Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

stand to the right

When you ride the D.C. Metro system, you learn the Golden Rule of the Escalator pretty quick: Stand to the right.

What this means: If you want to stand still on the escalator, stay on the right side so that people in a hurry can walk up the left side of the moving staircase. And heaven help you if you stand on the left and a queue of impatient locals begins to form behind you, huffing grumpily and glaring at you for your unwitting violation of the unwritten code.

(It’s such a big deal that it seems like every other story or blog post about D.C. tourism mentions it in some fashion.)

And it is an unwritten rule — or, at least, it was until recently. Despite being fairly deeply ingrained in D.C. commuting culture, it was only this week that Metro officially embraced it, after years of discouraging it. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Metro will be rolling out new “Stand to the Right” signs as part of an effort to improve traffic flow through the stations.

On its 588 escalators, Metro intends to paste large stickers that say “Stand to the Right,” a cue to out-of-towners that Washingtonians are not content to just stand and ride but often walk — or run — on the left side. Metro has more escalators than any transit system in North America, and the conflict between those trying to walk on the left and those standing in their way has become a daily aggravation…

But the idea is not new in Washington. Until about seven years ago, Metro escalators had metal plaques that read “Stand to Right.” But an internal task force decided that those signs implicitly encouraged people to stand on the right and walk on the left, which Metro managers said was unsafe. So they ripped the signs off — which cost time and labor but did not stop anyone from walking on the left.

I also vaguely remember seeing the system experiment with big “Stand to the Right” floor stickers in some Metro stations a couple years back, but they quickly disappeared, I heard, because administrators didn’t want to encourage people to walk on the escalators.

On a related note, in true capitalist form befitting the nation’s capital, someone has created “Stand to the Right” t-shirts and is selling them through CafePress.

(Can Metro work on traffic flow from the Blue/Orange Line platform to the Red Line at Metro Center next? Because the signage is a nightmare, and when the platform is crowded, it’s a huge pain to a) identify the right set of stairs/escalators and b) walk against the flow of traffic to get to said stairs/escalators.)