# Take The Stairs You Lazy Bastards **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 16, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412 "2005-02-16T20:33:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/41 "2005-02-17T01:44:12Z")
I work on the eleventh floor and I often (maybe three or four times a week) DO take the stairs. It’s good exercise. I hate the jerkfaces who ride the elevator to the second floor, though. To add to the trivia over passes and getting into an office from the stairwell, the tenth floor of my building is the only one that doesn’t have a pad for key card swiping in the stairwell. What’s on the tenth floor? The regional FBI office. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/42 "2005-02-17T01:45:25Z")
The only time I did this was when I was working at the Heinz Center here, and the only stairs for the first two floors were these wire-scaffolding type stairs, where you could see through them to the floors below. I have a terrible fear of heights, and I couldn’t go up them without freezing and getting scared. So I used the elevator. Usually, it wasn’t full, and I was there before the place opened, so it’s not like I was holding anyone up. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/43 "2005-02-17T14:22:15Z")
Well, I’m guilty in my apartment building, but, by contrast, I set a fine example in the parking garage at work. My apartment building has four levels including a separate grarage/lobby level; but I take the elevator up to my first-floor apartment because the stairs are out of the way (and my hands are usually full). But at work I can’t abide the slow elevators in the parking structure, so I walk down five or seven stories with all my stuff for work in my hands. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/44 "2005-02-17T14:36:32Z")
We’ve recently moved to the first floor, but when my office was on the second floor, I was guilty of taking the elevator sometimes. Why? I have arthritis in my right leg and hip, and sometimes stairs will exacerbate the hell out of it - for some reason, the climbing motion is a bad one for me, as is walking down the stairs because it puts extra pressure on my hip. There’ve been times I’ve already been hurting, decided to take the stairs anyway for the hell of it, and have been in incredible pain for the rest of the day. I don’t LIKE to take the elevator when the stairs are faster, but if it’s a choice between taking the elevator a floor or walking the stairs and hurting for the rest of the day, I’d rather take the elevator. Unfortunately, I also live on the third floor of an apartment building. That can make me hurt for the rest of the day without any way to avoid it. I love falling apart at the age of 30. E. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/45 "2005-02-17T15:00:45Z")
> [@Ass For A Hat](#): > > Here’s a big “fuck you” to the Grand Harbor Hotel, Dubuque, Iowa. You obviously haven’t seen the Julian Inn. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/46 "2005-02-17T15:02:11Z")
Whoops! Forgot the relevant part! > [@Ass For A Hat](#): > > Worst > Hotel > Ever ---
**Author:** ![Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ass_For_A_Hat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/47 "2005-02-17T15:15:17Z")
> [@Little Bird](#): > > You obviously haven’t seen the Julian Inn. 🙂 As a matter of fact, I stayed there on my wedding night. I would stay at the Julien every night of the week before I even went near the Grand Harbor again. The Julien is much cheaper, has character, TWO elevators, a decent bar and doesn’t have an ass-load of screaming kids. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/48 "2005-02-17T16:47:44Z")
Don’t forget the prostitutes! Karaoke, too. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/49 "2005-02-17T17:10:43Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > Yes, but pulling out and using your card key suggests some presence of mind that would not be there in a panic situation. So I believe the primary reason for locking the doors in the stairwells is fire safety. Nope, it’s security. (BTW, I’m a structural engineer) Next time you’re in a stairwell, notice how all the doors on the upper floors open _into_ the stairwell and the ground floor exit door opens _out_ from the stairwell. That’s the fire safety part, not the locking. I mostly see the locked stairwells in taller buildings with ground floor security. My building doesn’t have that type of security and, therefore, no locked stairwells. But, you’re right, the stairwells pretty much have nothing flammable in them plus there are at least _two_ of them so there’s an alternate route if one is blocked. (you know the old rule about feeling to see if the door is hot before you open it, right?) Plus, in many building, the stairwell is a large part of the building frame so it’s one of the most sturdy places in the building. (which is why most tornado drills instruct you to take refuge in the stairwells, no windows and extra reingforcing) ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/50 "2005-02-17T17:32:17Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > There’s nothing flammable in the stairwell; everything is concrete and steel. Yeah, that was the old idea. Too bad it doesn’t work that way all the time. People in Chicago died in the county building fire, trapped in stairwells. They were above the fire and went to exit, but could not go down past the fire, and they were trapped in what became a hot and smoky area and died. The firefighters were told they were there. I do believe the regulations here changed that week. The news on the radio played clips of Mayor Daley saying that the companies would damn well unlock the stairwells now, and if they are worried about security, pay $8 hour for the guards they needed until they could make other security measures. In the recent LaSalle building fire, there were reports of some entering the stairwell and then going back into the main building when they could not make it safely out of the building. No one died in that fire. The firefighters also used the new methods for search and clearing the building before concentrating on the fire. ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/51 "2005-02-17T17:37:45Z")
It seems to me that secured stairwells would actually be a fire hazard. If there’s a fire, how in hell does the fire department get in to fight it? We had a situation here where the lobby level stairwell door was locked from the outside (i.e. we could get out but not in), which was really annoying for those of us who prefer the stairs (I work on the 4th floor, so it’s not much of a climb). We used the “firefighter access” arguement to get building management to unlock it. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/52 "2005-02-17T17:40:29Z")
[This article](http://www.securitymagazine.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP __Features__ Item/0,5411,126953,00.html) explains what happened inthe county building fire. > [@](#): > > This evacuation was initially described as smooth and orderly, but by the time the descending occupants reached the 12th floor, they encountered thick, black smoke, as well as a stream of occupants heading up the stairwell. But because all stairwell doors were locked on the stairwell side as a security measure, no one could re-enter a higher floor. Survivors reported that in the time it took them to climb back up to a higher floor, they were overcome by the smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Phedre\_no\_Delaunay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@Phedre\_no\_Delaunay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phedre_no_Delaunay)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/53 "2005-02-17T18:04:20Z")
> [@Jadis](#): > > For security reasons, a lot of buildings will allow you to enter the stairwell to walk down, but you can only go all the way to the street level exit. The doors leading to other floors don’t open from the stairwell side. This is so that someone doesn’t scam their way in to an office suite and then use the stairwells to navigate to other floors What is to stop someone from scamming their way into the building then navigate to other floors via the elevator? I’m missing something because I’ve never been into a building like this. > [@The Devil's Grandmother](#): > > I go to an annual convention that is invariably in a hotel that has no stairs to or from the ground floor. Wouldn’t this be a fire hazard? What would someone do in fire? Go down to the second floor then jump out a window? ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/54 "2005-02-17T18:20:06Z")
> [@Phèdre nó Delaunay](#): > > What is to stop someone from scamming their way into the building then navigate to other floors via the elevator? I’m missing something because I’ve never been into a building like this. In most buildings of this type, typically you will have different companies occupying different floors of the building. When you get off the elevator you have to go past a receptionist to get into the actual working areas. In some cases, where a company might occupy 2 or 3 floors, the elevator is programmed so that it will only stop on the floors with a receptionist, unless you have an employee access card to allow you onto specific floors. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/55 "2005-02-17T18:25:14Z")
> [@Phèdre nó Delaunay](#): > > Wouldn’t this be a fire hazard? What would someone do in fire? Go down to the second floor then jump out a window? I don’t know who the hotel bribed to get this plan past the building inspectors. I’ve often thought there must be some way out that I’ve overlooked, but I’ve looked for stairs to the ground floor several times and not found them. ---
**Author:** ![Jadis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jadis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jadis)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412/56 "2005-02-17T18:30:09Z")
> [@Phèdre nó Delaunay](#): > > What is to stop someone from scamming their way into the building then navigate to other floors via the elevator? I’m missing something because I’ve never been into a building like this. As **FatBaldGuy** said, in many cases, when you get off of the elevator, you’ll be dumped into a reception area that’s manned by someone. In my building, however, since we don’t have a central reception area, the building is constructed in such a way that the elevators dump you into a small lobby on every floor. To get from the elevator lobby into the actual office area, you either need to have a card key or there’s a phone provided in each lobby that you can use to call someone to let you in if you’re visiting or meeting someone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-stairs-you-lazy-bastards/290412.md?page=2)