Transport for London is seeing record-high numbers of passengers, which leads to some stations (namely the older, more antiquated ones) becoming overwhelmed with bodies during rush hour. Escalators naturally create bottlenecks when all those people are squeezed into narrower paths, so you’d think that it would improve congestion for the faster-moving people to go ahead and slip past the slower-moving people.
But no no no! It actually all comes down to two factors: How many stairs passengers need to climb (or descend), and how many passengers end up attempting it. If too many people try to walk up long escalators, it ends up making congestion worse.
via Gizmodo
