Interschool Communication

To: President of CCNY

From: Student Jacob Livianu

Subject: Technical request – Escalators of CCNY

Date: February 15, 2019

The purpose of this memo is to present my opinion on how to quickly and efficiently mitigate the issues that the escalators have on a daily basis. The goal of the escalator is to aid students, guests and faculty to travel up stairs without having to climb flights upon flights for which can be very treacherous for individuals who have issues with their knees or legs. The escalator also alleviates congestion that arises from slow walkers and people having to wait for elevators.

Summary:

The upgrade of components inside of the escalator would be a relatively cheap and viable option for making the escalators run more efficiently and provide longevity towards the system so that we would not need to call repairmen as often to diagnose and fix the issues.

Discussion:

The breaking down of the escalators can be detrimental for individuals who have disabilities that the escalators accommodate. Older individuals are known to have weakened knees due to natural wear and tear of the body. The escalator is a tremendous invention that helps these people because their issue is not walking but rather climbing stairs.

One alternative to escalators are elevators. The reason why escalators are more useful than elevators is the amount of time it takes to get from one floor to another. During busy times of the day, students and faculty can be seen waiting for 10 minutes or more in the Northern Academic Center (NAC) waiting for an elevator to be called to their floor. In comparison there is no waiting for an escalator. This is why they are so efficient on the main floor of the NAC. There is no wait for the working escalator and there is usually a common curtesy of people standing to the right side of the escalator and people walking up to the left.

During peak hours such as lunch time, a broken escalator in the main area is detrimental to the flow of traffic. With a closed off escalator due to repair issues students need to find a separate way to travel to the second or first floor. One solution that maintenance regularly uses when on escalator breaks is to turn off the second escalator so the traffic is split on that escalator. This slows traffic and creates lines and delays. One solution to prevent breakage or components is the upgrade to higher quality and stronger components.

Although the upgrade of components inside of the escalators will cost more in the short term compared to calling our on-site repairman for minor issues or hiring a repairman for more complex issues, in the long term the escalators will not break down as much. This will save time for our on-site repairman and save money on repairmen that we need to hire. Another benefit of using the newer and more efficient technology inside of the escalators is the saving of electricity. One of the biggest reasons why the escalators break down is our use of cheap replacement parts. I am a firm believer of “you get what you pay for.” While talking to one of the repairmen on staff he explained that the school buys OEM or Original Equipment Manufacturer parts although there are better options on the market. With the use of higher quality replacement parts, it will be less likely for a repairman to be on the scenes. On Thursday February 7th, I spoke with one of the head maintenance-men and he explained to me that the most often replaced parts is the chain that runs the escalator. He explained that the reason for this is due to the use of OEM cheap or low quality links inside of the chain which tend to break under heavy use such as during lunch hours.

Recommendation:

Instead of the maintenance having to split traffic on one escalator when the other breaks, we should introduce higher quality parts instead of OEM parts into the intricate workings of the escalators so they are less prone to breaking. With this solution not only would we save time for students and faculty who would usually get stuck in traffic, but we would also not have to get the escalators maintained as often due to the use of higher quality parts that would not break.

I would like to talk to you when you get a chance. I think we should include the school maintenance workers and their opinions in this conversation. Please feel free to contact me with whichever method works best for you,

Jacob Livianu