Here is a question I cannot stop thinking about. Jordan and his partner were at the mall, riding an escalator because there were no regular stairs anywhere nearby. In the interest of getting their steps in, they walked around a couple who were blocking the entire width of the escalator. As they passed, the couple yelled, "These aren't stairs!" Yelled. At two strangers who were just living their lives.
Those are all the details I have, and I still have questions. Did the couple have kids or bags? Were Jordan and his partner carrying anything bulky? And are escalators, sometimes called moving stairways, really stairs? So: is it really rude to pass someone on an escalator?
In much of the world, the norm is to stand on the right and walk, or pass, on the left. On escalators, this dates back to the London Underground in the early 1900s, where the first escalators were designed with a diagonal partition that funneled passengers off to the left. To avoid chaos at the exit, riders began standing on the right so that walkers could pass freely on the left. The habit stuck, spread internationally and became one of those unspoken rules that most people absorb without ever being formally taught. This isn't rogue behavior. This is the expected etiquette.
So when someone walks on the left side of an escalator, they are participating in a longstanding social contract that makes shared public spaces function. This isn't a power move. It's pedestrian traffic flow. If someone is blocking the walking lane by standing two abreast, they are, technically, the one breaking the contract. Politely going around them — with a quiet "excuse me" — is the correct response to an incorrect situation. And for the record, the yelling is absolutely not OK.
OK, devil's advocate time. Just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should. Some people have mobility limitations that aren't visible. Some are carrying heavy bags. Some are traveling with small children and need the full step width for safety. Others are exhausted, and an escalator is one of the few places in modern life where standing still for 30 seconds is allowed. Let them have this.
And the research (yes, there is escalator research!) is counterintuitive. A 2024 transit study found that in very high-congestion scenarios, having everyone stand on both sides can actually move more people per minute than the walk-left system, because it eliminates the bottleneck created by one unused lane. So the efficiency argument isn't as simple as it seems. Does this mean passing is wrong? No. But it does mean a little humility about your right to barrel past people is warranted.
One overarching rule: how you pass matters enormously. Lead with a clear, audible, kind "excuse me" before you're already in someone's personal space. Don't sigh heavily, don't tailgate and don't barrel by with bags swinging.
Passing someone on an escalator is not rude — when the escalator has a walking lane, when you signal your intent with a polite "excuse me" and when the person you're passing doesn't need the full space for safety reasons. That's the politeness trifecta. Blocking the entire width of a walkable escalator and then yelling at someone for politely going around you? That is rude.
Bottom line: the escalator is a social space, and sensible rules exist for managing it. Follow them, extend grace when others don't, say "excuse me" like you mean it and hold onto the handrail.