{
  "id": 10072075,
  "title": "LA Metro has some of the slowest escalators on Earth",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/la-metro-has-some-of-the-slowest-escalators-on-earth",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-24T16:52:24.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Hacker News",
    "slug": "hacker-news",
    "url": "https://basin.la/articles/ninety-feet-a-minute.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Los Angeles Metro's escalators are notoriously slow compared to escalators in other major cities around the world. This disparity stems from American transit escalators generally operating under a much slower speed limit than those in many parts of the globe. Upon examining escalator regulations across 139 cities in 58 countries, it became clear that LA Metro's specified speed falls below the maximum allowed in every single city included in the study.\n\nTo put this into perspective, Hong Kong boasts some of the fastest escalators globally, with most MTR station escalators moving passengers at a rate of 0.75 meters per second, or approximately 148 feet per minute. In contrast, LA Metro's specified speed is a measly 90 feet per minute, which is about 64% slower. For a typical climb of 87 seconds on an escalator in LA, the same ascent would only take around 53 seconds at Hong Kong's typical pace.\n\nTo gauge the potential time savings, we focused on the 27 underground stations serviced by Metro. Using FY2026 station ridership figures, we estimated that matching Hong Kong's usual speed would save about 119,000 minutes of escalator riding on an average weekday, or roughly 670,000 hours annually. This equates to a noteworthy 9.5 hours of time saved per commuter who relies solely on escalators for their underground commute.\n\nInterestingly, different cities follow either European or American standards when it comes to escalator speeds. The European standard permits a speed of 0.75 meters per second for escalators angled up to 30 degrees, while the American standard caps escalators at 100 feet per minute, or about 0.508 meters per second. California mandates the latter for new installations and any alterations to existing escalators. Consequently, Metro's specified 90-foot-per-minute limit is a 10% pace below the American standard.\n\nLos Angeles International Airport (LAX) escalators, on the other hand, adhere to the full 100-foot-per-minute American standard, making them approximately 11% faster than the subway's escalators. If Metro were to raise its escalators to the American maximum, it would result in a 10% reduction in riding time, saving around 30,000 minutes each weekday.\n\nHowever, faster isn't always better for every rider. Singapore's transit engineers discovered that escalators set to 0.75 meters per second generate nearly twice as much step vibration compared to those running at 0.5 meters per second. To accommodate for this, Singapore's transit engineers adjust the speed based on rush hour traffic patterns, utilizing the faster setting during peak times and the slower one during off-peak hours.\n\nThe strangest revelation came from LA Metro's own archives, which revealed that the original subway design rules required escalators capable of running at both 90 and 120 feet per minute. At 120 feet per minute, a climb at the Civic Center station would have taken about 66 seconds instead of the current 87 seconds. It remains unclear whether the installed escalators ever operated at 120 feet per minute or when and why that requirement was abandoned. The American code lowered its maximum speed from 125 to 100 feet per minute in 2000, but there is no definitive link established between this change and Metro's decision to adhere to the slower standard.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}