Escalators

Escalators

When I first decided to do an article about riding escalators, I went through my standard one-man brainstorming session. In that session I thought… hmmm, the thirty seconds it takes to ride an escalator doesn't leave me with too many exciting stories. The main debate centering around riding escalators is whether or not it should be done in a chair and who is in the position to best decide just how safe it is ride one.

Before I make my own argument for this debate, let me tell you about a non-escalator story involving a cop, a snowbrush, a car and a language barrier. Just over a year ago I was living in Quebec City. It was a hasty move from Calgary and I was left with no car. Not being a big fan of public transportation, I decided to buy a crappy car and drive it ‘till I decided on a more permanent solution. I'm a fairly technical guy and have owned nine cars in my twelve years of driving (gives you an idea about the quality of automobiles I choose), however for my two-hundred and fifty bucks I believe I chose the worst car in the world; the driver side door didn't open so I had to scooch across the front seats and pull my chair in after, the muffler fell off and skidded to its final resting place while I was driving to work, the power steering broke, and I developed a nasty case of tendonitis from trying to steer it (steering being critical to the driving experience). To cap it off, the tires were bald, the gas gauge didn't work - and oh, did I mention that it had no hand controls? I had no problem dealing with all but two of the car's short-comings… the gas gauge (the reason I ran out of gas) and the lack of hand controls. Actually scratch that - I only had a problem with the gas gauge, it was the cop that had a problem with the hand controls. For those of you that don't know, a couple snow brushes can be turned into a beautiful set of makeshift hand controls. Alternatively, if you're looking for a more refined look, some golf clubs also make a fine choice. Getting back to my story, it was the snow brushes that didn't impress the smoky. All was going well ‘till the federally asked me to get out of the car. The jig was up as soon as he saw the chair. I could see the wheels spinning in his head (“hmm… how is he driving if he can't use his legs?…. Oh I remember! Those guys are supposed to use hand controls… but wait a minute - those hand controls look like sticks taped to the pedals!). That's because they were. He tried to give me a ticket but surprisingly enough, there isn't one that covers ‘driving with sticks'.

This is where I tie into the escalator issue. Who is to say that driving with sticks isn't the safest way to drive, and who is to say that going on an escalator in a chair is the most stable? I know that both sides of these issues can be debated but at least I have some experience to back up my argument. It seems to be that the people who have never used a chair are trying to dictate what should and shouldn't be done in one. I'm not really that angry about the issue - at least not until someone tries to stop me from doing something I know I can do perfectly well.

In closing, don't let other people who have no idea of just what you're capable of keep you down. If you actually think something is too dangerous to try in a chair, the first thing I recommend is getting a spotter and trying it out for yourself.