
@@darylcheshire1618
I'd tell that voice "no, I feel safer sitting". As long as you're to the left side so people can pass on the right, and it isn't a peak period, there is nothing wrong with sitting on Parliament's escalators.
Put advertisements on the escalator walls.
I’ve always found that the tube nature makes me lean back in reference to the ceiling. Great to hear that’s legit. Why not paint some high contrast vertical-to-gravity lines on the walls to help your eye find “up”? Use a ceiling design that feels like steps. Use design to fix the design problem.
Yep - I get that feeling to lean back also. Not sure why a paint job hasn’t been on the list - feels like it could help.
looks like it could have been designed by a star-chitect... so the metro probably don't want to mess up the futuristic vision of a clean uncluttered space they paid a fortune for. The reflections in the ceiling are disorientating too.
agree you need some visual reference for vertical... I think most UK people look down that tube at 0:45 and think 'where are all the underwear adverts?'
course if you put in some vertical lines the people who've got used to it will probably start falling over in the opposite direction.
Not sure vertical lines would help, and I'd bet they could actually make it worse. The sides curve inwards in a perfect and consistent arc so the only time they'd appear vertical is when you directly pass them. It would be a total trip - pardon the pun.
Just thinking the same, but I take "cassette's" reply that it might not work. I'm sure they could build a prototype to test it.
I wonder how much of the issue is simply the height of the tunnel down - it makes that reference point father away and with so little that's distinct it's easy to get lost. Stairs can be the same - your mind turns off for a fraction for a second and you're unsure you calculated the next step correctly, even if you can process that your current step is equivalent to the last one. It feels like the issues in both cases is the lack of variety. I don't have the same issue walking up and down rugged, nonuniform natural terrain.
Love the channel, btw. New here today and I've learned I have a new geek love
@@DiscoFang Horizontal lines could possibly help. I know nothing about this topic so I'm probably wrong, but it intuitively makes sense to me.
Maybe some posters that are leveled out on the walls on the sides of the escalators room might help to stop the mind being as disorientated.
I feel queasy when going down a London escalators but at least I can stare at the wall posters to not feel as disorientated
I was thinking that maybe painting the sides with some kind of horizontal striping might help too.
The London Underground does that a lot, with advertising boards every few feet. Feels wrong to see a subway escalator without them.
What a strange place for you to be in, lol
@@familyvalue5588 He's everywhere, my dude
44 days
Having been in moscow and peter, the longest escalator in the southern hemisphere was a bit underwhelming...
Same! Never been to peters, but I remember some Moscow stations had impressive escalators - you were in for a long ride-. The "deepest" station I can recall was in Barcelona, but it was divided in multiple sets so the escalators themselves were kinda short
@@isardprat7900 Madrid and Barcelona metro station have about 50m deep stations, but escalators aren't continuous (cheaper and safer). Stations in moscow have like 80m vertical continuous escalators.
Yeah even Angel Tube Station Islington is 60m long and doubles up as ski slope.
I live in St. Petersburg, and this escalator looked extremely short... The longest escalator here is like 100 meters, and I travel through a station that's 60 meters deep daily -- you can't even see the bottom from the top until you ride for a bit.
@@isardprat7900 the deepest station is the central Pyogyang station in north korea
I remember taking an escalator in Atlanta in America, and it was so long you literally could not see the end when you first got on. That really really freaked me out
Peachtree Center MARTA station. Last time I went there the escalators were turned off. That was really not fun.
@@space.tel-e-grams that's it, I just remember it was inside a station. Definitely not fun having to walk down it...
DC’s metro has some really long ones too
I was just about to post a comment about that. I've had to get on that escalator at least a hundred times now, and it never gets less weird.
@@connordoyle7245 DC's Wheaton station has the longest escalators in the Western hemisphere. It's actually the second deepest station in the system, the deepest is Forest Glen, and it's elevator-only.
When i use it, I must look at the person in front, or on the stairs themselves - otherwise, I’ll get dizzy and lose my balance. If i look around I start falling backward
When I lived in Melbourne for a couple of years I was taught by my aunt who I lived with at the time to always look at the escalator steps straight in front of you.
Me too, only way to do it I reckon.
I've always hated those escalators. Like Julian says at the start, you feel more like you're in a tunnel than on a slope and I can see how some people might feel as though they're leaning forward when they're not and try and overcorrect that, losing their balance. To be honest, they terrify me and I am a grown ass adult who has lived in Melbourne my entire life, but when using those escalators there's a battle in my head to just stay focused on the end and try not to get too stressed about it. It definitely doesn't help that I have a thing about heights, but even if you don't, they're a daunting feature of the underground network.
Sounds like just painting an artificial horizon on the walls alone could reduce falls massively.
I'm surprised the 'photo boxes' weren't mentioned. I always thought they were added so travelers could 're-reference' vertical
It’s a good point - they are pretty much the only thing that is vertical. I couldn’t find if that’s their purpose - or to stop people treating them like a slide. Maybe both.
@@JulianOShea I honestly think a giant slide should be a legitimate method of going between platforms at the station. It would be much faster and fun.
@@Hebdomad7 You know, I’d be down with that.
@@JulianOShea Different Melbourne escalators (Melb Central) but there's a great scene in Jackie Chan's Mr Nice Guy where he slides down the middle section of the escalators.
I thought their secondary purpose was to dissuade 2:35. But with enough beers I wonder if they'd still try...
The escalator looks similar in length to some of the ones I remember using in London. One big difference was that they had advertising posters lining both walls of the tunnel, which likely would have helped as cues about which way was up.
And how to waste your money buying things you don't need? Give me a scraped knee from an escalator fall any day of the week. Are you a big fan of adverts? I've got some junk mail I could forward to you.
@@Neil_MALTHUS why are you so aggressive? they were just saying the positioning of the adverts could help with any disorientation, not that they love adverts or anything
"600 injuries, about 50% falling backwards or travelling up on the escalator = twice as much as falling forwards while travelling down, [so 25%]".
WTF were the other 25% doing?
2:36
I would have guessed most of the accidents are at the horizontal parts at the end, when the moving part suddenly ends. That's how I tripped when I was a kid, and I tell you those metal grates are not a grate place to scrape your knee.
Sliding down the middle bit.
"they put up signs encouraging people to hold on and avoid distractions"
London: we solved the issue by putting distractions
That roof/ceiling needs a redesign. As soon as your camera entered the escalator the lights and patterns on the roof made me feel "wrong".
Only just found your channel, your content is quite enjoyable. You are a likeable fella.
The lights should not across the top, should be align with the escalators.
@@jxmai7687 Or they could stagger them, so each pair of lights is at the same height, resulting in a stair-step look.
I was thinking you could paint some horizons onto the ceiling.
Ive spent hours going up and down these escalators on LSD. Good times.
No, a waste of time.
@@pauljordan4452 waste of time like you replying to comments on youtube?
Bro I think I saw you once or that was me so drunk I couldn't even see the ground
This brings a whole new layer to a classic episode of the IT Crowd.
My dog took a huge shit on it once. It was comical seeing the poop continually rotate around the escalator. If I seen that on LSD I would be in tears laughing because my dog ate A LOT of corn and peanuts.
An escalator of 30 meters isn't particularly long at all. The Angel's in London is 60 meters, an escalator in Prague is 87 meters, and a station in St Petersburg has an escalator that's 137 meters.
But you forgot that Australians have to ride the escalator upside-down, that's why they trip so much!
@@mihan2d what do you mean by upside-down?, that was a joke?
@@L2002 Some people believe the world is a globe.
@@blackmuslimconservative lol this is the modern version of flat earth.
@@L2002 There's a common meme about how Australians are "upside down" because their country is on the opposite side of the earth. Obviously it's absurd, everyone knows Earth is really a Möbius strip. #MöbiusEarthTheory #WakeUpSheeple #Investigate311
Whenever I hear The Southern Hemisphere’s longest, largest, highest, whatever…. I brace myself for serious underwhelment.
Largest spider.
Largest marsupil.
Largest snake
Largest reef.
Deepest oceanic trench.
Largest Nazi
Largest racist population
Tallest asshole
@@Emile.gorgonZola Hey now, we're talking about Australia, not Austria.
yeah i was also seriously underwhelmed since i have used a escalator over twice that length few dozen times in the past 20 years... so this video was a disappointment in 45 seconds :P
Here’s a bit of info that will make you feel whelmed, Perth has taken the top spot for the longest single-span uninterrupted escalator in the Southern Hemisphere. Measuring 35m
I suffer from vertigo and the first time I had to go into my head office which is next to Parliament station I got off there not knowing how bad the escalators were. Almost ended up having a panic attack as I went up and was gripping the hand rail for dear life. Now I get off at Flinders Street and walk up if I ever have to go in. Why can't they design these things with platforms half way?
It's the deepest station on the loop due to the geography of the CBD. I think the only grades that the loop hits is entering from Richmond/Jolimont/North Melbourne and the slight hill between Flagstaff and Melbourne central.
Also rail design is typically done for level grade as much as possible.
could you just sit down?
It's all in your head. You have the control to over come any feelings. Don't blame others because you won't fix your own head.
Doesn't it have an elevator for handicapped people (or with a baby stroller, large luggage, etc) anyway?
@Soul Sphere Obviously there needs to be one to be in compliance with legislation for handicapped people. And I'm pretty sure you don't need special permission to use it. I'd even go so far as to say that administration rather have people use the elevator, if they feel it'd be dangerous to use the escalator.
They could solve a lot of the issues by reintroducing some true horizontal and vertical lines in the space. For example. Literally painting horizontal or vertical lines.
Sadly, even some advertisement posters may already do the trick.
Not necessarily. There is a long motorway tunnel, and on a motorcycle, which gives you a more open view without car metal pillars, the regular pulse of the overhead lighting induces a really freaky hypnotic feeling like you're riding a Star Wars fighter and might tilt at any moment.
They could use the space for vertical adverts, helping both fund the station, and solve some of the issues.
I live in St. Petersburg and when I read a title I was quite attracked to it, expecting to see something really different from what I see while waiting a few minutes every time I ride escalator, but then I see the length of that and begin to laugh :D
I also fell for the headline. It seems that in St. Petersburg there is not a single escalator in the city center that would be shorter (besides the Gostinniy Dvor-Nevsky Prospect crossing).
People in Australia fall just because the escalator, hm, *is* there. I wonder how sharp angles of handrails at St. P.'s older stations (Baltiyskaya, for example) would scare them.
I have felt slight vertigo especially looking down on tunnel escalators like this, but where i live the walls always have ad posters aligned to the vertical and looking at them to the side helps
It is the lines on the side that "slope back" when going up.
Painting lines that are vertical will solve most falls.
London underground has advertisements that are vertical and attract attention.
Who advises these people.
totally agree. needs vertical markings and change the ceiling too.
@@fumthings Stupid how they think slowing it down will help.
I would have thought horizontal lines to provide a false horizon. Hey there we go the government can spend millions on a study to find out which works better, then completely ignore the results and paint diagonal lines because someone thinks they look prettier.
Living in Victoria makes you realise that the city planners around here are wholly incompetent at their jobs.
I think they might actually just base everything off of that traffic/city rug that at least all 90s kids used to play on
That was my immediate thought while I was watching this, it has no posters like London so it needs vertical and horizontal lines like the sides, top and bottom of a poster. I'm not a genius, what does that make the designers.
The Epping Metro escalator in Sydney is huge as well, the trick is to look straight ahead and not at the top or bottom while on it.
yeah… i had nightmares about falling down that one as a kid
theres a number of escalators around sydney that seem just as big as the one in the video, like central station to platforms 24/25. or even just in shopping centres like the one at westfield chatswood that goes from the street to the top floor cinema, or westfield city from pitt street mall. never had any issues with them apart from if their speed is inconsistent (some escalators seem to stutter occasionally). i prefer not to touch those filthy handrails.
but theyve certainly done a better job of the escalators at places like north ryde/macquarie etc, breaking them up into 2 long escalators instead of 1 super long one, and having it in a massive box without a ceiling so you can tell which way is up. a benefit of their more recent construction i suppose.
Martin Place one as well, i got that feeling of falling backwards
Yeah I know the one you're talking about, I used it before it was converted to a metro to get to piano lessons and they were easily the most scary part of the whole trip.
My dad absolutely refuses to use escalators, while I enjoy it.
So whenever we go somewhere with escalators,
I'll go in the escalator, then I'll find the elevator, and wait for my dad to show up...
I've taken this escalator and yes it scares the sh*t out of me because it's so visually confusing, you do feel like you're losing your sense of direction
Great video. I'm enjoying your content. Keep it up. A little Parliament Station adventure. Back in 2016 while taking photos at Parliament station for a Uni project, I had to hit the emergency stop on one of the lower escalators, as an elderly Vietnamese man had fallen backward while ascending. He was caught in a slow yet inescapable tumble halfway up. Staff came to his rescue and helped him to his feet and bring him down. He was very grateful but refused any medical assistance as he didn't want to inconvenience them and he was on his way to the hospital anyway... to an appointment with his heart specialist. The scary thing was, I thought everyone knew how to stop an escalator but I had a couple of bystanders ask me how I knew where the emergency stop was.
That’s full on. Glad you were there and knew what to do.
Where is the emergency stop button on an escalator? I am not in a city that has them.
I don't know where the emergency stop button is either..
@@mymai2792, @MODgal81. Usually there is a red button located at the top and the bottom of the escelator, just under where the hand rail belt goes back under. You can kick this with your foot without having to reach down. I'm pretty sure they keep them in a not to obvious place so trouble makers do'nt play with them. hope this helps.
The first time I visited Melbourne was the first time I'd visited a big city.
I was unfortunate enough that this was one of my first experiences of the city loop stations.
Managed to have vertigo the whole time while on it, and the moment I finished I had a bout of panic attacks for the rest of the afternoon.
Still makes me uneasy every time I ride it to this day.
Yikes. Not the best Welcome to Melbourne.
leahsdreams, that's awful! I have quite severe vertigo at times so I get it!
i remember using the Parliment Station when it opened (age 16), and the vertiginous sensation, all up i probably only ever used the station a half dozen times, same sensation every time.
as an adult i discovered i suffer from vertigo, and videos like this make me realise i have suffered from vertigo all my life.
@MyRackley it's also a colloquial term for a fear of heights. its not technically accurate, but that's what op was referring to
@@MyRackley people can and do just suddenly "get" vertigo - and can have episodes that are very short lived - particularly if they have benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and don't know.
Vertigo is a symptom, not a condition - it is the most common type of dizziness, the other types are lightheadedness, disequilibrium, and presyncope. There are conditions that cause vertigo (BPPV, Ménière's disease, labyrinthitis etc), but vertigo itself is simply defined as a "false sense of motion". Other causes of vertigo that are not related to diseases/conditions include panic attacks, intoxication, dehydration & hangovers, just to name a few.
The design of the Parliament station escalators absolutely can trigger an acute episode of vertigo, even in people who do not have an underlying condition.
Мельбурн: У нас очень длинные эскалаторы.
Москва: Подержи моё пиво.
черная речка в спб, скорее
As someone who lives in Melbourne I have never seen anyone brag about escalators.
Google’s new translate feature came in use for once.
Спб метро Адмиралтейская: pathetic
@@nothingnow6146 it’s kinda nice when you actually find someone not speaking English but most of the times it pops up, it’s under random acronyms/shorthand that google doesn’t recognize as English
@@nothingnow6146 As someone who regularly takes the world's longest escalator, I think I might start bragging about it. Love from St. Petersburg
"that's a long way down"
99% of all Prague subway stations have similarly long escalators.
Also they're a little faster so it doesn't take forever to get on the other side.
Probably much longer in Prague. We do things small around here.
@@JulianOShea I mean.....how is possible to have 3 injuries per week on one in australia and there is literally roughly 3 per 6 months on this one? czcams.com/video/UHtB9raDlbE/video.html
You have to account that they are upside down in australia in addition to the long escalator
Just some numbers: the longest escalator in Prague is 87m in station Náměstí Míru, the second is in station Hradčanská 76,2m long and another example is station Anděl, where the escalators are 59m long... just few I could find quickly
Also, it's actually common to treat escalators like "faster stairs", i.e. walking on them yourself to speed up arrival at the platform.
In Warsaw Metro you can actually see signs like "stand on the right side" when the left side is used for those who overtake.
I’ve been taking these escalators for so long, I don’t even notice how steep they are anymore
Did you watch the video? Are your dumb? Why do you think the vertigo issue has anything to do with their "steepness"? fml
@@UnitSe7en he made a statement about his own experiences with the escalator, he never even mentioned the word vertigo you twat.
@@UnitSe7en get off the drugs buddy, you’re losing your mind
@@aidanford4285 Perhaps you could explain instead how he was correct by stating that the steepness of them is what's wrong. All escalators are the same everywhere. It has nothing to do with their "steepness", angle or grade. This would be an issue of vertigo in the first degree. He was wrong. I am right, and you have added literally a zero sum to the conversation. Well done.
@Sanctus Paulus Because life sucks and I grew up without a dad.
you've probably heard from me on reddit already but
this came in so clutch for my assignment (escalator safety)
i completely forgot parliament existed over lockdown
Happy to help! (Unless you fail the assignment, then don’t blame me.)
@@JulianOShea i won't tell a soul :)
@@Asianpotato77 did you pass?
@@mehere8038 Yes!
As someone who uses this quite often I actually love the look of it! But I can 100% understand the dangers of it, it feels way steeper in real life than on this video...
Going down those escalators as a kid aways had the gut feeling of starting an amusement ride.
What a quaint niche channel, keep up the great work. Subscribed.
Thanks, appreciate it! You made the doco about the Post Office misadventures, right? I came across that this week and LOVED it. Hilarious and charming.
I mean it does sound like something I'd do..
Appreciate the positive feedback. All the best Julian.
If you think that engineering tidbits are quaint and niche, well, I don't really know what to tell you, except either 1. Look around outside more often or 2. Read a dictionary and get a better thesaurus.
This reminds me of the escalators at North Sydney station where the tile pattern actually made it seem as if you were travelling vertically.
That would be weird!
As a Moscovite i was like 'ooh, a long escalator with warning signs and such'. Then i saw the escalator and i was like 'oh, a short escalator, we've got longer escalators in our malls'.
Moscow knows how to escalator. We do things small around here.
Seems like actually putting those signs along the escalator walls would've helped significantly more
- one of the most memorable bits of advice I got on Melbourne's walking tour was to take any "southern hemisphere" statistic with a generous helping of salt. & sure enough, this one doesn't even figure in the global *top 70*..... it does make me wonder about the figures for the St Petersburg escalators though
I have to admit that being from the UK my reaction went pretty quickly from "wow!" to "that's cute" when the measurements were mentioned... But it does seem like there are other factors that make this one particularly un-rider-friendly compared with the ones on the London underground.
This does not take away from the facts. I don't see your point.
Yup that longuest Southern Escalator turned into average real fast when he gave the figures, I can believe the most disorientating title though, I was dizzy just watching, put some advertising or art down the sides to create some line of sights cause that diagonal pattern creates a perfectly nauseating false horizon that throws off my brain in a way I don't like.
okay?
As a little kid I was awed by, and still decades later love, Parliament Station for its escalators. Racing up them (as much as one can at peak hour) each weekday morning to make my tram was close to the only exercise I got for a number of years. I never engaged in risky youthful behaviour on them and I've always found heights thrilling, but I understand how dangerous they can be and why they make many uncomfortable/anxious.
The Washington Metro, USA, has 14 sets of escalators ranging in length from 29.5 to 70.3 meters and they have never had this problem. The likely reason why is because they operate all of their escalators regardless of length at the same speed, all of the shafts are lit with indirect lighting and the expansion joints on the arches or walls are vertical.
Still vividly remember going on this escalator more than 10 years ago. Vertigo, and as others mentioned triggered a panic attack. I only went on it once and insisted on using the lift from then on. Interesting to learn more about it!
Been on this so many times, never knew it was the southern hemisphere longest.
That's what she said
(sorry couldn't resist)
Don't escalators in the southern hemisphere go the opposite direction?
Almost everything that's oldest, longest, biggest and best in the southern hemisphere is in Melbourne. I'm extremely proud that my city is the capital of the southern hemisphere! ✌
I remember going to the city with mum when I was about 6 years old and being stuck at the bottom because mum was too scared to ride the escalator. They didn't have a lift in those days so eventually we got on with mum gripping the rail and my hand super tight. I loved the ride but mum was ashen faced. We survived :)
I always felt uneasy on those escalators at Parliament station, I thought it was my fear of heights, but this explains a lot, too!
When I used long escalators in the Washington, D.C. area, I found the best way to avoid vertigo is just to not look up of far out or upward, but merely focus looking downward on the stairs in front of me. Since the visual signals are causing problems, then focus on a stable area. If they worry about people coming to the end of the escalator and not looking up, a yellow marker could be placed on the side walls with "Approaching End of Escalator."
There have to be gaps between the moving handrail and the crossbars on the top of the escalators, so people don't get their fingers mashed, but I'm sure teenagers can figure out that they can take marbles and ball bearings and drop them on the flat area on the edge and the will fly off the end at a high speed into the station.
Also happened at Southern Cross as they put them on too steep. Several people got injured falling down them. Is a cop show from the 1980s where someone rides a dirt bike down the escalators at this station.
Too steep? It has nothing to do with the grade of the stairs. Why is everyone so stupid?
I'm usually running down these escalators in a big rush for a train, never even noticed all weird stuff.
And that's interesting because I get vertigo & disorientation at the drop of a hat.
I'm always tight on time too. I recommend using the lift if you're on level 2, it's way quicker.
K kimster...great point...mind over matter (keeping calm, regular breathing) helps a lot with vertigo. I suffer from it quite badly at times...
Granville station in Vancouver is 5 metres longer at 35 metres. It’s pretty scary the first time you go on it as it feels more steep than most escalators.
As a kid I’ve always been fascinated by escalators and I loved going up and down them in shopping malls.
Honestly, it was always those blue lines on the walls that got me, it really makes your sense of equilibrium freak out.
In London they used to have loads of horizontal/vertical orientated advertisements of ladies underwear which kept you pointing vertically upwards at the correct angle.
Exactly. All those advertising signs angled back to the orientation of the rider are still present on every underground subway escalator in the UK for exactly that reason.
Same, have seen some ads for the Eastern Suburbs Line in Sydney do something similar
This would keep me at the correct angle too :)
Also, we use escalators as stairs in Russia. There is one line just standing (usually to the right) and one line walking or running up/down the escalator (usually to the left), sometimes even with bulky bags. In big cities as Moscow or St Petersburg almost all escalators are like that Australian one. So I was pretty shocked that you Australians have danger signs for such a regular thing (x
We do that here in Australia as well. Most people still walk up and down the escalators regardless of the signs
During my Highschool years, we used to use the sleeves of our blazers to slide down the black rubber handrail. Gained quite a bit of momentum, useful when you're about to miss the train home.
Most of the escalators with which I am familiar on the London Underground in Britain, had uplighters on vertical pillars and the side walls had advertisements in frames, which had the result of keeping one oriented, thus helping to avoid vertigo (and having something to read on the way!).
When the very first escalator was installed in London, a man with a wooden leg ("Bumper" Harris) was hired to go up and down to show the public how safe it was, so they did get some things right in the good old days.
The dangers that you have mentioned are probably the result of modern thinking designers who think they know better than their forebears who had actually got some things right.
I've been on the long escalators in the Moscow and Petersburg metros, I didn't find them that much of a problem, but I suspect there are far more reference points on those escalators due to the lighting systems (vertical cylinders style lamps) and advertising/posters on the wall, also being vertical. I've used the Melbourne transit plenty of times, but I've never had to use Parliament station though.
There's lots of escalators like this in Sydney (probably they are shorter but they feel/look the same)- I'm glad I'm not alone in really hating how it feels in there, like you're going to tip over. I avoid enclosed escalators if I can but there's no option in the train stations- other than the lift which you often have to wait quite long for (especially in covid times).
I think a cheap idea to improve things would be to take those signs at the top and bottom, and put them on the walls as you go down. Not only will they actually have something to read as the go down, and hopefully actually follow the instrucitons, the signs will also provide an additional frame of reference to the orientation. Also maybe just put paint or something over the stainless steel to reduce the reflectivity.
Why not just start by painting vertical lines on the walls to assist spatial orientation?
this is the only city loop station I use, so I'm used to jogging up and down them carrying a heavy backpack..... I never thought they were bad at all, just long. so weird how we all experience it differently!
broooo they're so scary idk how you could jog up and down! I dread going up these escalators whenever I go to the city... you are so brave damn
you're the type of person that's not aware of how fucked a place is till you get fucked. Stay safe.
I really appreciate seeing your videos in my feed. Subbed today. Your vids make me love Melbourne Even more
wow finally found a fun, informative and cool Melbourne vlog + info channel. You got a sub mate. Keep creating.
I remember the first time I was on this escalator. I was in grade three doing city experience and I was losing my balance the whole way up.
I always loved going up these escalators cause you'd lose all sense of orientation and it'd be a wild, disorientating experience.
Edit: Damn I commented this at the very start and you just described exactly why I love it.
This just got recommended to me, and it came at the perfect time! A couple weeks ago, I was on the Burrard Station escalator in Vancouver, and while I don't think it's close to record-breaking, it did have me feeling very disoriented. Now that I have seen this, I can see why!
This makes me feel so much better! I catch these escalators often while commuting and actually hate how they make me feel - I’m usually fine with escalators and heights, but at Parliament my hands go tingly and I just feel so stressed and icky the whole way. Such an odd experience, but I feel so much better knowing it’s legitimately the longest one around and I’m not crazy for thinking it’s a bizarre experience 😂
I haven't been to Melbourne in some years, so I was not aware of the measures taken to reduce accidents etc, but when I used to live there I used Parliament often. I think I must be in a minority, because riding this escalator was the highlight of my train trip. I never got vertigo riding the thing and it always used to annoy me when they slowed it down. I feel bad for enjoying it now I'm aware of how many people hate it and how objectively dangerous it is.
I don't used Parliament Station to much because the escalators and now I use the lifts there.
I refused to use them also. Used the lift instead
In the early 90's I lost my sight temporarily going up them. Arrived at the top, called for assistance and ended up in hospital having a headscan.
I felt so stupid, but listening to your video I probably had a vertigo attack? I couldn't focus or see for about 30 minutes.
The staff were excellent. Helped me to lay on the ground, spoke calmly to me and called an ambulance.
Great video! I used to use that escalator every day when I worked in the City and it's a trip out!
Escalators on the London tube have advertising signs lining the sides, all oriented vertically. I think that would help balance here (but poetry or pictures please, rather than ads)
Also, I remember my first time on these at Parliament station. I was a bit lost in the new station and late for my train. And a lot younger. There was no one else around and running to the escalators I did what I often did elsewhere and leapt to slide down sitting on the hand rail without realising how long they were. Used most of the hall at the bottom tumbling to a halt.
I think those posters would work. And yep - better than ads. Yikes to your sliding adventure - that’s a lot of momentum. :)
@@JulianOShea I agree, even a series of painted horizontal lines on the wall. Would be cheaper than all the signs they've put up.
This escalator definitely creates a conflict of the senses and should be re-designed.
They need to have a lockdown.
How do you re-design an escalator? You don't. They all work about the same way and there's not much you can do to re-design them to work differently.
No, what you meant was the same thing everyone else says, except you said it like you don't understand how words work.
@@UnitSe7en "I don't understand how words work" !! What a rude assumption to make. You don't undetstand the point I was making.
I live in Australia but one time I went on a holiday with my family to Singapore. That was my first time on an escalator and I didn’t realise it could move. Anyways my brother ran down to the bottom and climbed back up to the top showing me how it worked. But I was a dumb five year old and jumped onto it but when I went to land it moved and I lost balance. I banged into my brother and somehow went over him and he caught himself on the railing while I went tumbling down like 20-30 stairs all the way to the bottom. But when I tell you my mother flew she literally flew down the escalator and immediately pressed the emergency stop button. Although I was on the line of being unconscious I would come back to really for short seconds then pass out again. Long story short if she hadn’t I probably wouldn’t have a leg because it was in between the stairs and the part where they go under. That was so painful and the fact I had to go to hospital for my wounds I will never live down the humiliation and all four scars on my legs and ankles. I also just go down stairs now or I hold onto the railing for dear life. I will admit though many years later I still have nightmares of this day and think about my fate if my mum hadn’t rescued me.
Wow mate. This is a very useful channel for everyone in Australia! Keep it up
I occasionally get vertigo on the downwards journey now as I’ve gotten older. I really hate them and when you lose your orientation, it’s a very unpleasant experience. Closing my eyes briefly works for me, but that is a huge mistake for other people.
Seems to me that it is definitely the spacial design that is the problem it has trippy misleading visual-spacial cues everywhere. London has some escalators even twice this length but I have never seen one there which looks this disorientating even on video. This one on video there is a real sense the world rotated at the start of the decent. I think in London though the fact the advertising and information posters continue down the escalators too but they are still mounted to the true vertical. Thus it immediately cues you that your motion has simply changed from horizontal to an inclined decent. It is problematic when visual cues are lacking or worse in this case misleading as the brain interprets what appears to be warped visual input like this as a sign of poisoning and thus triggers nausea and vomiting in an attempt to purge said non existent poison.
I've always loved this escalator... I enjoy the slight vertigo feeling when going up and looking up! Wondering why they haven't experimented with painting horizontal lines on the walls, to give a better sensation of 'levelness'.. it seems like it would be a simple/cheap thing to do
Lots of people get that vertigo feeling. I think you’re one of the few that likes it!
Not the only one that likes the feeling, cause I also get that.
I like it too. I used to sprint up and down the escalator 🤣
One ounce of vertigo and ill be throwing up
I once cried on this escalator, I got like massive vertigo and had to sit down till I got to the bottom. I have ever since planned my journeys avoiding Paraliament station regardless of how long I have to walk to avoid it.
Solution: put up adwertisements on the walls. Budapest has a far longer escalator, but people get far less dizzy as they're distracted by all the ads on th walls and handrails. Injuries still happen but far less often.
I was expecting a longer escalator 😂 when he entered the escalator, i thought it wasn’t it yet. After being to Petersburg it seems really short : )
The easiest fix is just to change the ceiling to create a contrast. Go for in-direct light by shedding light over the sides and have a darker ceiling. Creating a better spatial difference for a sense of depth. Followed by changing the escalator edges with a hind of colour to indicate where feet shouldn't be. Another trick is simply to add a bit of randomness to the ceiling shape. So it isn't monotone. To allow a person to better sense depth.
This reminds me of when you're walking in a cave and it's so dark that you don't realize you're on an incline and still think you're walking on flat ground.
Long escalators are truly mind bending experiences. The one in the Dupont Circle Metro station in Washington DC USA are 57m long, and when using it I felt like I was travelling from world to world.
I worked at this station many times on and off over the years and never gave it a thought . Suppose every one is different .
Everyone wants to talk about the escalator length but I think it’s time to talk about those weird boxes with the pictures of Parliament House!
Also I propose we replace the escalators with a ski lift or slow-moving rollercoaster à la the Scenic Railway in the Blue Mountains.
They were put up so people dont use it as a giant slide
@@teejay5432 I just wish they weren’t so ugly 🥲
Yep.
I was under the impression the square boxes were added specifically to reduce instances or vertigo, by providing a horizontal reference point for users
@@MrBobert1992 Couldn’t see in my research if that was the primary reason, or if it was to stop people making this a slide. Maybe both.
I've taken this escalator almost everyday pre-lockdown and I've never once felt "unsafe" on it. Odd.
They were great fun! Great exercise running up them when you're late for work in the morning and crazy when you're running down them trying to make the train on the way home. Don't think I ever noticed those signs though. Must be a newer thing.
Honestly I don’t really feel anything when I catch this escalator during the city loop lol
I freakin love those escalators, best part of my Uni commute.
I woild hate it actually ... I don't live close to an subway to use it each day so I barly ever been in one, but I figured out from the 3 cities where I ever used the subway here in Germany, that you basicly get lost (almost) and than using an escalator sucks... so to be honest you go down stairs or an escalator and in some cases even a elevator and than you get depending on where exactly you are either just a long tunnel, a area with shops or directly the next escalator and on the next floor you repeat the same procedure, walking along a tunnel or some shops and than up onto the next escalator. In between you see tons of sings that say which number you have to go and it can be confusing since sometimes 1 number can displayed in two directions since the subway goes into two directions and you can get easily distractred by the falls direction as a tourist or new citiezen without knowing you're wrong... and on the 5th escalator you notice you got the wrong side of the station and hate yourself cause you need to go 3 escalators up, than 2 down, than 1 up, than 2 down and than you are on the right side... aaaah IDK why German subways got build like a maze (especially those close the bigger train stations)...
Great video! I've always been hesitant about escalators and this video makes me feel motion sick so I don't think I'll be visiting this one any time soon!
I've spent a fair bit on time on escalator on the London Underground (including Angel's 60m escalator!) Most of them have small posters or advertising screens along the sides aligned with vertical that I found really helps with the spatial awareness and balance. And it's rare you'll hear me saving a good word about ads :D
It would not help either that many handrails travel slower than the steps.
If you maintained a firm grip going up, as per the signage, you may well find yourself perpendicular to the step travel plane!
Even on open-air escalators that whole handrail thing ALWAYS bugged me. My whole life. WHY.
Vertical elements on the walls of that tunnel might help orient people upright
Yes. That's precisely why every underground subway escalator in the UK has a row of multiple small oriented rectangle-shaped advertisements running the length of every escalator. which are oriented in portrait at the same angle as the upright position of the rider. Such that the rider has a constant reference point regarding what should be their optimal upright position.
You know that comments are here to read, right? Like, you can read everything that everyone else has already said months or even years before you, right? Knowing that, what possesses you to make exactly the same comment again?
@@UnitSe7en you ok mate?
Surprised to see so many people not address how no one is actually walking on the escalators like, y'know, how they were meant to be used. I hate it when people just stand still and slowly wait instead of walking and getting to your destination faster.
I had the same thought. We actually had some people "trapped" on the escalator when it stopped working one day 😁😁
I used to get off the train here every morning to walk the length of Lonsdale Street for the exercise. It takes just over 1 minute for the escalator to bring you up from platforms 1 and 2 to the concourse, i used to often time it with a stopwatch on my phone. There was always this one guy who used to get off the same train as me, and would always get on the escalator, turn around and face downwards for the entire ride to the top. I could never understand why he did that, but now I understand why.