Broken
January 7, 2008
What’s a broken escalator good for?
“Absolutely nothing, that’s what!” say the Dampoort station officials. The escalator was broken the other day, so they placed yellow warning signs to block it and a sign saying “Broken! Please use the stairs”.
The stairs are right next to the escalator, slightly wider that what is strictly needed for two people to pass, now cramped with about 60 grumpy passengers going up and down, and meanwhile the broken escalator (read ‘other stairs’) stood unused.
I gleefully wondered what whoever put up the sign would do with a broken electric toothbrush.
I no longer find this very funny though after seeing the dangers of immobile mobile stairs this morning. As I was rushing to catch my train in Brussel Zuid, I approached the obviously stationary escalator. Despite the obviousness of its staticity, the girl in front of me stopped suddenly as soon as she reached it. Right foot on the first step, left foot on the slightly higher second step, she started writing an SMS, oblivious to the fact that she was in fact not moving. My highly developed reflexes from crowded folk dancing evenings enabled me to change direction with lightning speed and avoid an almost certainly potentially fatal crash, but a less prepared person might have been less lucky.
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