Replying to Avatar Vitor Pamplona

The handrail moves faster than the escalator on purpose. It's designed to make you pay attention and avoid a fall.

if properly calibrated, the handrail pulls you forward when going up, away from the fall behind, and it pulls you backwards when going down, away from the fall in front of you.
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Leo Wandersleb 6mo ago 💬 1

I had noticed that the calibration differed from one escalator to the other and wondered why they were not mechanically linked to be in sync. Now I know. Can't simply mechanically link if the relative up speed needs to be slower than down.

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frphank 6mo ago

Of course they can be mechanically linked. Ya know gears in a gear box rotate at different speeds too.