Did you have explosive diarrhea? Was your baby sheltered in a burning building? Or do you just like to pretend that you're the hero in an action movie starring You and Bruce Willis vs. An Ebola Ridden Terrorist Meteorite? Don't those jerks on the escalator know?! YOU have important shit to do! Oh, the humanity.
Real cities (not just New York - anywhere where there are enough people for basic traffic flow guidelines to be common knowledge) pretty much all follow the rule of "stand on the right, walk on the left". People in real cities also know about walking on the right side on the sidewalk so that people going the other way can pass, or not walking 3 abreast when someone is coming in the other direction who will have to step into the street as you all refuse to break rank.
In real cities, people not abiding by these rules are scorned for being tourists, which they inevitably are.
What's actually hazardous is when some senile little old lady steps off of the escalator and stands motionless at the exit as the conveyor is delivering more passengers to the end.
This behavior is a typical example of the rampant sloth that we face in our nation. The whole point to having an escalator is to make the ascent and descent more efficient, not easier. Just fucking walk, fat-ass!!!
I walk the wrong way down the escalator against traffic, staring everyone I pass directly in eye while distractedly opening and closing a utility knife in my right hand.
Now those imbeciles standing on the airport motorized walkways...
The problem is, then you're living in New York.
In real cities, people not abiding by these rules are scorned for being tourists, which they inevitably are.