Thread

LA Metro has some of the slowest escalators

120 points · 97 comments · big_toast

big_toast · 1790268744 · focus · HN ↗
LA: 0.46 meters/s (1 mph)
Hong Kong: 0.75 meters/s (1.7 mph)
Kyiv: 0.9 meters/s (2 mph)
Kinda slower than I expected in general. I assume the speed is mostly dictated by boarding/alighting safety.
1. Animats · 1790457169 · focus · HN ↗
  Kyiv subway stations are also air raid shelters.[1] They may have decided that running the escalators fast to get people to safety is worth the risk.
  [1] <a href="https://visitkyiv.com/visitor-essentials/kyiv-shelter-map/" rel="nofollow">https://visitkyiv.com/visitor-essentials/kyiv-shelter-map/
  1. nephihaha · 1790459078 · focus · HN ↗
    That was standard across major Soviet cities.
  2. jen20 · 1790459322 · focus · HN ↗
    They were running much faster than the “west” in 2015-2020 too, so I doubt that is the reason.
    EA-3167 · 1790464786 · focus · HN ↗
    The Soviet Union used metros as shelters long before it broke apart. If it works for a nuclear war it works even better for conventional attacks.
  3. big_toast · 1790461000 · focus · HN ↗
    I was wondering if there’s something different about the escalator manufacturer or design. Like longer landing areas or boarding area with extended hand rails. If you had any familiarity with them.
  4. lostlogin · 1790461542 · focus · HN ↗
    > Kyiv subway stations are also air raid shelters
    When building them, they probably didn’t expect to be hiding from Russian attacks.
    fragmede · 1790462449 · focus · HN ↗
    That would be a naive reading of the history of the USSR.
    senderista · 1790464491 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah, weren't subway stations in the USSR dual-purpose nuclear shelters?
    Dylan16807 · 1790467622 · focus · HN ↗
    I think you're talking about something else. Not all that much risk of self-nuking.
    macintux · 1790468659 · focus · HN ↗
    Well, Chernobyl...
    lostlogin · 1790469199 · focus · HN ↗
    I think I’m missing your point?
    The USSR didn’t bomb it’s citizens all that often did it?
    Isamu · 1790473446 · focus · HN ↗
    Op is probably referring to the history of conflict between Ukraine and Russia specifically, for example when Ukraine lost its war of independence against the Red Army. Stalin purged Ukraine quite thoroughly then by starvation.
    lostlogin · 1790498306 · focus · HN ↗
    For sure Russia oppressed Ukraine. The Holodomor was genocide.
    The building of the subway wasn’t done by an independent Ukraine though, it was done under the rule of the USSR.
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyiv_Metro" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyiv_Metro
    hdgvhicv · 1790473758 · focus · HN ↗
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czechoslovakia" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czecho...
    nephihaha · 1790495055 · focus · HN ↗
    Czechoslovakia was never in the USSR. It was Warsaw Pact. Same with Hungary.
    The Warsaw Pact was the eastern bloc's answer to NATO. They were also in Comecon, their version of the EEC.
    Not to be confused with Comicon.
    pseudohadamard · 1790494969 · focus · HN ↗
    No, but they did everything else: Engineered famines (the Holodomor, the Ukrainian Holocaust), gulags, and mass executions (Khruschev's first major job, being Stalin's liquidator in Ukraine).
  5. invader · 1790464909 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, they are used as air raid shelters, but they were designed like that in the first place. Some of them lie really deep - especially the ones in the city center.
    Kyiv metro is one of the deepest in the world. We have one station that is 105 meters deep. So even with fast escalators, it feels like an eternity to go up and down there.
2. cucumber3732842 · 1790462409 · focus · HN ↗
  3mph is a pretty solid walk. 2 doesn't sound bad for an escalator.
  1. dylan604 · 1790466803 · focus · HN ↗
    It's not the speed of travel that gets you. It's the sudden rate change from/to walking speed.

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