The other day, I noticed something interesting (at least to me). I was in the engineering building, tromping up a few flights of stairs, when I had a moment of realization. The higher the level, the less worn the stairs were. Also, the wearing occurred on the right-hand-side. I thought about causes for such and I could only come up with a few reasons.
First of all, people are naturally lazy. Let's face it; most of us are more likely to take the stairs, if we only have to go to the second floor (notice that I previously said the word "few" when referring to the number of flights I was headed up). The third floor is less likely and above that is a rare occurrence. "Hmmm" is all I have to say to that.
As for the specific location of the wear and tear, this could be due to the fact that our transportation system is set up in such a way that we drive on the right-hand-side of the road. It seems like we are accustomed to choosing the right (ha, CTR... :/). I'm not sure whether this is exactly connected to driving and stair climbing, but I noticed that people tend to stay to their right when walking, as well.
Is this different in other countries? If we were to drive on the left-hand-side of the road would we go up stairs and walk about differently than we do now? Can any of you (who have been on missions or have traveled to to other countries) answer my question? I am very curious. Is there some sort of psychological reason for the above mentioned or topics of the like? Perhaps, I can do a Google search of some sort....
It is fascinating to analyze human kind-- the way we think and our habitual ways. We are definitely an interesting species!
1 comment:
You know I noticed this stair phenomenon also while I was attending college at BYU. It was also interesting to me that there were always fewer people on the upper floors. It was like people would only go up if they absolutely had to, basically forced by the arbitrary lack of good classroom assignment. I found many secret study and quiet places in these upper chambers. I also compared it to how heaven may work. The higher you go the path is less traveled. Interesting...I think so too.
You can also see more travel by the hand rails which meant people were seeking support. I do think the the right/left thing could be due to our system of driving. I always wondered did more people walk up or did more people walk down? When they walked up were they more likely to walk down? If they road the elevator up would they walk down? How often? It would make an interesting study. At least there would be two of us that would be interested in the results. Quirky!? Probably.
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