# Why do elevator steps diverge and converge the way they do?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 14, 2002, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865 "2002-08-14T16:45:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/1 "2002-08-14T16:45:35Z")
When you get on an elevator, the 1st step and the one in front of it are basically flat. But immediately after you get on, the step in front of you starts to rise. (I’m sure all of you know how an elevator works). But I notice that the step doesn’t go straight up. Instead it juts out like a trapezoid. Finally, when you’re at the top it closes in the same fashion.
I can’t figure out why they’re designed this way. For one thing, it seems that people’s feet have a better chance of getting caught this way. I think that it would be safer if the step went straight up and then came straight down or even if it closed like a trapezoid in the opposite direction.
Any ideas?
(I tried to draw the examples but it didn’t work.)
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### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/2 "2002-08-14T16:48:21Z")
Do you mean escalator?
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### Author:  [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/3 "2002-08-14T16:48:32Z")
Do you mean an escalator?
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### Author:  [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/4 "2002-08-14T16:48:34Z")
I think you mean escalator. An elevator is the box you get in that goes up and down. Sorry I can’t answer your question
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/5 "2002-08-14T16:49:52Z")
Are we talking about an [escalator](http://www.howstuffworks.com/escalator.htm)?
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/6 "2002-08-14T16:50:11Z")
Not to nitpick, but I’m pretty sure you mean an **escalator**. 🙂
It doesn’t go straight up because it’s moving forward and upward at the same time, so it goes at an angle, forming the trapezoid. I think.
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### Author:  [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/7 "2002-08-14T17:12:09Z")
How embarrassing. Yes, I meant escalator. And KneadToKnow’s link is excellent.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/8 "2002-08-14T19:34:57Z")
A quintuple simulpost. I am in awe.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/9 "2002-08-14T20:50:30Z")
If only I’d gotten that second web-browser open sooner, I’d have been first! 😉
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/10 "2002-08-14T22:18:53Z")
The reason they flatten out is that it is immensely safer to have a flat plane dissapearing into the hole at the top then it would be to have a series of steps disappearing intact into a hole; think about it - if you didn’t step off in time, the rising step would snag and sever your foot as it entered the aperture - this is even more noticeable on downward moving flights.
It would be almost exactly like a very large meat grinding machine.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/11 "2002-08-14T22:20:56Z")
Oops, I see I’ve misunderstood your question.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/12 "2002-08-14T22:24:04Z")
There’s an excellent explanation of the mechanism here; you can see why the risers have to be angled - it’s all to do with the way that they interlock and that as they start to climb, their horizontal spacing decreases.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2002, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/13 "2002-08-15T01:19:02Z")
Next question: why do up to 1/3 of the pedestrians who are walking on the left (as opposed to standing to the right) suddenly STOP when they are about 5 feet from where the escalator stops? Does it not occur to them that if they stop, everyone behind them has to stop and on short notice the whole left lane is brought to a halt? Do they not read the signs that advise even those “standing to right” to step off, not ride off, the escalator?
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2002, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/14 "2002-08-15T01:41:51Z")
AHunter, we don’t have those signs in DC - in fact, Metro recently said they don’t want **anyone** walking on the escalators. Ever!
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### Author:  [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2002, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-elevator-steps-diverge-and-converge-the-way-they-do/123865/15 "2002-08-15T04:56:34Z")
[How escalators work…](http://www.howstuffworks.com/escalator.htm/printable)