Miss Manners: Is there a correct way to pass a slower person using an escalator?

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I was leaving an underground transit station and making my way to the escalator to go up to the street when I noticed a tall young man gaining rapidly on me from behind.

We have an unwritten rule that you stand on the right side of the escalator if you just want to ride, and move to the left if you want to walk up the moving stairs. I began to drift rightwards, but he came galumphing up on the right side of me. I stretched out my right hand to take the banister, saying to him, “May I please get on the escalator?”

With great annoyance, he stepped around to my left side and passed me, sternly proclaiming over his shoulder, “Move out of the way for people walking faster than you!”

I could only muster the feeble and not-quite-sensical response, “Not if you pass on the rig