"I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience." - Mitch Hedberg
Turns out this isn't true. A Boston subway station had a pretty grim escalator failure a month or two ago[0], where the escalator broke and the stairs started to free-fall backwards piling people at the bottom.
