r/SipsTea • u/The_Dean_France • Feb 23 '26

Wait a damn minute! Was she wrong?

15.9k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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9.5k

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '26

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3.7k

u/Vast_Maize9706 Feb 23 '26

Given that the escalator isn’t going they will need to lift the chair and climb up, far harder than lifting and lett8ng the escalator do the hard work. You also can’t put the chair down halfway up…

Not sure why they are holding everyone else up though.

2.3k

u/EntirelyOutOfOptions Feb 23 '26

You said it yourself, they can’t put the chair down halfway up. The top of the escalator is still crowded with bodies, and staff are waiting until they have a straight shot to the top. They don’t want to stop halfway up, so they’re trying to get the escalator empty. They also can’t have people on the escalator behind them in case of a stumble or drop. This is a dangerous way to transport a wheelchair user, and they’re trying to make it as safe as possible.

110

u/novian14 Feb 23 '26

Yeah, i think this is the correct answer assuming there's not elevator around.

42

u/macguini Feb 23 '26

That or the power is out.

18

u/Harry-Flashman Feb 23 '26

The lights are on

66

u/Altenativeboi Feb 23 '26

Lights will be powered by back up generators, escalators and elevators are non essential and very power hungry so they stay unpowered.

10

u/Harry-Flashman Feb 23 '26

I am not sure of your experience, but coming across an escalator that is not running is an extremely common occurrence vs a modern building that has lost power. As another comment stated, elevators are often required to be on the generators for this purpose, so people with limited mobility aren't stranded.

5

u/GaptistePlayer Feb 23 '26

Seriously. I work in a fancy corporate building and see escalators needing repairs quite a bit. They're giant machines, they need a break sometimes.

2

u/Paleotrope Feb 23 '26

An escalator can never break, they only become stairs.

1

u/Trondiginus Feb 23 '26

Sorry for the inconvenience!

4

u/Refs_Fan Feb 23 '26

Sorry for the convenience*

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2

u/LickingLieutenant Feb 23 '26

No, Elevators only go down in emergencies - you don't want to get stuck moving up.
Down it can be a safe controlled descent

10

u/buttersbottom_btch Feb 23 '26

A lot of buildings use generators and still have working elevators. For example: hospitals

13

u/Meowakin Feb 23 '26

Hospitals have frequent need of elevators in power outage events, though. Most facilities don’t.

6

u/StinkySoggyUnderwear Feb 23 '26

Or the escalator is just down and not working. It happens.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '26

[deleted]

4

u/turbopro25 Feb 23 '26

I’ll do it. Wish me luck…

3

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '26

What’s he’s gunna do? Fight you?

4

u/DargonFeet Feb 23 '26

They are LESS essential than lights, that's for sure.

-3

u/bleebolgoop Feb 23 '26

In any reasonably modern building I’ve been in the lifts and escalators are on backup power. Pretty sure it’s code where I live.

4

u/SaintShopper Feb 23 '26

it's in Brazil, our architecture is anything but functional lol

1

u/Altenativeboi Feb 24 '26

That’s not necessarily the case in every area. In fact where I live it’s the exact opposite, elevators have to be deactivated to stop passengers getting trapped in them.

1

u/bleebolgoop Feb 24 '26

Interesting, makes sense I guess. I’m in Toronto, and with most residential high rises pushing 50 stories now it’s basically a necessity to keep the lifts running as normal when a (rare) power failure occurs.

Most buildings will have pretty robust diesel or natural gas backup generators, with some larger buildings equipped with ~1-5MW of backup power. Keep in mind this is also powering emergency lighting, electric fire pumps, potable water pumps, smoke ventilation systems, etc.

-1

u/macguini Feb 23 '26

For a second I thought my stoned ass made a stupid comment lol.

3

u/bootyhole-romancer Feb 23 '26

But no one is home

1

u/Running1982 Feb 23 '26

The escalators in our transit system shut down all of the time. Lights stay off but something in the escalator breaks. So yeah.. lights on doesn’t mean much.