Have you noticed that we have been having a problem with our escalators? The other day I was coming down on the escalator that takes you from the fourth to the second floor in the Hall Building and low and behold it stopped and jerked everyone forward. Now I would not have a problem with this, but the fact is that it happens many times every single day does bother me. It creates human traffic
jams, confusion and would likely cause a major accident. I have seen many people fall, but luckily there has never been a domino knockdown. These escalators stopping abruptly and jerking people is a large accident and lawsuit waiting to happen.
If we ever wanted to harm John Moore, we would ask him to do his escalator movie review at Concordia. He’d be thrown off the contraptions like a cowboy at a rodeo.
The finger can be pointed in many directions. The fact that Concordia accepts more students every year is inevitable and cannot be helped. The fact that the escalator’s motor turns off to avoid burning out when a certain weight limit is reached cannot be helped. However, the fact that the security guards do not turn the escalators back on for hours at a time creates many problems.
This escalator problem creates a influx of people using the elevators, which in turn causes different problems. Handicapped people regularly use the main two elevators for travel between floors. Already on seven occasions I have seen students in wheelchairs wait for more than three elevators before they get on.
This is unacceptable. Concordia’s wheelchair accessibility is comprised
essentially of those elevators, but if they cannot be used by those who need them the most, what does that say?
The university should put policies into place that would force security to keep up with escalator problems. Also, maintenance crews should schedule more regular checks of the escalators on weekends. If the university would make sure that these two elements were taken care of there would be a dramatic change in number of escalator breakdowns and potential accidents, students being late for classes and frustrated disabled people who get no co-operation from the university or
their fellow students.
To aid the wheelchair accessibility issue, the staff and freight elevator should be also be reserved for handicapped students. In addition, security should crack down and give warnings and tickets to students who abuse of the freight elevators. Everyone needs to get to class on time too, and sometimes the majority of students and administrators sometimes forget that.