Stand on one side or both? Korea mulls nationwide escalator etiquette
Medical staff ride an escalator at a hospital in Seoul on Feb. 20, 2024. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Participants during a debate hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety at Yonsei University on Saturday were sharply divided over escalator etiquette. While a majority called for standing on both sides for safety and formally adopting the practice as government policy, a vocal opposing camp argued that passengers should stand on one side during rush hour.
Standing on one side takes root during 2002 World Cup
Current government guidelines for escalator use advise passengers not to walk or run. But the practice of standing on one side became widespread between 1998 and 2008 through a campaign promoting considerate public behavior, with the 2002 World Cup playing a decisive role in its nationwide adoption. There was a prevailing belief that passengers should leave one side clear for people in a hurry.
The practice, however, led to more accidents as increasing numbers of people walked or ran on escalators. According to the National Elevator Information Center, the number of escalator accidents nearly doubled from 44 in 2007 to 85 in 2008.
Equipment maintenance also became a concern. Walking down an escalator places a load equal to an average of 2.01 times a person’s body weight on the equipment, while walking up places a load of 1.54 times their body weight. The uneven load created by passengers standing on one side also contributed to frequent escalator malfunctions.
Emergency rescuers conduct a drill simulating a crush accident caused by an escalator suddenly reversing during the 2022 Joint Social Disaster Response Exercise at Lotte Mall Suwon in Gwonseon District, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. Newsis
Safety concerns prompt shift to standing on both sides in 2009
To address the issue, the government launched a campaign in 2009 encouraging passengers to stand on both sides of escalators, helping bring the number of accidents down from 54 in 2009 to 19 in 2014. Starting in 2015, the government moved away from recommending a particular standing arrangement and instead introduced three safety rules: hold the handrail; do not walk or run; and remain within the safety lines.
Most escalator accidents were attributed to user error. Of the 931 accidents recorded between 1993 and 2025, 72.3 percent involved such behavior as walking, running or failing to hold the handrail. The accidents left 582 people seriously injured and 22 dead.
In a recent public awareness survey conducted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety among 1,000 adults, 50.1 percent said they stood on one side of an escalator, narrowly exceeding the 49.9 percent who said they stood on both sides. Among those who stood on one side, the most commonly cited reason was to make way for people in a hurry, at 40.1 percent. By contrast, safety was the most common reason among those who stood on both sides, at 42.4 percent.
There is no universal practice for escalator use overseas. Standing on one side remains the norm in Japan, Singapore and some parts of Britain, while standing on both sides is encouraged in London and parts of Canada, France and Australia. China, Hong Kong and other places use a combination of the two approaches depending on congestion and the time of day.
Interior and Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung delivers opening remarks at the “Forum for All” on safe escalator use at Baekyang Nuri on Yonsei University’s campus in Seoul on Saturday. Yonhap
Standing on both sides is safer
“Safety improves when people sharing the same space can anticipate one another’s behavior,” Lee Sang-min, a professor at Korea National University of Transportation, said. “Under the stand-on-one-side practice, contact between people walking and those standing still can cause a domino-effect fall, making it safer for passengers to stand on both sides.”
Two surveys of 194 participants, conducted before and after the discussion, showed growing support for standing on both sides. The option received only 31.4 percent, or 61 votes, before the discussion, but rose to 45.9 percent, or 89 votes, afterward. Support for applying the two approaches flexibly depending on the circumstances edged up from 38.1 percent, or 74 votes, to 38.7 percent, or 75 votes. Standing on one side, meanwhile, fell sharply from 29.9 percent, or 58 votes, to 13.4 percent, or 26 votes.
“We will listen carefully to every valuable opinion shared today and actively incorporate them into policy decisions aimed at improving escalator safety culture,” Interior and Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung said.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.