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，上下班路上常常会发生许多令人抓狂的事情，沙丁鱼罐头一般的地铁车厢只是其中之一罢了。

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陆人。她不能容忍的是，地铁扶梯上人们总是站错位置。

“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岁的她说：“电梯是提高我们出行效率、节省时间的，并非休息的地方。在上下班高峰时段，我经常看到许多游客用大件行李挡住了路，有的人还在电梯上闲聊家常，这让我不胜其烦。”

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承认自己没什么耐心。她说：“香港的状况要比内地城市好得多，在内地‘左行右立’的标识形同虚设。”

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”这种扶梯礼仪背后的逻辑显而易见。即使你想在上下奔波的过程中喘口气，或者只是放缓脚步，你也应该替他人着想，为赶时间的人留下足够的空间，以便其疾行追赶列车。

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.

在包括北京和伦敦在内的许多城市中，扶梯上会贴有“左行右立”标识来疏导人流。（澳大利亚是个例外，在那你应该靠左站立。）但一些城市出于安全考虑，禁止人们在扶梯上行走。例如，香港地铁就用站内广播就提示，禁止乘客在扶梯上走动。尽管如此，在这个快节奏的大都市里，大多数人还是会遵守“左行右立”的礼仪。

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.

这或许是因为在自动扶梯上行走的人们已经占领了道德高地，就喜欢指责那些挡路者的自私自利。

“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.

纽约地铁的“常旅客”汉密尔顿•诺兰在网上论坛“高客网”上写道：“身强力壮的人乘坐下行电梯实际上是浪费了身后人们的时间。”一语道出了许多人的心声。

“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.”

他说：“他们自以为是地认为人们应该放慢脚步，享受闲适，然而这可能导致身后所有人错过了本可以赶得上的列车。这些乘客不得不在站台上再多等几分钟。那些时间都是一去不复返的宝贵光阴啊！”

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.”

但那些选择在扶梯上站立不动的乘客也有为自己辩护的理由，他们告诉那些行人不要那么没耐心。在最近一则有关扶梯礼仪的报道中，BBC援引了一位“站立者”的话：“如果十万火急，为何不选择走楼梯？即使在电梯人满为患、乘客无法动弹的情况下，我还是能看到那些着急的人嘟嘟囔囔地抱怨自己无法通过。”

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.

无论你居住的城市还是旅行目的地奉行着怎样的扶梯礼仪，切记要“随大流”并时刻为他人着想：与他人之间保持礼貌距离；不要在扶梯两端徘徊；如果别人挡住了你的路，说一句友好的“借过”就可以了。