Hurry Up And Wait: Is This The End Of The Dash For The Tube?

TO the other group of Tube passengers they are each equalling annoying.

Those who walk up and down escalators are frustrated by dawdling passengers who block the quickest route to the platform.

While those who like to stand and wait are left similarly irate by those in a rush who keep knocking into them.

But if a new measure in Japan was enforced here it could end the stand-off – in favour of the standers.

The country is bringing in new rules on escalator etiquette after an increase in accidents.

People are asked not to walk on them at all, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The new rule came after the Japan Elevator Association, 51 railway companies and the operators of Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports came together to improve their safety record.

A total of 3,865 people were admitted to hospitals after accidents on escalators between 2011 and 2013, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported.

Most of these injuries were caused by people being knocked over by someone walking past them on an escalator, according to a report by the Consumer Affairs Agency.

Traditionally, in Tokyo the left side of an escalator is for standing, while the right side is left clear for the walkers. In Osaka, for unknown reasons, it is the other way round, the same as the UK.

But an escalator manufacturing spokesman suggested it is not necessary to leave one side open. ‘There are some people who have an arm or hand that is incapable of functioning and have difficulty in keeping a specific side clear,’ he added.

The convention of standing to one side on an escalator has its roots in wartime London, according to a professor of cultural anthropology.

Masakazu Toki claimed that Londoners would stand to one side to let those in a hurry rush past. The practice later caught on in Japan.