The brushes located at the level of the steps of the escalators are more useful than it seems and no, they are not used to polish your shoes…
Accessories or useful details? It is in the second category that the brushes installed along the escalators must be placed. And don’t think these brushes are for dusting shoes – a bad idea for light-colored shoes that might come out dirtier than clean from this quick brushing.
These brushes, also called plinth deflectors, systematically present on both sides of the steps of an escalator, are in fact part of the safety measures of the escalator.
But what do these brushes that often go unnoticed or question more observant children protect us from? Simply the thin space between the end of the step and the side of the escalator, a hole that opens directly into the gears and motors that allow the escalator to move up or down.
If the space is thin, a piece of clothing or worse a finger or toe quickly gets stuck in it, causing significant damage to the escalator machinery, but above all serious accidents to users. And such mishaps have happened to children who have fractured their fingers, or even had their fingers amputated in the worst case.
If the escalator brushes do not completely block the hole, they act as barriers and above all alert the user who would approach too close to the edge or whose scarf would be on the verge of getting stuck. Who hasn’t been startled by that tickling feeling or just being hit by something on the escalator steps and moved a few inches?
If this has happened to you, it’s because escalator brushes do their job daily and ward off danger. Often these brushes are lined with yellow lines around the edges of each step, but with even more discreet marking than the skirting board deflectors, the brushes seem to be better alerts. Knowing this, perhaps you will stop bringing your shoes closer to these brushes to try, in vain, to clean them.
