Modern Life Is Rubbish

[Prettytom]

[Chekhov]

On 22/10/2023 at 20:57, Prettytom said:

You can tell when one makes an unanswerable post because the authoritarians just start trolling..

"Prettytom" is foremost amongst these people who want to regulate and dumb down society to the lowest level, so nobody, no matter how irresponsible, risk averse, paranoid, over sensitive and/or plain thick, runs any risk to themselves, or has any chance of getting "upset" (the ultimate in seriousness these days). 

[ECCOnoob]

On 22/10/2023 at 20:44, Chekhov said:

 When one of a pair of escalators is out of use (OOU), have you ever noticed how, annoyingly, it's often, the down one that's still working ?

No.  Actually I haven't.

 

It's really as if you are desperately looking for things to complain about. 

 

What I have seen more often than not is a trend in smaller shops having an escalator up only but not down. This was particularly common in some of the older M&S, Wilko, Boots, Littlewoods and WH Smith stores.  But it still can be prevelent into some of the newer builds, such as Next and Blacks on the Moor.

 

Its certainly not the great health and safety conspiracy that you are dreaming up in your head.

Edited October 26, 2023 by ECCOnoob

[Annie Bynnol]

On 22/10/2023 at 20:44, Chekhov said:

 When one of a pair of escalators is out of use (OOU), have you ever noticed how, annoyingly, it's often, the down one that's still working ?

We were talking about this today as we wearily plodded up the immovable stairway.

The fact is, if you are going to get injured on the stairs (and stairs are actually quite risky things, statistically speaking), it will almost always be as you are descending them.

Thus, if the buildings management have one (of a pair of escalators) OOU they have a choice :

 

1 - Do we keep the up escalator working, which is much more convenient.

or

2 - Do we keep the down escalator working, which is the safer option .

 

Whether this is the thought process they go through or not this problem does clearly illustrate how "safety" and "convenience" are often mutually exclusive.

Inconvenience thousands of people, or possibly avoid one person falling down the stairs.

And, these days, generally it is "safety" which wins out, even if it's thousands, to one.....

   This has already been thought through and solutions applied. This, of course, does happen all over the world especially in very busy locations with many (2+) escalators with extreme changes in flow.  In these places the escalators are often all bi-directional with only the central one(s) being switched to meet demand. On emergencies or during a job they can all be switched. In lightly used or with older systems and where lifts are an alternative. 

   Many escalators cannot physically be reversed in other signage, routes and access and egress preclude changes.

   The owners of properties like Hillsborough Barracks are in no rush to replace/repair/mitigate their problematic system and paying to manage a temporary solution and accepting a financial risk is beyond them.

[Chekhov]

2 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

No.  Actually I haven't.

It's really as if you are desperately looking for things to complain about. 

What I have seen more often than not is a trend in smaller shops having an escalator up only but not down. This was particularly common in some of the older M&S, Wilko, Boots, Littlewoods and WH Smith stores.  But it still can be prevelent into some of the newer builds, such as Next and Blacks on the Moor.

Its certainly not the great health and safety conspiracy that you are dreaming up in your head.

Even if you haven't noticed my wider point still stands :

 

1 - Do we keep the up escalator working, which is much more convenient.

or

2 - Do we keep the down escalator working, which is the safer option .

 

Whether this is the thought process they go through or not this problem does clearly illustrate how "safety" and "convenience" are often mutually exclusive.

Inconvenience thousands of people, or possibly avoid one person falling down the stairs.

And, these days, generally it is "safety" which wins out, even if it's thousands, to one.....

[ECCOnoob]

1 hour ago, Chekhov said:

Even if you haven't noticed my wider point still stands :

 

1 - Do we keep the up escalator working, which is much more convenient.

or

2 - Do we keep the down escalator working, which is the safer option .

 

Whether this is the thought process they go through or not this problem does clearly illustrate how "safety" and "convenience" are often mutually exclusive.

Inconvenience thousands of people, or possibly avoid one person falling down the stairs.

And, these days, generally it is "safety" which wins out, even if it's thousands, to one.....

What the hell are you talking about?   If an up escalator is broken, it's broken. I don't believe for one second there is some massive thought process and a million forms to be filled out regarding 'safety' of which direction should be used.  

 

I suspect most companies suffering a temporary outage of one of their escalators couldn't give a toss which direction is running.  On the rare occasion they do take interest. It will more likely be based on the nature of people flow rather than any sort of overbearing safety concerns which seems to be nonsense you are making up.

 

After all if someone is going to get hurt, is there really a massive difference between  people falling up an escalator against a down one. There's plenty of videos and CCTV showing people falling and tripping on an up escalator just as equal the ones who come crashing down one - that's before we get into the people flying over the sides or having their foot ripped off while they're slithering  down the side brushes.

 

Why don't you just admit you were annoyed that the direction of travel you needed wasn't operational . If your post was ranting about the fact that they don't change it over to make it more convenient, I'd almost understand it. 

 

But please spare us the whole waaa waaa health and safety nonsense.....  Waaa waaa  overzellous rules and regulations.... 

Edited October 26, 2023 by ECCOnoob

[Chekhov]

On 26/10/2023 at 17:29, ECCOnoob said:

But please spare us the whole waaa waaa health and safety nonsense.....  Waaa waaa  overzellous rules and regulations.... 

There is no possible argument, health and safety, and I mean that in the broadest possible sense, is way over the top these days.

 

@Annie Bynnol may be right that not all escalators are reversible, I would not pretend to be an expert, (though I cannot see why they cannot be, it just seems the obvious thing to make them as such), but you are missing the essential point anyway, H&S and convenience are usually mutually incompatible. You sacrifice one to gain on the other, but these days it's all one way, no matter how minimal the risk.

[Chekhov]

Latest nail in the coffin of personal responsibility (plus it's always someone else's fault, and it must be legislated against "to keep us safe") :

 

One-year-old boy loses his finger after it gets stuck in e-bike chain

The youngster’s father has urged the Mayor of London to act on regulating the ‘careless’ firms behind the bikes – such as Tier, Forest and Lime – so their vehicles pose less of a danger to young children and the wider public.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/10/30/one-year-old-boy-loses-his-finger-after-it-gets-stuck-in-e-bike-chain-19745846/

 

So let's get this straight, the lad was, by definition, being insufficiently supervised by his parent(s), but it's somebody else's fault ? And despite that, and the fact this is an incredibly rare event, the Father wants additional regulation to prevent a recurrence ?

Have I got that right ?

 

And if his Dad thinks abandoned hire bikes are dangerous, what about the cars flying past on the road next to them ?

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Chekhov

[Bargepole23]

On 27/10/2023 at 21:00, Chekhov said:

There is no possible argument, health and safety, and I mean that in the broadest possible sense, is way over the top these days.

 

@Annie Bynnol may be right that not all escalators are reversible, I would not pretend to be an expert, (though I cannot see why they cannot be, it just seems the obvious thing to make them as such), but you are missing the essential point anyway, H&S and convenience are usually mutually incompatible. You sacrifice one to gain on the other, but these days it's all one way, no matter how minimal the risk.

Are you sure? You're quite happy to pretend to be an expert in armchair statistics, and armchair virology. Lets add armchair mechanical engineering to your portfolio.

[Irene Swaine]

What annoys me is those born after the year 2000 and the way they type. They abbreviate whole phrases! For example, "not going to lie" becomes "NGL" and "shake my head" becomes"SMH". I then have to guess what they mean, not got lettuce? Smash my house?