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Can we go greener by turning off the escalator?

Print | Comments () Posted by Beth Daley January 21, 2009 02:15 PM

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A lonely ride (Globe photo)

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

The next time you are riding the escalator in the mall, think about what it’s doing when you are not on it: Churning all the time, using energy while it waits to carry customers to places most could probably get to by climbing stairs.

I’ve always sort of wondered about them – including those escalators that seem to take longer to transport you seven feet up than if you walked – but I recently came across an excellent story on the piece in the summer issue of Next American City magazine. (Yup, I’m only getting to my summer magazines now.)

Escalators were designed to transport people in crowded places where stairs would cause a jam (think crowded subway stations) but they are also energy-guzzling mechanical dinosaurs, the magazine notes. The article says that the energy use of the nation’s 30,000 escalators per year is enough to power 375,000 homes. The machines are also complex and break down often if anyone who rides one regularly knows.

There is an effort underway to develop sleep mode escalators that stop or go slower when no one is around. Sensors detectors then see customers coming and speed them up. New York City last year introduced 35 such “green” escalators in four subway stations. I’ve seen such escalators in Europe and elsewhere and seems odd they haven’t become common practice here yet.

But do we really need as many escalators as we have? Won’t stairs do most of the time? What do you do when faced with side-by-side escalator and stairs?

tags broken, energy, escalator, green