If you live in a big city, there are many things to drive you crazy on your daily commute, and it’s not just overcrowded subway trains.

如果你生活在大城市中，上下班路上常常會發生許多令人抓狂的事情，沙丁魚罐頭一般的地鐵車廂只是其中之一罷了。

Vicky Zhao is a mainlander working in Hong Kong. For her, one thing she can’t put up with is people standing on the wrong side of the escalator in subway stations.

Vicky Zhao是一位在香港工作的大陸人。她不能容忍的是，地鐵扶梯上人們總是站錯位置。

“Escalators help us move faster and save time. It isn’t a place to rest,” the 24-year-old says. “I often see tourists block the way with their chunky suitcases or chitchatting on the escalators during rush hour. It annoys me to no end.”

24歲的她說：“電梯是提高我們出行效率、節省時間的，并非休息的地方。在上下班高峰時段，我經常看到許多游客用大件行李擋住了路，有的人還在電梯上閑聊家常，這讓我不勝其煩。”

Admitting she is not the patient type, Zhao says things are much better in Hong Kong than in cities on the mainland where “stand right, walk left” signs are often ignored.

Vicky Zhao承認自己沒什么耐心。她說：“香港的狀況要比內地城市好得多，在內地‘左行右立’的標識形同虛設。”

The logic behind the “stand right, walk left” escalator etiquette seems obvious. Even though you may want to catch your breath and just wait while you’re transported up or down, you should still consider others and leave enough space for people in a hurry, so that they can run and catch the train.

“左行右立”這種扶梯禮儀背后的邏輯顯而易見。即使你想在上下奔波的過程中喘口氣，或者只是放緩腳步，你也應該替他人著想，為趕時間的人留下足夠的空間，以便其疾行追趕列車。

Many cities’ escalators, including London’s and Beijing’s, use the “stand right, walk left” system to speed up the flow of people. (Australia is an exception and you should stand on the left side instead.) But some cities discourage people from moving on escalators out of safety reasons. In Hong Kong’s subway stations there are regular annoucements asking people to “stand still” on escalators. Even so, most people in this fast-paced metropolis observe the “stand right, walk left” etiquette.

在包括北京和倫敦在內的許多城市中，扶梯上會貼有“左行右立”標識來疏導人流。（澳大利亞是個例外，在那你應該靠左站立。）但一些城市出于安全考慮，禁止人們在扶梯上行走。例如，香港地鐵就用站內廣播就提示，禁止乘客在扶梯上走動。盡管如此，在這個快節奏的大都市里，大多數人還是會遵守“左行右立”的禮儀。

Perhaps this is because those who walk on escalators seem to have taken the moral high ground and like to accuse those who block the way of being inconsiderate.

這或許是因為在自動扶梯上行走的人們已經占領了道德高地，就喜歡指責那些擋路者的自私自利。

“Able-bodied people standing on the downward escalator are in effect robbing the people behind them of time,” says Hamilton Nolan, who writes for online forum Gawker and regularly uses the New York subway. He speaks the mind of many walkers.

紐約地鐵的“常旅客”漢密爾頓?諾蘭在網上論壇“高客網”上寫道：“身強力壯的人乘坐下行電梯實際上是浪費了身后人們的時間。”一語道出了許多人的心聲。

“Their presumptuous need for leisure may cause everyone behind them to miss a train they would have otherwise caught. Then those people are forced to stand and wait on a subway platform for many extra minutes. Those are precious minutes of life that none of us will get back.”

他說：“他們自以為是地認為人們應該放慢腳步，享受閑適，然而這可能導致身后所有人錯過了本可以趕得上的列車。這些乘客不得不在站臺上再多等幾分鐘。那些時間都是一去不復返的寶貴光陰啊！”

But the people who stand on escalators defend themselves by telling the walkers not to be so impatient. In a recent story about escalator etiquette, the BBC quotes one stander as saying: “If the person is in such a rush, why not just take the stairs? Even when the escalator is packed and there’s nowhere to move, I see these same people moaning and groaning about not being able to pass.”

但那些選擇在扶梯上站立不動的乘客也有為自己辯護的理由，他們告訴那些行人不要那么沒耐心。在最近一則有關扶梯禮儀的報道中，BBC援引了一位“站立者”的話：“如果十萬火急，為何不選擇走樓梯？即使在電梯人滿為患、乘客無法動彈的情況下，我還是能看到那些著急的人嘟嘟囔囔地抱怨自己無法通過。”

Whatever the escalator etiquette is in the place you live or visit, do what most people are doing and always be mindful of others: leave enough space between each other, don’t linger at the end of the escalator, and if someone is blocking your way, a simple “excuse me” is enough.

無論你居住的城市還是旅行目的地奉行著怎樣的扶梯禮儀，切記要“隨大流”并時刻為他人著想：與他人之間保持禮貌距離；不要在扶梯兩端徘徊；如果別人擋住了你的路，說一句友好的“借過”就可以了。