Escalating Efficiency

Theodore E. Cohn, a professor of physiological optics at the University of California, Berkeley, says that approaching an escalator straight on, as if it were a stationary staircase, is the wrong way to do it. As a result of the direct but incorrect approach, he says, about 60,000 people fall on escalators in the United States each year.

The problem, according to Cohn, is that the grooves on escalator steps cause the eyes to focus on different points and make it difficult for the brain to determine exactly how far away the step is. Hence the falls as people get onto the moving stairs.

Cohn says that people could overcome the problem by approaching escalators sideways with one eye closed. In that way, he told Science News, “disorientation does not occur.” In addition, it would be interesting to watch a line of people as they got onto an escalator.

We got to thinking that Cohn’s ideas might have wider application than to escalators alone. Congress, for example, might do a better job if its members walked in sideways every day with one eye closed. For that matter, so might everybody.