One-way systems - good and bad

[duncanp]

I was in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago and you could leave New Street Station by the main entrance onto Smallbrook Queensway but you couldn't enter the station there. Someone guards the entrance and tells people they must use the walkway to Stephenson Street.

However, at Stephenson Street you can both enter and leave even though it's more of a confined space. To enter, you must use the doors at the Navigation Street end and then double back along the narrow concourse.

It's another station where you need to be aware of the procedure if you're a bit pushed for time, especially if you arrive by taxi.

And of the three sets of doors into the station from Stephenson Street, they make you walk all the way round to the very last set of doors, right on the corner of Navigation Street, before you can enter.

Or at least they were yesterday when I went past there.

Perhaps it will be different today though, as the configuration of entrances and exits seems to vary with the availability of staff, rather than whether it is "safe" for passengers.

However you can sometimes enter directly from Smallbrook Queensway, usually either first thing in the morning before the security staff have turned up, or last thing at night after they have gone home for the day, or if you are railway staff and happen to be mates with the jobsworth guarding the entrance.

Funny how the big bad killer virus doesn't seem to active early in the morning or late at night and it is "safe" to enter the station using all entrances. Perhaps someone should tell the government about this.

Presumably rail staff have some natural herd immunity which means that it is "safe" for them to enter via Smallbrook Queensway at all times. I saw this happen, and yet when I tried to enter the station by the same door the jobsworth made me go all the way round to the other side.

 

[AdamWW]

Funny how the big bad killer virus doesn't seem to active early in the morning or late at night and it is "safe" to enter the station using all entrances. Perhaps someone should tell the government about this.

Actually that make a lot of sense to me. Any advantages of a one-way system are not likely to be there when there are very few people around.

The one-say system in Cardiff Queen Street is fairly benign, but it does amuse me when getting off a train along with the one other person alighting I then have to walk closely past two security guards enforcing the one-way system, which is two more people than I would have walked past if they weren't there and we were all left to our own devices.

 

[johntea]

Just stepped off a train at 9c at Leeds

‘Please use stairs at other end of platform’

But I’m off for another train on 17b! I can’t use the other stairs as I’m then not allowed to use that footbridge to get down to 17b!

Luckily there was nobody guarding the 9c stairs...

 

[Mugby]

Just stepped off a train at 9c at Leeds

‘Please use stairs at other end of platform’

But I’m off for another train on 17b! I can’t use the other stairs as I’m then not allowed to use that footbridge to get down to 17b!

Luckily there was nobody guarding the 9c stairs...

If there had been someone guarding 9c stairs, you would have had a very long walk indeed.

I suspect the extra staff who've been hired in for stair guarding don't have a clue about the layout of the station - and they certainly don't do discretion!

 

[Mojo]

Went to Beefeater’s last night and was sat in a corner of the restaurant and advised when we sat down that there was a one way system in place. Instead of walking directly to the toilet past no other tables we were instead to go round three corners of a square passing 7 other tables on the way.

You’re also banned from using the normal entrance/exit to get out, instead you are ordered to use one of the fire exits and walk around the perimeter of the building to get back to the car park. Unfortunately the only way past is by walking under a leaking gutter directly above the door.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Ever since the major refurbishment (when the stairs to the subway were moved from concourse to platform 1) Huddersfield has had a one-way system clearly marked by signage on both staircases. This worked on what I assume is the UK standard of everyone keeping to the left, the same as our roads and railways (mostly) do.

Once COVID hit, for some reason it was decided to reverse this, so the old signage has all had to be covered over with paper and parcel tape. This despite things like mirrors at the foot of each staircase being set up for conventional left-hand walking.

Admittedly prior to the change a lot of people ignored the signage or just thought they were too important to observe it, but those same idiots are still doing that anyway.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Stonebridge Park station in London:

At the gateline, there are floor markings, indicating you should be on the right-hand side. On entering the station, only the extreme right-hand gate is set for entry. About three paces beyond the gateline, a passageway on your left takes you to the northbound platforms. The floor markings in said passageway indicate you should ‘keep left’. Those same three paces beyond the gateline, a staircase directly ahead leads to the southbound platforms. Again, arrows on the floor indicate you should walk on your left, and blue stickers on the actual stairs (from pre-Covid days) say ‘keep left’.
So if the rules were strictly followed, all inbound and outbound passengers are *required* to cross each other’s paths in a small space where even two lines of single-file passengers can only just pass comfortably, even in normal times.
Not been there in rush-hour, but it’s difficult even in off-peak times to not see the absurdity of the system!

 

[island]

At Woolwich Arsenal DLR the southern (Woolwich New Road) entrance is exit-only and the northern (Powis Street) entrance is enter-only. Every other turnstile is locked out but (at least when I went through yesterday evening) the others were open and unstaffed. Numerous people ignored the no-entry signage at the Woolwich New Road exit-only and were unable to touch-in (unless they thought to use the standalone validators near the Southeastern platforms).

 

[Shimbleshanks]

I had words with the landlady of one of our local pubs. The bar was open for the purpose of placing orders but everyone was drinking outside. But to get to the (inside) toilets, you had to enter the pub at one door and walk the entire length of the quite crowded bar area to reach them, a couple of yards beyond the other door. So I decided to disobey the one-way system for all of two yards, passing nobody as I did so, and got a right bollocking for my pains.
Won't be going there again.

 

[holl1984]

My local germ breeding site (soft play centre) reopens on Tuesday and one of the rules they are introducing is a one way round the play frame rule. Would love to be a fly on the wall to see how that’s going to work!

 

[BJames]

My local germ breeding site (soft play centre) reopens on Tuesday and one of the rules they are introducing is a one way round the play frame rule. Would love to be a fly on the wall to see how that’s going to work!

Presumably this has been decided by someone who has never stepped foot inside a soft play centre. Or anywhere involving small children.

 

[Hadders]

At Dalston Kingsland station earlier there is a reduced number of ticket gates available (I think it was 2 each way, with the others taped off with hazard tape). This slows down the flow of passengers in the cramped concourse area such that they then end up bunching while waiting to go through the reduced number of gates, meaning it was far more difficult to observe social distancing.

At my local station all ticket gates are still open in what is a similarly small concourse, staff are behind newly installed plastic screens and everything seems to run far more smoothly.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Just got back from Aldi. A new green/red light feature has been added at the main entrance: Green = Please enter the store, Red = Please wait patiently.

And there was no ridiculus one-way system

 

[Bletchleyite]

Just got back from Aldi. A new green/red light feature has been added at the main entrance: Green = Please enter the store, Red = Please wait patiently.

And there was no ridiculus one-way system

Most Aldis and Lidls (at least those with an even number of aisles which is most of them) have a natural one way system anyway. When it's busy going the wrong way is essentially physically impossible anyway, if you need to go back you go to the through bit in the middle (or the till end) and reposition yourself in the correct direction.

 

[PupCuff]

Crewe station, as I found out this afternoon. Get off the train at the north end of 5 and want to grab a takeaway on Nantwich Road? Up onto the main footbridge and out the door, turn left? No. Trek down Platform 5, all the way down Platform 3, turn back on yourself and down the ramp into the Subway, round the corner, either wait for the lift or drag your luggage up some stairs, out the doors, the road's ahead of you but no, turn right and through the car park, left onto the main road, follow the main road back on the road bridge over Platforms 1-5, and you're at the main entrance where you could have been five minutes ago. -_-

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Crewe station, as I found out this afternoon. Get off the train at the north end of 5 and want to grab a takeaway on Nantwich Road? Up onto the main footbridge and out the door, turn left? No. Trek down Platform 5, all the way down Platform 3, turn back on yourself and down the ramp into the Subway, round the corner, either wait for the lift or drag your luggage up some stairs, out the doors, the road's ahead of you but no, turn right and through the car park, left onto the main road, follow the main road back on the road bridge over Platforms 1-5, and you're at the main entrance where you could have been five minutes ago. -_-

But, you didn't catch COVID-19 did you, so boxes ticked and job done!

 

[PupCuff]

But, you didn't catch COVID-19 did you, so boxes ticked and job done!

Got my steps up good too, had to have a large takeaway to make up for the calories I'd lost...

 

[Richard Scott]

But, you didn't catch COVID-19 did you, so boxes ticked and job done!

Didn't think you could catch COVID-19 anyway, isn't it the disease that develops from the SARS-CoV-2 virus?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Didn't think you could catch COVID-19 anyway, isn't it the disease that develops from the SARS-CoV-2 virus?

You're right, of course, but in common parlance, it is COVID-19 that you don't want to be catching.

Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it

An explanation of the official names for the corona virus disease (COVID-2019) and the virus that causes it.

www.who.int

 

[DelayRepay]

The most frustrating one way system I've encountered in is my local Morrisons. They don't have a one-way system in the actual store, but they do have one for getting from the underground car park into the shop.

For unknown reasons, the 'up' travelator is taped out of use - presumably to avoid people briefly passing others travelling in the opposite direction. Instead you are instructed to use the lift. I don't think either of these is particularly high risk, but on the balance of probabilities I would rather pass someone briefly on the travelator than share a small, un-ventilated metal box with other people.

I last visited a few weeks ago and they still had this arrangement in place, despite the requirement to wear face coverings and most of their other restrictions being removed.

 

[trainophile]

Currently at Birmingham New Street, sat by the exit opposite the NCP multi storey car park (using the wall socket).

There’s about 10 people on the whole concourse, yet two security guards stationed by the doors telling people (two so far and I’ve been here 20 minutes) that they should come in one one side of the John Lewis escalator and not the other, which is presumably for leaving by. There’s barely a soul in the whole station. (Perhaps those annoying announcements about avoiding trains is putting them off!)

 

[johntea]

So this was something utterly ridiculous I came across whilst in Reading over the weekend

...a one way system on pedestrian streets, involving wasting council money by 'NO ENTRY' painted on a street, ooh scary! Predictably absolutely everybody was ignoring this nonsense

Reading Borough Council

Reading Borough Council

www.reading.gov.uk

 

[johnnychips]

^ Same in Sheffield. All these mysterious crosses 2m apart, and these great one-way systems down The Moor. Everybody completely ignores them.

 

[js1000]

I find some of these one way systems to be peculiar and counter-intuitive. The obsession with one-way systems mean a quieter route is often discounted or forgotten about when it is infinitely better.

The route from platforms 13/14 at Manchester Piccadilly is a prime example. Everyone is funnelled through the congested satellite lounge and onto the travelator.

You'd be better segregating people who disembark from trains on platform 13 to walk down the steps to platform 11 (where it's deserted) and to the ticket gate.

But hey we must have a one-way system because they are cool.

 

[Westcountryman]

At the quay end of Poole High Street, the council, in their wisdom, have placed 'keep left' stickers on the pavements on both sides of the road. However, to make social distancing easier and to make cycling easier they have shut the road to vehicles. So people have the whole width of the road and two pavements to maintain distancing. Of course you still have to make way for the bikes. While I was there the other day I saw precisely 0.

 

[Pete_uk]

Arrows have been painted with spray cans in my town on pavements, one side one way the other side the other.

Mostly ignored of course!

 

[talldave]

Arrows have been painted with spray cans in my town on pavements, one side one way the other side the other.

Mostly ignored of course!

It's legalised vandalism.

 

[Mojo]

Has anyone been to Marylebone station recently?

I was there this evening and could not work out how to get to the platforms. I entered the station and saw an arrow telling me to go to the left (ie. walk down towards the sports bar) and kept thinking I was getting to the end of the retractable fabric barrier to let me cross over and go back towards the platform because it was black and at a distance it just disappeared into the background. Once I got nearer it became clear that the barrier was just carrying on. Eventually because my train was about to go (and it was on platform 4 so I had a long walk once through the gateline) I had no choice but to duck under and head toward the gateline. There was hardly anyone at the station and none of the gateline staff or BTP said anything to me.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

For unknown reasons, the 'up' travelator is taped out of use - presumably to avoid people briefly passing others travelling in the opposite direction.

Reading this reminds me of a realisation I had yesterday, following the one-way markings at Euston Underground station. There isn’t any real inconvenience or increase in walking time. Yet when you reach the escalators to the Northbound Victoria and Northern line platforms, passengers are encouraged to stand on the right on both the downward and upward escalator... putting you in much closer proximity to others than if standing on the left.

 

[adc82140]

My local hardware shop has split the shop in two. So if you want a can of paint and some electrical stuff, it's impossible. You have to pick up your paint, pay for it, leave by the side entrance, re enter the shop, follow the other half of the one way system, pay for your electricals, and leave by a different side entrance. They are hardly busy in there, would have been much easier just to have a maximum number of people in the shop rule.