Escalators and elevators might be the most underappreciated mode of transit out there. How can one get into a mall, a train station, a parking garage (or even some homes and offices!) without encountering at least a single escalator or elevator?
While it’s hard to even fathom the magnitude of daily elevator and escalator ridership numbers just in the DC region, it is safe to say that vertical transit is probably one of the largest modes of transit in the world. Since it is so embedded into the fabric of our built environment, elevators and escalators are overlooked as an aspect of mobility. They may not always be public, but vertical transportation is essential to moving people places and getting people to other modes of transit in the first place.
Public transit agencies are some of the largest operators of elevators and escalators in the world – in fact, Washington, DC’s own WMATA is the single largest operator of vertical transportation in North America, serving over two million passengers each weekday. It has the longest escalator in the Western Hemisphere at Wheaton Station where riders descend over 230 feet into the ground. Neighboring station Forest Glen requires the use of high speed elevators to get riders to train platforms 192 feet underground.
Another example of vertical transit in the U.S. include the elevators to one of the deepest transit stations in the world, Portland’s Washington Park station at 260 feet underground. The elevator zooms down to the platform in 20 to 30 seconds and unlike most elevators, it displays elevation above sea level instead of floor level.
Across the globe, Hong Kong has the longest dedicated system of escalators traversing half-a-mile of its hilly environment. Here 78,000 people daily use a series of 18 escalators to go between central and mid-level Hong Kong Island as a way to commute to work or to tour the city.
In South America, Medellín has been able to transform itself from a drug capital to an urbanist dreamscape through its public transit comprising of not only a metro, trams or (another vertical counterpart) gondolas but also with a system of escalators. These outdoor escalators are a quarter-of-a-mile long and service Comuna 13, a neighborhood long affected by violence. Now with the escalators, Comuna 13 has begun to revitalize as tourists and other residents have started trickling in.
Like other forms of transportation, vertical transit has to be maintained and both transit agencies in the U.S. and around the world have had to keep up with refurbishing and fixing aging escalators and elevators. Next time you are on an elevator or escalator (you may even be reading this article on one) remember that it too is a central component of transit.
Here are links to view the live status of escalators and elevators servicing transit in Washington, DC and Portland:
Photo by Sam Kittner for Mobility Lab