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Beware the shoe-eating escalator of Harvard Square
By adamg on Mon, 06/26/2023 - 10:21am
Her remaining shoe.
1000goodintentions's week did not get off to the best of starts this morning: Just as she approached the top of the escalator from the Red Line up to Harvard Square, she had one of her shoes sucked into the mechanism.
Fortunately, her toes remained intact, and, as she alerted the T, she's not even mad, she just wanted to let them know, oh, and here's a picture of her remaining shoe, in case inspectors want to check if what's left of the shoe is hers and not any other shoes the escalator might have eaten.
She adds it was the escalator that used to go down, but which the T now has going up, at least in the morning, by the CVS, on the right-hand side. Also:
I didn't have another pair of shoes, I had to Uber home shoeless to get another because it's surprisingly hard to find a place to buy shoes in Harvard Square before 9 and I didn't want to hop back on the T barefoot.
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Comments
The left side escalator
has been "out of service" for at least a month. Waiting on a part, MBTA?
Escalators are one of those inventions
which, if newly invented today, would probably not be allowed into service due to safety concerns.
Worse in developing nations
I was traveling in some developing nations and noticed that none of the escalators had e-stop buttons at the top & bottom.
Too late to be helpful....
but the CVS likely would have had flip flops and other slip-ons for sale.
public service announcement
CVS usually has those little roll-up shoes for women to put in their purses for when their heels are finally too much!
Too late to be helpful, but
Too late to be helpful, but one shouldn't stare on their phone while on an elevator
huh?
Why shouldn't one look at one's phone in an elevator?
Her shoe must have been loose
Her shoe must have been loose and also must not have been paying attention. Pretty sure most of us are safe.
This is nothing...
...I remember the old wooden escalators with rotating slats at the top that many T stops used to have. There was one that remained at DTX station until the 90s or so. Those things could turn your feet into hamburger.
All escalators are shoe eating escalators
Newer installations have some automatic mechanisms to stop them if something gets caught in them but it senses the step being out of position so not immediate. Stay in the middle of the stair and always check your feet before looking up (don't move around too much as well). Crocs are especially susceptible with their flexibility and rubbery surfaces. A friend from University worked for an elevator/escalator company as a sales person and their training included videos of escalator injuries and deaths - shoes, clothing, even hair getting trapped in the side and dragged along with the mechanisms churning away regardless. She hasn't ridden one without checking her feet position since. Sometimes there's emergency stop buttons at the top or bottom of the escalator but most people aren't aware of them. People have lost feet, been scalped, even choked to death. It is a big deal. There should be skirt guards at the edge of each step but mostly to keep things falling in vs being pulled in by friction. She's lucky she only lost a shoe.