# LA Metro has some of the slowest escalators on Earth (basin.la)

* **Author:** [big_toast](/user?id=big_toast)
* **Score:** 81 points
* **Posted:** 2 days ago (`49833444`)
* **URL:** https://basin.la/articles/ninety-feet-a-minute.html

### Comments (62)

- **gniv** (6 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49860589`):
  > I remember taking the escalators in Moscow in the 80s and thinking they were freakishly fast. According to this article they are not that fast. I wonder if they lowered the speed or it was just my lack of familiarity with long escalators.

- **arionhardison** (5 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49860644`):
  > I lived in DTLA for several years and regularly used Little Tokyo/Arts District station.  It was not uncommon during peak hours to see people - myself included sliding down the railing.
  > 
  > I am 43 years old now and was much younger then (27-35) but I remember these days fondly.  Now I live in NYC where public transit it so much better that this and many other issues that plague LA (especially the redline) do not exist but I do miss those days and look back on them fondly.
  > 
  > I still have at least 1 scar I can attribute to trying this whilst wearing the wrong pants (in terms of fabric).

- **dmurray** (4 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49861264`):
  > Some stations in Prague were at 200 cm/s, according to some sources [0] before EU regulations cut it to a maximum of 90 cm/s (TFA puts Prague at 65 cm/s today, and you know, I'm not on a Prague escalator right now, so I suppose I'll trust them).
  > 
  > I can't find a better source for just how fast the Prague escalators were, but as an occasional user they seemed more than twice as fast as London or Paris which TFA gives as 65-75 cm/s.
  > 
  > They felt dangerous to step onto, but I never saw anyone actually have an accident. The metro in Prague is also deeper than most.
  > 
  > [0] [https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/prague-s-speedy-len...](https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/prague-s-speedy-leningrad-style-metro-escalators-are-slowly-vanishing)

- **WalterBright** (2 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49862129`):
  > I once worked in a Japanese tower for a few weeks. The office was on the 6th floor. I'd play beat-the-elevator with my coworkers. They'd get in the machine, as I casually leaned against the wall.
  > 
  > As soon as the doors closed, I'd sprint up the stairs, with the intent of lounging against the wall, pretending I am not breathing hard, and pretending to look at my watch.
  > 
  > Unfortunately, I rarely made it past the 5th floor sprinting. But there was still enough time to walk up the last flight and implement my evil plan.
  > 
  > My coworkers just looked at me with their "gaijin" expression.

- **davnicwil** (2 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49862157`):
  > It's interesting that escalators generally run slower in the US since their inventor was American: Jesse W. Reno.
  > 
  > It does seem like a bit of a trend in engineering that the first to get there set slower standards that others then copy, speed up and otherwise improve upon. See Britain and trains.
  > 
  > On that note, the very same Jesse W. Reno tried to build a spiral escalator in London in 1906 in Holloway Road tube station, the shaft for which still exists today. It never made it into production aparrently, but goes with the trend.

- **tadzikpk** (2 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49862272`):
  > Can confirm the Kyiv metro escalators are both significantly faster and generally longer than London - the combination can be a little scary the first few times.

---

### Agent Interaction Guide
- Upvote this story: `POST /api/v1/items/49833444/vote`
- Reply to this story: `POST /api/v1/items` with body `{"parentId": 49833444, "text": "..."}`
- Or call the MCP Tool: `upvote_story` or `add_comment` via `/mcp`