I'm sure street escalators would be just as necessary in Seattle as they are in Barcelona. Which is to say, not at all.

Seriously, what is the purpose of these things?

actually, they are so fat tourists can get to park guell.

and hald the time they don't work.

clowns

oh, hell, YES!!

I had this idea years ago, only I have trademarked the name, "Drunk-a-lators"...that way drunk Capitol Hillians could get back up the Hill after a night of drinking...I'd have one on Denny Way and another on Pike...maybe even a crosstown Drunk-a-lator down Broadway.

There's a perfectly good set of stairs on either side. This escalator is totally pointless.

There will always be some asshole blocking the way so people can't walk past him

There will always be some asshole trying to walk and not just enjoying the ride.

Street escalators serve as asshole magnets.

Let's put 'em in so the rest of us can get around unimpeded.

Hey Erica, while your busy googling hard at work, look up the image results for escalators up the hilly side of Hong Kong (sort of like the Buda/Pest watersplit). In '99 they were fairly convenient for this tourista, but I'm a walker, so I usually take the high, er, hard road.

Where was the Euro city I saw recently that has bike escalators? You can't stand on them, but they have a slot running up the hill with a hook sticking out of it, to pull your wheels up (dismounted). Kind of like a cable car.

Seattle doesn't really have this kind of public stair -- we have lots of public stairs but they are too narrow for an escalator, and they are mostly in sparsely-populated neighborhoods. Nothing with buildings abutting either side -- not that I wouldn't like them.

We also have significantly different weather.

I'm confused as to how street escalators really advance any environmental/community transit cause. Do they really encourage people not to drive? Do people think, oh well there's a STREET ESCALATOR on that street so I don't have to take my car?

I prefer the tried and true Seattle method of dragging them up the hill with ropes, like we used to do with trees.

I dunno, what's the carbon footprint of that street escalator?

There's also the bitchin' cable car up to Montjuic. Maybe if Seattle hosted the Olympics, we could get some cool stuff too. But I doubt The Stranger would support that...

what holz said @2, with a mild correction: they are so that fat tourists can ride the subway and get to park guell. Because the bus takes twice as long.

Tourists guidebooks say don’t depend on it, because, as holz said, ½ the time it doesn’t work.

I’m sure the escalator would work fine during 3 inches of rain though.

something like that would require way more density to justify the ongoing cost.

good idea for infill development on a hill though.

i like the idea of bike escalators, i've seen them in action in japan. not sure i can visualize where i would want one here though.

Erica, the carbon footprint on street escalators is heinous and fat people and those lazy cripples need stairs to get them off their asses

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I think they'd work great in certain areas. Not all streets need them, to be sure. But there are a few hills, especially around city hall, that are hard for many people to get up.

Are we talking about replacing all the sidewalks? No. This would, though, make many of the steep hills in the downtown area accessible to many who have trouble with them, thereby connecting thoroughfares and making busses and (gulp) lightrail more accessible.

@15: The problem with escalators is they consume quite a bit of power, and they do it constantly, whether there's anyone using them or not.

Besides, bicycle advocacy groups would complain that they can't ride up them safely. ;)

Street escalators would just be draining power to achieve something your legs can already do.

If you live in a city with an underground transit system, you'll also note escalators are ALWAYS broken.

A street escalators, like the one shown would be wet 8 months a year.

Seattle needs a train. A real train. Underground, or elevated. That is the answer to moving people around. I'm aware my statement doesn't bring Seattle any closer to achieving that, but I'm saying it anyway.

At grade street escalators will never be effective in terms of ridership, or time saved.

They should tear them out and put in a monorail.

Huh? Barcelona has outdoor escalators, therefore Seattle should provide free bikes?

What the fuck is the point of this post supposed to be again, exactly? Or is it just ECB pouting 'cuz we poked and prodded her free bike plan?

I know where I'd want a bike escalator. On Queen Anne Ave., from Roy St. straight up to the top.

But it could never work! Seattle has too many trees! Too many clouds! The asphalt here is too grey! Far too many people have hyphenated last names!

go take a flying leap.

Gurldoggie, there's already a way there. The old Queen Anne Counterbalance used a cable in a tunnel that as far as I know still exists -- the tunnel, not the cable. But you could put one back in.

we'd all be electrocuted. It would be a carnival of death.

Whole Foods in SoLU has one and its pointlessness bigger than its carbon footprint.

The magic shopping cart escalator in the Safeway at 23rd and Madison has been broken for months. But if we do get street escalators, I vote for the kind that move shopping carts.

Jesus, Gurldoggie, just ask Erica out already and stop torturing the rest of us with your devoted ravings. I'm pretty sure she has a boyfriend, but maybe if you get it out of your system you'll at least start down the path to being able to think for yourself again.

All you have to do is wait, Judah. I'm sure when I'm as old as you are I'll give up these wacky ideas and be just as bitter and jaded.

While we're at it, let's fit Seattle public restrooms with bedits. I want the city to wipe my ass for me, too.

How about little wheelchair lifts on the escalators?

There are plenty of people who can't walk well enough to negotiate a steep flight of stairs to justify an escalator in a highly trafficked area. Even if these only go to a park, people have a right to get there, even if it takes some extra carbon to do it. All movement cannot be predicated on whether you can walk or ride a bike. To reduce justifying the use or production of items by carbon footprint alone is inane. Reducing emmissions is very important but people who go about proclaiming what tiny carbon feet they have are just self-righteous asses.

I think "Tiny Carbon Feet" would be a good name for a band.

Is there an actual point to pointing out Barcelona's street escalators? Or was this just an easy opportunity to bitch?

Again, if Seattle sucks and you like another city better, MOVE THERE.

MOVE THERE.

I AM NOT KIDDING.

@30:

You seem to be confused. ELEVATORS are for people who can't walk well due to legitimate disabilities. ESCALATORS are for fatasses and lazy people from out of town.

Bike escalators! Please! Like this one.

@34: That's pretty cool. But if you put one in a U.S. city, either it would be broken most of the time, or someone would find a way to get injured on it and sue.

Please go to Switzerland take some pictures of ski lifts and ask us why they won't work in Seattle. Then go to Venice and take pictures of gondolas then Paris pics of horse drawn carriages - think they would work here? No way cause we're different.

We have horse-drawn carriages.

LoL! ECB Seattle "natives" are backwards and provincial. Most of them probably don't even know were Barcelona is. I went there for my cousins bar mitzvah (he lives on Jew row in Hollywood and wanted a Almodovar themed party so we flew the whole family there.)

Anyway Barcelona is way better than Seattle. Only idiot local racist Christians would deny that street escalators are not a positive transit solution.

Erica,
If you're still reading this thread, there's a very good bar very close to where that photo was taken, on Carrer Bolivar, called "La Reina de Africa." A wide open terrace and cheap beers. Maybe it's still there? Check it out.

exceptionalist concept aside, don't you think that's the last thing fat americans need?