Escalator

An escalator is a moving staircase—a conveyor transport device for carrying people between floors of a building.  Escalators have the capacity to move large numbers of people, and they can be placed in the same physical space as one might install a staircase.  A non-functioning escalator can function as a normal staircase, whereas many other conveyances become useless when they break down.

Escalators at Vienna's Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof train station.

Quotes

• People standing on escalators!  And that is a testimony to human laziness!  I mean, the guy who invented the escalator is just, probably, kicking himself in the ass.  Do you think the guy made the escalator so people—and they're made like stairs—just so people stand on it so you go up and down?  You're supposed to walk on 'em so you get there faster.  You know?  And then people stand on there.  So every time I'm on an escalator, I'm just like, "Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me, pardon me…."  You know?  That's my pet peeve, right there.  And I'm gonna do something about it, and I'm urging you to do something about it!  Write your congressman, get a group together, get together, and—I think we can do something about this.
  • Krist Novoselic, video interview, early 1990s
• An escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. You would never see an "Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order" sign, just "Escalator Temporarily Stairs". Sorry for the convenience. We apologize for the fact that you can still get up there.
  • Mitch Hedberg, Just for Laughs, 1998