Seattle Airport Warning

[DTEN11]

Please Please Please use the elevators at Seattle Airport.

My mom fell on one of the many short but steep escalators at Seattle Airport and spent her vacation in the hospital not the owners suite on Princess.

Do not risk it.

The emergency room she was taken too says it happens every day.

[elfie]

I hope a speedy recovery for your mom.

[Langley Cruisers]

So sorry to hear this. I suppose this could happen to anyone, anytime, though.

[HawksFan74]

I haven't found the escalators at SeaTac to be any more steep or dangerous than anywhere else. Please, use common sense and watch your step, use the handrails, and leave the elevators for those who really need them.

[TruckerDave]

Sorry about your mom, but, this is a worthless thread. Thousands of people use the escalators every day without issue. :rolleyes:

[Putterdude]

I am sorry to hear about your mother and hope she recovers quickly. I don't think the problem is limited to just the escalators in SEA. What your mother encountered could happen on any escalators when handling luggage and the problem is greater the older and more luggage one has. I have seen signs, obviously not in airports, warning people not to use the escalator with luggage. So thanks for posting your mother's unfortunate experience and let it be a lesson for all us seniors...even those of us who still think we are in our 40's.

[Husky61]

Washington state records show that between 2008 and early 2014, there were 175 injury accidents on the airport’s 79 escalators.

 

That calculates to 29 a year, with more than 100,000 people traveling through SeaTac every day.

 

Doesn't sound like an epidemic to me.

[Mister White]

I haven't found the escalators at SeaTac to be any more steep or dangerous than anywhere else. Please, use common sense and watch your step, use the handrails, and leave the elevators for those who really need them.

There is never a difference in the steepness of escalators. The are universally at a 30degree angle for straight run escalators.

[LadyShiva]

There is never a difference in the steepness of escalators. The are universally at a 30degree angle for straight run escalators.

 

Sorry to be pedantic, but is this a US standard, or worldwide? I've had to close my eyes on escalators in the London Underground and in Paris due to perceived steepness. I always figured it was a combination of me being a wuss about heights and depth perception issues with my glasses--and no, I'm not a senior citizen, just deeply in need of wearing glasses to see.

[SOMEBEECH]

I doubt that it is a worldwide standard. But part of the problem is when you are taking an escalator and they put walls and a ceiling it will usually make it seem like a steep angle. Your brain is using the design and decoration to decide if it is steep or not. When your in a airport the escalators are usually in wide open spaces so your brain doesn't see it as steep.

[LadyShiva]

I doubt that it is a worldwide standard. But part of the problem is when you are taking an escalator and they put walls and a ceiling it will usually make it seem like a steep angle. Your brain is using the design and decoration to decide if it is steep or not. When you're in a airport the escalators are usually in wide open spaces so your brain doesn't see it as steep.

 

Thank you for the explanation. :)

[Casagordita]

Sorry to be pedantic, but is this a US standard, or worldwide? I've had to close my eyes on escalators in the London Underground and in Paris due to perceived steepness. I always figured it was a combination of me being a wuss about heights and depth perception issues with my glasses--and no, I'm not a senior citizen, just deeply in need of wearing glasses to see.

 

Also, some of the London Tube escalators are so LONG!! It feels like you're descending to the center of the earth. I think looking down that far makes them look steeper, too.

 

But then, some of then are also very old. I don't know if they're still using the ones with wooden steps, but if not, it hasn't been that long--and those had to have been around forever!! So they might have been built to an outdated standard that was steeper than what they're using now--and changing it would cost a fortune and be a huge disruption.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Casagordita

[zoicca]

That's horrible. I fly out of SEA very often, and come to think of it, some of those escalators are steep.

[Mister White]

Sorry to be pedantic, but is this a US standard, or worldwide? I've had to close my eyes on escalators in the London Underground and in Paris due to perceived steepness. I always figured it was a combination of me being a wuss about heights and depth perception issues with my glasses--and no, I'm not a senior citizen, just deeply in need of wearing glasses to see.

 

It is not a matter of it being a US standard or an International standard. It's a matter of the mechanics of an escalator that has created the default 30 degree vertical declination. Nobody makes a 'different' straight vertical run escalator. There is no point in that. Architects and designers know when designing a building that an escalators horizontal run will be calculated by using a 30 degree vertical conveyance. Facilities are designed years before an escalator vendor will be chosen and spaces in plan for escalators will be adhered too based on the accepted standard. Creating a steeper escalator would be a folly of wasted time and money due to cost of re-tooling standard components.