Despite popular belief, escalator brushes do not clean shoes.

Many of us have used escalators at airports, malls, or around town. You are probably wondering what intriguing things there are to learn about a moving staircase. Aside from those escalator grooves, have you ever wondered what the brushes on escalators’ sides are for? You understand what we are talking about. Undoubtedly, you’ve occasionally brushed your shoes against them out of curiosity. Surprisingly, they do more than just remove dirt from your shoes.

What are the escalator brushes referred to as?
Please start a drum roll! Escalator brushes, also known as escalator brushes, We understand that this may not be a particularly interesting term. Others refer to them as skirt deflectors, however, because they resemble a skirt if you imagine an escalator in attire. Just joking! The term skirt refers to the space between the steps and the side. This is just one of those strange truths you probably didn’t think about until now.

Why do escalators have brushes?
The escalator brushes are a safety measure. These skirts keep shoes, feet, and loose items away from the gap. If you want, they can act as a warning sign or barrier. Consider that escalator safety is probably not your top priority. Aside from maintaining your balance and scoffing at the individuals sprinting up the moving staircase (news flash: walking up escalators isn’t much faster than conventional stairs), the gap is probably the least of your worries. But an escalator is just a machine, and machines fail. Accidents happen.

How do these brushes improve escalator safety?
Some escalators feature a yellow border as a warning not to come too close to the edges, while others do not. However, all escalators have brushes. The small space (the skirt) between the escalator’s stairs and the sidewalls leads down to where all of the gears that operate the escalator are located. When bags, coats, and even toes become trapped between the motors, the escalator ceases to function effectively (as do your toes). The escalator is powerful enough to do significant harm to human body parts.

Hands or feet stuck in fissures have caused many escalator mishaps. Consequently, they added escalator brushes as a safety feature to either prevent or deflect objects from entering the gap. Maybe we’ll all be a bit more mindful the next time we ride an escalator. Now that you’ve learned all about escalator brushes, figure out which state only has two escalators.