EPTHomework and yet more... - Page 2
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
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kierpanda
United States757 Posts
On February 12 2013 07:53 Thorakh wrote: Don't use escalators  Use the stairs. It's almost I'd rather take an escalator of I'm carrying a bunch of stuff (i.e., when I'm shopping at the mall and I pick up a big box of stuff). Carrying stuff up stairs is a little bit more challenging! You don't necessarily have that room in an elevator either. | ||
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Integra
Sweden5626 Posts
On February 12 2013 07:30 Torte de Lini wrote: I don't think it's trivial or useless, but it's definitely different than what we typically focus on everyday, eh? Finding articles about the sociological context of escalators (that are peer-reviewed) is pretty tough though haha wait what... does sociological oriented research around escalator actually exist? I think my head just exploded. | ||
micronesia
United States24745 Posts
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
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radscorpion9
Canada2252 Posts
On February 12 2013 06:24 Integra wrote: elevators are more a form of transportation up and down where as escalators are used as means of "herding" people to where they should go. Just think of spaces with allot of people, like airports, subways, rail stations, or other buildings that need to engineer the space so that people flow in particular directions. It would be utter chaos otherwise. Also sometimes it's the sheer distance that makes escalators good, just imagine if you would walk a distance of 500 meters or more, in this case a escalators is preferred since the walkers otherwise might get tired and slow down thus blocking everyone else from getting to the destination. Escalators are (believe it or not) incredible useful and really helps people to know where they are suppose to go and their purposes are vastly different compared to elevators. Honestly I feel like this was one of the best points raised, I never considered it before but escalators really do serve as a useful means for "herding" people. People have a tendency to go towards the easiest path, so even if they have to walk a little farther, they will search for that down escalator (or more likely, the up escalator). So it creates a natural, organizational structure everyone *wants* to follow as opposed to requiring signs or other means of making sure people follow an organizational scheme. I do wish I could understand what Sam!zdat's quoted person is talking about, but it would take time and patience. I would say its probably true that escalators *can* play some crazy psychological-artistic role in helping people go through some kind of "adventure" in a hotel (lol), but honestly I think someone did a little too much thinking, and the answer is simply about throughput, organizing, assisting the elderly and generally making things easier for people, and once in a while, when its convenient, involving the person in some grand meta-narrative about the autoreferentiality of all modern culture (lol). Incidentally I think your topic is kind of fascinating. Escalators actually can make life a lot easier, and more fun (I still love going up escalators to this day), and may play a significant impact on the consumer's shopping experience; at least to me, it would play nearly an equivalent (or greater) role to the standard advertisement outside of any store window in terms of motivating me to continue shopping. I think on the flip side, it has also reinforced a culture of laziness and ease, which may have some drawbacks (not just escalators, now moving floors!). With the ubiquity of escalators, I guess you can ask when is enough enough? How far will society go? Are escalators just the first "step" in a series of mobility-assisting devices? Honestly I think you could make your research go very very deep if you wanted it to, it just needs lots of analysis. Edit: Aaah that's probably just a silly slippery-slope idea. I doubt they will install anything more in malls i.e. moving floors. OR WILL THEY? Hmm...I guess to assist the elderly they have to. But then it will be abused by everyone! Just like escalators? Or were they designed for everyone from the start? Probably. | ||
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Oboeman
Canada3980 Posts
Think about a big staircase as an architectural feature. An escalator is a way of maintaining that architectural feature while enabling easy transport. (compared to the elevator, which eliminates that feature in place of different ones. you get tall buildings with elevators and tight winding staircases, instead of wide buildings with long staircases etc. There is an artistic/architect aspect to consider, entirely separate from efficiency/function/facility). Maybe the importance of the staircase as an architectural feature could help you get started on a "sociological" angle. | ||
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Torte de Lini
Germany38463 Posts
You guys should be in this class! | ||
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MysteryMeat1
United States3292 Posts
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felisconcolori
United States6168 Posts
On February 12 2013 12:26 Torte de Lini wrote: Holy balls, 2 pages on escalators! You guys should be in this class! I think I missed the pre-requisites, and there may be a hold on me at the registrar for not paying them. -_- Also, c'mon. It's TL. Full of people that like to talk out of a different orifice than normally used.  | ||
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Aerisky
United States12129 Posts
On February 12 2013 06:45 Torte de Lini wrote: Anyone else find how trivial and funny this whole discussion is on the escalator? We're basically discussing the pros and cons of an escalator, an everyday object of technology that represents nothing more than the ordered direction of transportation that has a set pace you can either choose to follow or go faster in exchange for physical exertion. Well, I mean you started it, we're just elaborating on it since you asked | ||
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Entirety
1423 Posts
As a young child (8-9 years old), I was in an elevator when it got stuck between floors. I was in there for what seemed like an eternity, telling myself to breathe calmly in order to conserve oxygen (not the usual thought process of 8-9-year-olds I think ). Meanwhile, I was panicking pretty badly.I called the elevator support people but no one answered. I kept trying until finally, they answered. Then, it seemed to take forever for them to arrive. Finally, they did. They had no clue how to open it. I was really freaking out until suddenly the elevator doors opened. My relief was palpable. | ||
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synapse
China13814 Posts
It's interesting because most malls in China feature escalators where the entrance to the next escalator is right next to where you get off of the previous one whereas in America you have to walk to the other side to get back on the escalator going in the same direction. (USA = / / / and China = /\/\/ .. the latter is obviously more convenient for the consumer who knows the thing he wants is on the 5th floor, but the former allows for more advertisement of goods) | ||
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munchmunch
Canada789 Posts
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Scarecrow
Korea (South)9172 Posts
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HeeroFX
United States2704 Posts
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Roe
Canada6002 Posts
The escalator can make up for this obvious draw back, though not completely. The more escalators results in more downtime in walking from one to the next, as well as cost. ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Shanghai_Museum_escalators.JPG/360px-Shanghai_Museum_escalators.JPG) Accidents can and will happen On January 7, 2013, at least 6 people were injured when the crowded escalator at the Exchange Place PATH station suddenly reversed direction. On August 30, 2012, a man was killed when he fell 5 stories off of an escalator rail at Reliant Stadium during a Texans game. Francisco Portillo died after being strangled when his sweatshirt got caught in an escalator at the Porter Square MBTA station in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 21, 2005. He was allegedly drunk at the time. On December 31, 2004, escalators at the Taipei City Hall Station kept moving commuters onto the overcrowded island platform. A woman whose hair got caught in the escalator received 20 stitches to the scalp So as we've seen, the escalator can be severely dangerous because of its obvious flaws in design. But the elevator has its share of pit-falls as well. In 1998, it was estimated that approximately eight millionths of one percent (1 in 12 million) of elevator rides result in an anomaly, and the vast majority of these were minor things such as the doors failing to open. Of the 20 to 30 elevator-related deaths each year, most of them are maintenance-related — for example, technicians leaning too far into the shaft or getting caught between moving parts, and most of the rest are attributed to other kinds of accidents, such as people stepping blindly through doors that open into empty shafts or being strangled by scarves caught in the doors. Let's take another look at psychological variables. The escalator also fulfills certain social aspects. One, it allows people to remain close, but not too close. In other words it lets you have some contact or interaction with others outside your circle but retains the open environment not available in the elevator. This is a very important psychological factor. It may be that there is some aversion towards spaces with too little extra room. Agoraphobia and claustrophobia are common and may play into the preference of escalators. There may as well be some undesirable effect of walking into a "new" room, that, when combined with spatial-volume issues, turn the person away from the elevator. Of course this is a very narrow window into the lives and uses of escalators, but perhaps it sheds some light on the many aspects of these inventions and their functions. Next week we'll take a look at the quickening race to expand sliding door operators. | ||
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Torte de Lini
Germany38463 Posts
I read a paper by Bruno Latour revolving around the analogy of the a door-closer, it was incredibly weird and seemingly irrelevant (by Johnson). | ||
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remedium
United States939 Posts
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kierpanda
United States757 Posts
On February 12 2013 15:23 Entirety wrote: Personally, I use escalators. Why? Trauma. As a young child (8-9 years old), I was in an elevator when it got stuck between floors. I was in there for what seemed like an eternity, telling myself to breathe calmly in order to conserve oxygen (not the usual thought process of 8-9-year-olds I think ). Meanwhile, I was panicking pretty badly.I called the elevator support people but no one answered. I kept trying until finally, they answered. Then, it seemed to take forever for them to arrive. Finally, they did. They had no clue how to open it. I was really freaking out until suddenly the elevator doors opened. My relief was palpable. At my old job, someone got stuck in one of the elevators for a good hour and a half. There was a lot of panicked calls by HR to the building owners. The owners responded by telling HR to "call the elevator company". When HR called them, they said "sorry, our maintenance guy is in San Diego, so he can't drive up to San Francisco to fix it". The fire department was finally called and they attempted to gently pry open the doors. Eventually, they managed to get into the elevator control room, cut the power to that elevator, and rescue the poor guy. I don't think anyone wanted to ride that elevator for a while. | ||
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