At Last, Metro Has a Message for 'Escalumps'

In station messages, Metro is trying to reinforce etiquette, including the cardinal rule of escalators: Stand right. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)

Nonetheless, the agency has resisted promoting the "walk left, stand right" standard because escalators -- unlike their cousins, moving walkways -- are not designed for walkers. The agency also wants to cut down on riders who race through stations. Thus, the announcement does not encourage people to walk on the left, although that's common practice at Metro and just about every other transit system in the world.

Metro also does not post signs advising riders where to stand. Agency officials said they are prohibited from putting up "Stand to the Right" signs because the national safety code for elevators and escalators does not allow non-cautionary signs to be posted within 10 feet of an escalator.

The battle over escalator etiquette tends to escalate in the summer, when tourists descend on the nation's capital and clash with impatient Washingtonians rushing to catch their trains.

Many first-time visitors are often preoccupied while on long escalator rides. Jenny and John Maurer of Pittsburgh, who were visiting Washington this week with their two children, were trying to figure out which monuments to see as they stood on the long escalator heading into the Van Ness Station just after the morning rush yesterday.

"A couple people said, 'Pardon me,' " said Jenny Maurer, 40. That's when she realized she wasn't supposed to be standing on the left. "This was our first time," she said, somewhat apologetically.

"Everyone's in a hurry," said her husband, John, 39, with a touch of disbelief.

As a couple from Mumbai rode the escalator down to the Orange and Blue Line platform at Metro Center Station yesterday, the woman, wearing a yellow and orange sari, stood on the right, while her husband stood next to her, on the forbidden left.

Before they reached the bottom, she chided him in Hindi. "I told him, 'You should stay on the right side; we shouldn't block the escalator,' " said Kiran Anam, 55, who was visiting Washington for the first time but noticed that others were walking on the left.

"I'm a bit dumb," Harish Anam, 57, said with a smile.

None of the visitors or regular riders interviewed at Metro Center said they had heard the new station announcements. Agency officials said they don't want to overwhelm riders. "We don't want people to tune them out," Farbstein said.

Even as riders welcomed the new announcements, many said they're skeptical that they'll be heard. The messages are being broadcast, after all, on Metro's infamously poor public address system.