[/floatr]This Mainichi article (Japanese) discusses the posters introduced by Yokohama Subway asking passengers not to walk up the escalators. Subway authorities became concerned that old people were being hurried up and small children shoved out the way when they stand on the "wrong" side by people who believe that they have the right to walk up an escalator. While it is common practice that people in Kanto stand on the left and leave the right hand side free for others to walk up while Kansai residents generally walk up on the left and stand on the right, this is not an official rule and so Yokohama has tried to address the issue by asking people not to walk. Two months in, the campaign appears to have had little impact. Nagoya introduce the same idea in 2004, with station employees calling out to anyone walking but this also appears to have had little effect so Yokohama has a hard sell. Escalators must be a minimum of 1.1m wide but this regulation assumed users would go up in single file and has not been changed over time. Although escalator accidents appear to be on the rise, the article believes that it's difficult to see how the Japanese public will easily change their ways.Edit: Rather than struggling through the above, you can just read the Mainichi's English version.
