...is actually precious little, save one thing:

When your lazy-ass decides not to walk but rather stand during the trip up (or down) the friggin' El-stop escalator, make sure you do it on the RIGHT SIDE so as to let the people who know how to use their legs PASS YOU. So, again:

Lazy ass or otherwise infirmed gotta stand mofos = RIGHT SIDE

Folks that gots ta get on wit' life (and don't mind walking what amounts to a single flight of stairs) = LEFT SIDE.




In DC, they don't play. If your dumb-ass is standing on the left side of the escalator, it will get run over.







Ahhh! Thank you all for letting me get that off my chest. :)

Yes, yes... I strongly agree. Granted there are some days I feel lazy and don't want to walk, that is my choice, but I sure as hell know where I'm to stand.

I London, they are smart enough to post signs in the "Tube" that say: "Stand to the Right" Four simple words can make life for so many easier. nuff said from me.

I London, they are smart enough to post signs in the "Tube" that say: "Stand to the Right" Four simple words can make life for so many easier. nuff said from me.


Nice. They got those posted on the floor of the DC metro system as well (right before you hop on the escalator). It really keeps the escalator from getting backed-up during rush hour...

...unlike, say, the escalator at the Chicago stop on the Red Line, which is clogged like Bill Swerski's vena cava.

^While I usually climb the escalator; I have, on occasion, have been known to be a stander.
So, if you see someone standing to the right, it might be me, seeing as how nobody else seems to get it.

Nice. They got those posted on the floor of the DC metro system as well (right before you hop on the escalator). It really keeps the escalator from getting backed-up during rush hour...

...unlike, say, the escalator at the Chicago stop on the Red Line, which is clogged like Bill Swerski's vena cava.

Yes!, yes, oh god yes. I used to get off at the Chicago ave stop on the red line and often wondered if spending time in jail would have been worth it just so I could beat some of these people standing. I would just start jogging up the stairs when they were not too clogged with people entering the station.

In Toronto, they do that too (Stand Right, Walk Left signs). London's great with that. I'm proud to be in a city where I'm allowed to ram into someone if they're on the left side.

The most annoying things about people standing on the left on escalators is that one or both of the following are true 99% of the time:

1. They're talking to the person standing next to them, blocking the right side of the escalator
2. They're overweight people who have probably been standing on escalators forever, and therefore should know better, not to mention that they could use the minimal exercise climbing a few stairs would provide.

They should have the "stand right" signs in Chicago too, but the stakes are much higher in DC if someone stands on the left: most of those escalators are so long that it takes several minutes to reach the top if you stand. The ones in Chicago are much shorter.

some one should write a letter to the CTA about this stuff. This kind of stuff is much to ask out of somebody all they would have to do is just make a few signs. Though considering how much trouble the CTA is having they probably couldn't even afford it, but they can afford company give aways like pens, hats, pencils, lunch boxes .... anyways there are others that could be informed like O'hare and Midway, all the malls in chicago, hell some one could even start an advocacy group to write all around the country asking malls, airports, transit systems, any place with an escalater to enforce the standing on the right side and walking on the left side of the escalater policy. So is anybody interested in writing to thousands of hotels malls and transit systems, cause i'm not. But for anybody interested this your easy opportunity to change this country!!!!

Maybe Chicagoans can also learn not to drive slowy in the left lane. Chicagoans are also gapers. Gapers should be shot.

Maybe Chicagoans can also learn not to drive slowy in the left lane. Chicagoans are also gapers. Gapers should be shot.

^So you're the guy who honked at me when I last visited. I KNEW it!

BTW, another thing Chicagoans can learn from DCites--PATIENCE!!

People in Chicago honk WAY more than people in DC do. A light can literally just turn green and if you aren't immediately moving, you get a "BEEEEEP!"

Yeah, I discovered that we do have a honking problem. I am always conscious to take it down a notch when I leave town, but sometimes forget and piss people off.

Maybe Chicagoans can also learn not to drive slowy in the left lane. Chicagoans are also gapers. Gapers should be shot.

Seriously. Remember a few months back when some group was shooting a car commercial over one of the overpasses downtown? It was late morning (after rush) but O'Hare to downtown was over an hour. Why? All these clowns heading south were gawking at the commercial being shot over the bridge and backing traffic up for miles. The city actually stepped in and convienced the guys to shoot at a different time so the traffic could get back to normal. Sheesh...

People in Chicago honk WAY more than people in DC do. A light can literally just turn green and if you aren't immediately moving, you get a "BEEEEEP!"

Man, I am gonna have to disagree with ya on this one. IMO, DCites are the K-I-N-G of the non-emergency honk... rivaled ONLY by Bostonians. It was one of the first things I noticed when I moved to the District, and everyone who ever come to visit me noticed it too. Shit, I even had a buddy from London... LONDON for Christsakes... ask (insert best internal English accent here) "wot the bloody 'ell is up wit' all the fucking car horns in this town!?!" They blare at every circle, every poorly timed stop light, up every one way street, and clear around the beltway.

Be you the passenger, the driver, the third party, or the guy walking down the street, it is impossible not to notice that DCites love their horns and will use them for everything from clearing a crosswalk to making dangerous lane changes to throwing out a "howdy" to their peeps.

For my 2 centatos, Chicagoans don't have a THING on DCits when it comes to car horn blaring. Yeah, I've only lived here five months or so (and in that time had to commute out to Vernon Hills... thankfully I now work downtown), but it was apparent to me almost immediately that Chicagoans just don't blare their horns to an enth of the magnitude that DCites do.



HOWEVER.... as this has fuck all to do with elevators... I shall get back on topic. :)



Chicago Elevator Etiquette = far far far behind the rest of the planet.

^Correct me if I'm wrong, BJ, but a while back you said you got rid of your car when you moved to Chicago. So since you haven't been driving in Chicago, how do you know this to be true?

When you walk you can hear horns. At least I can.

When my parents came out from California for their first visit to Chicago in 2000, my Mom wouldn't stop mentioning all of the honking. I tend to agree that the level of honking in this city is so out of control unnecessary, that it has at times caused me to have sidewalk rage.

Scenario: The light turns green, there are 15 people trying to cross the street, and some idiot behind a car turning right needs to honk his horm. Clearly there are pedestrians in the crosswalk, the driver in front of him cannot move, the the f*ck is he supposed to do about it. This is what angers me, it's the pointless honking at people to move when they obviously cannot do so. Cabbies tend to be the worst at unnecessary honking.

Scenario: The light turns green, there are 15 people trying to cross the street, and some idiot behind a car turning right needs to honk his horm. Clearly there are pedestrians in the crosswalk, the driver in front of him cannot move, the the f*ck is he supposed to do about it. This is what angers me, it's the pointless honking at people to move when they obviously cannot do so. Cabbies tend to be the worst at unnecessary honking.

^EXACTLY. I never notice that at pedestrian crosswalks in DC. People here seem to "get it"

^Correct me if I'm wrong, BJ, but a while back you said you got rid of your car when you moved to Chicago. So since you haven't been driving in Chicago, how do you know this to be true?

Oh, because I just felt like making a bunch of shit up and then posting it as my Jimmy the Greek Masterlock observation.

;)

From Sept. to Nov I commuted from Wabsh & Huron to bumble-fuck Vernon Hills (NW burbs) every day. That is an Hour and Fifteen minute commute one way, taking me on a grand tour of the side-ways and highways and toll-roads and every conceivable merge point and construction zone you can night-mare up. When you spend two and a-half hours in a car for 8 weeks, you tend to get the habits of your fellow commuters: hence my observations on Chicagoans and their horn blowing habits. :) (and no, I don't have a case of grass-is-greener syndrom... I just tells 'em like I sees 'em)

I should also point out that the wife and I traveled all over the city via auto on the weekends (we knew we were selling it and we wanted to get the most out of it). In the final two months of the Olds ownership, we racked up some serious Chicago miles on that sucker.

BUT... that is all academic, as, even though I am (thankfully) bereft of automobile, sidewalks are conveniently located next to streets, and my hearin ain't too shabby (my once misguided love of hardcore Gabber notwithstanding). In all actuality, I feel as if I have a better sense of the city on foot than I ever did in a car.

So, you can file it under for what it's worth, but I stand firm in the belief that East Cost folks in general... and DCites, Bostonians, and Manhattan Cabbies in particular, love to wail on that fucking horn. :)

^EXACTLY. I never notice that at pedestrian crosswalks in DC. People here seem to "get it"


http://www.fortunada.com/dc/images/NH-HamiltonST3.JPG


Man, my four years of walking back and forth between the Dupont Circle Metro stop and my pad at 1500 Mass (Scott Circle) paints a slightly different picture of the whole DC pedestrian / auto "love-in," I gotta tell ya. :) That goes double for the 14th street traffic towards VA, or the 16th Street traffic to MD... or ANYTHING on Mass, Georgia, or NY Ave. I dunno how many times I saw Loop's scenario play out in DC, but, I gotta think it was at LEAST once a day. From http://www.fortunada.com/dc/yield.asp



Yield to Pedestrian in Crosswalk

Some time ago the city of Washington, D.C. began to setup crosswalk signs around the city to help the plight of pedestrians. There have been some notorious pedestrian accidents in the city. The one I recall most is the elderly woman who was dragged around Dupont Circle by a Metrobus.

Many people began to notice, however, that the plight of the signs was as bad as the plight of pedestrians. In fact, some of the signs have become quite mangled, beaten, dragged for blocks. So here is a small tour of some of the most interesting spots in D.C. that I have found. My favorite is the one I drive by several times a week at New Hampshire Ave. and Hamilton Street NW.

A fascinating aspect of this tour of the city is that I got to spend a serious amount of time in these crosswalks. One might wonder - "gosh, how many cars yielded to him while he was in the crosswalk?" That is a great question! I will let you all guess, out of the hundreds of cars that went by while I was in these crosswalks, how many stopped for me?

Zero - this is D.C. after all.
One - a police car.
Two - just a couple of random, thoughtful people.
Around ten - a surprising number of drivers in Washington, D.C. are considerate and careful!
More than I could count - (hint: this is the wrong answer!)
I will post the answer some day in the future when I feel like turning it into an online quiz thing.

Uh, still many more to go. I need to hit the Georgia Avenue corridor sometime soon. So, check back for those in a couple of weeks.

^Well, you've been in DC longer than I have, so I'll defer on this one.

All I can say is that whenever I have been in Chicago and driving, one of the major things that has always stood out to me is the fact that people are always honking, especially at traffic intersections. I always found that level of impatience annoying, although I kind of like it too, in a weird sort of way..

I always found that level of impatience annoying, although I kind of like it too, in a weird sort of way..

Ha! I know what you are saying, actually. It is that very impatience that keeps DCites standing/walking on the proper sides of the escalator, I think.