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Canary Wharf Crowded Lift.wmv (60.21 MB)

Auto-Ethnographic Review of Canary Wharf Jubilee Line Station Lift and Escalator Journey (London)

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posted on 2016-04-25, 14:35 authored by John HardingJohn Harding

Part of a conference paper to ID@50 at University of Bath June 2016. 

Provides video evidence for an explication of boarding and alighting are similar activities. Taken on 17 November 2015 @ approx 19:30

1.1         How do passengers counter adverse suggestions that do not help them survive or be included?

Here we unfold surprising differences in the way passengers move between very similar things. For example, Escalators and lifts provide vertical access in different ways.  Seeing a group of four people and a buggy waiting for the single crowded lift (see Figure 4); we change our minds and take the escalator. The problem here is that passenger(s) wishing to reach the single lift at one end of the platform have to push through the crowds the whole length of the crowded concourse or platform. If the lift is not working passengers who cannot use escalators could not survive at this station. If there is no lift, alternative options include aborting the journey, taking buses, or a taxi that cost time and/or money, or lost opportunity. In contrast, the nine escalators distribute passengers throughout the station. This suggests those in charge of the design have a preference towards escalators. Such design intensifies the exclusivity of the LUL system to those who can use escalators. However, escalators can be dangerous and can cause accidents via trips and falls. Most at risk are the elderly, children, women with high heels and inebriated people (Tatla, Sarakinou et al. 2001, Greenberg and Sherman 2005, Chi, Chang et al. 2006, O'Neil, Steele et al. 2008). Passengers were seen to protect themselves from trips and falls by holding escalator handrails while descending or ascending. They stand or walk carefully, in line, without rush. The yellow hazard colour floor paint and temporary guarding evident at the escalator landing areas inform us where not to stand or wait. Congested tops and bottoms of the escalators have temporary guarding that herd passengers into proscribed waiting areas. There would be  chaos if passengers wait in those marked areas as passengers descend into them. This could occur during train delay or platform overcrowding. The vertical circulation layout at Canary Wharf results in herding, queues, and lengthy walks for lift users and is difficult for the passenger to overcome the potentially adverse suggestion to use escalators. In consequence, it is difficult for the passenger to counter the suggestibility to use escalators, owing to the imbalance of nine escalators and just only one lift.

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