Readers turn thumbs-down on plan for escalators at O’Hare and offer moving-stair horror stories
In last Sunday’s column, I took issue with a key feature of the competition-winning design for the planned $2.2 billion Global Terminal at O’Hare International Airport: its heavy reliance on escalators.
Escalators can’t be used by people in wheelchairs. They also pose a challenge to frail people who rely on canes and walkers to steady themselves. In addition, escalator rides often cause injuries; travelers lugging wheeled suitcases lose their balance on the moving stairs and fall.
Many readers responded with their own escalator horror stories, including a passenger pileup at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport that resembled a chain-reaction car accident.
The Global Terminal design, from a team led by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, proposes having departing travelers ride up escalators to a raised check-in and security floor, then take escalators down to gate level. That’s a break from the layout of O’Hare’s existing domestic terminals, which allow departing travelers to get from curbside to gate on a single level.
City officials stress that Gang’s design for the Global Terminal, which will replace O’Hare’s Terminal 2 and is scheduled to accommodate international and domestic flights when it opens in 2028, is conceptual and can be changed.
Here’s a sampling of readers’ reaction to the plan’s use of escalators:
Your column brought to mind an incident that my wife and I experienced at JFK’s international terminal 7 or 8 years ago.
We arrived from Rome on a Delta flight. Another flight had arrived at the same time, so the corridor was jammed with passengers heading to the down escalator to customs. This escalator was long and steep. Immediately in front of us, a woman in her 80s fell to her knees as she stepped onto the escalator.
As the escalator headed to the lower level, a man in front of her tried to get her up but couldn’t. I moved past my wife and tried to assist him. As people were yelling for the escalator to be turned off, we could not get her up.
When we got to the bottom, the man fell, the old lady was already down, I went down, my wife fell on me, three more people fell on my wife and FINALLY the escalator was stopped by a passenger.
Laying in the human pile. I looked up and saw and an escalator full of people. I have no doubt in my mind that if the escalator had not been stopped, we would have been killed.
Four of us were injured. The Port Authority police told us that accidents occurred daily on this escalator. The following year they opened a new international terminal and tore down the old one.
The new terminal has gently sloping ramps from the arrival level to Customs. No more escalator.
— Tom McGreal, Chicago
An observation after five years working at O’Hare — It surprised me how many customers were unfamiliar with escalators, luggage or not.
Foreigners, Americans from truly rural and single-story retail environments, young children and others can be flummoxed by moving stairs.
— Conrad Pomykala, Chicago
You mentioned wheelchairs, canes, walkers, etc. Don’t forget baby strollers. Some people have two babies in a stroller. They would have to take the babies out; fold the strollers; carry the strollers, the babies and their luggage up the escalator; schlep to the security area; then repeat it for the return trip.
People might be tempted to push the stroller with the baby in it onto the escalator. Not a good idea. Have you ever seen what happens when a stroller gets stuck on a crowded escalator? I saw that once at a suburban mall. It was not pretty.
A woman who was in a hurry was trying to catch up to her idiot husband, who had jumped on ahead of her on a down escalator without helping with the little one. She quickly pushed the stroller onto the escalator — it got stuck in the wrong position, and the crowd behind/above her started to fall on top of her and the stroller, while the idiot husband watched from the bottom of the escalator. Fortunately, a quick-thinking friend of mine ran over and smacked the stop button.
I could see this happening at O’Hare. The St. Paul-Minneapolis airport has had wide, gently sloping ramps for years. They work fine.
— John Albergo, Chicago
Having recently “caught” my mother-in-law as she and her luggage started to tumble down the escalator above me, I can personally attest to the risk they pose to the less agile/mobile amongst us.
One element you failed to explore … how well will the escalators be maintained?
If my experiences riding the (Chicago Transit Authority’s) Red and Brown Lines are any indication, at least one of the escalators along my route will be out of service, leaving this 69year-old catching his breath at the top of a staircase everyday.
Perhaps maintenance and outages aren’t considerations in the world of architecture but they certainly are for those of us who are impacted!
— Peter Quagliana, Chicago
What about moving ramps? Stationary ramps? More elevators? In Germany last year, the train station had many elevators. Made sense when people are moving luggage . ... Why can’t we move people safely and quickly?
— Dudley Chappell, Chicago