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Escalators: We're Not Doing it Wrong (Mostly)

2019-04-12 · review / recommendation · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Everyday life) · mode: Personal essay

Hank rebuts a YouTube video arguing everyone should stand on both sides of escalators: walking does cut capacity, but escalators are rarely at capacity, so the split is fine almost always; he argues media's greatest bias is toward interesting, tellable stories, which leads creators to manufacture the interesting.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — YouTube keeps recommending the escalator-etiquette video; its argument and its leap to a standing revolution

  • ★ Hank says YouTube kept showing him the escalator-etiquette video (app home screen, desktop homepage, autoplay after Veritasium) until he caved and watched it. — 00:00:00 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says the video's title is fine, but its thumbnail and content argue that the stand-right, walk-left split is wrong, which he denies. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank says escalators move all the time, so they carry far more people than elevators; this capacity is why we use them. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank says cities have an unspoken, sometimes explicit rule to stand on the right so people can walk on the left. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ Hank agrees, somewhat surprisingly, that the split reduces escalator capacity because walkers take up more space than standers. — 00:00:50
  • ★★ Hank says the video then leaps to suggesting a mass cultural protest of standing on both sides to 'start the revolution', which seemed wrong to him. — 00:00:50

00:01:19 — Escalators are rarely at capacity: the Holborn experiment, the 2014 study and emergency advice

  • ★★★ Hank says the problem the video tries to solve is overcapacity, but escalators are almost never at capacity. — 00:01:19
  • ★★ Hank says London's Holborn station experiment involved a long escalator often at capacity where most people stood anyway; even there, standing on both sides applied only at peak times. — 00:01:19 · London
  • ★★ Hank sums up: the right way to ride an escalator depends, and the stand/walk split is the best solution almost all the time. — 00:01:49
  • ★★ Hank says the 2014 study cited in the video only recommends standing on both sides during emergencies. — 00:01:49
  • ★★ Hank advises standing on escalators in an emergency, two people per step, no running or walking. — 00:01:49

00:02:18 — Media's bias toward interesting stories and creators manufacturing the interesting

  • ★★ Hank says he has worked professionally on the internet since before Millie Bobby Brown existed, so he knows how to turn something interesting into a righteous click. (playful) — 00:02:18
  • ★★ Hank says he runs a media company where they often say a SciShow topic isn't good unless it surprises people. — 00:02:18 · SciShow
  • ★★★ Hank says the greatest bias in media is not political but toward interesting, tellable stories, because that is the audience's biggest bias. — 00:02:18 · sensationalism
  • ★★ Hank calls the escalator video bad but very close to not bad: the inefficiency is real, the revolution is not. — 00:02:47

  • ★★★ Hank says creators and media companies in a world of near-infinite content must chase the interesting, sometimes to the point of manufacturing it. — 00:02:47 · sensationalism

    “sometimes we end up manufacturing the interesting”

  • ★★ Hank picked the video as a non-controversial example and apologizes to its maker: it was well done and interesting with good facts, but manufactured interest that didn't exist. — 00:03:16

  • ★★ Hank admits he has also been guilty of manufacturing the interesting, especially early in his blogging career. — 00:03:16
  • ★★★ Hank says Crash Course, Destin of Smarter Every Day and many others realize we must take this seriously and notice how content pushes our buttons; taking clicks seriously could start the revolution. — 00:03:16 · Crash Course

00:03:45 — Sign-off and pointer to John's Sierra Leone video

  • ★★ Hank thanks John for his Sierra Leone video, links it, and tells everybody to go watch it. — 00:03:45 · Sierra Leone

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description says Hank isn't immune to imagining a narrative, but we don't need people righteously standing on the wrong side of escalators and lecturing commuters about a YouTube video. (playful) — video description · YouTube

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Escalator · sensationalism · The Unseen Inefficiency of Escalator Etiquette

Also: People: Derek Muller · Destin Sandlin · Millie Bobby Brown

Projects: Crash Course · SciShow

Organizations: YouTube

Concepts: media literacy

Places: Holborn tube station · London · Sierra Leone

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