Shane and Cassandra

Maybe I missed something, but isn’t an escalator that is not moving the equivalent to stairs?

On the way to work this morning, I was entering North Station. To get to where the trains arrive, you must go down either an escalator or walk down some stairs. The stairs are situated right next to the “down” escalator. However, this morning (for whatever reason) the escalator was not moving but was not blocked off. There was a herd people trying to get to where the trains come and go this morning since a commuter rail train had just arrived at North Station and dumped off a large number of likely stupid people. It seemed obvious to most that using both the stairs and the non-moving escalator would be a good idea, but one particular woman got very perplexed. As she approached the escalator (which I assume she used on a regular basis), she realized it was not moving. “Ugh”, she said with disgust, “I have to use the stairs”. She proceeded to suddenly change direction and walk perpendicular to the herd, cut off several other people (including myself), and walk down the more crowded stairway which probably took her twice as long.

I can’t figure out why this woman would have avoided the less crowded escalator and disgustedly used the stairs other than she is an idiot. In the words of Mitch Hedberg: “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.”