I KNEW there was something suspicious about that escalator.....

[Chan790]

4. DC Metro shuts off the escalators during high-attendance events for that reason.

I remember how many people here on DU were pissed that the escalators were off before and after Obama's inauguration. There's an etiquette to escalators in DC, one that tourists are not always mindful or aware of. Even on auspicious days, it's a working city. All those places that tourists like to go see: Library of Congress, US Capitol, White House, Congressional Office Buildings, Smithsonian, Supreme Court; not so much the monuments...those are places of employment, we're trying to work.

Stand on the right, people passing on the left. The locals will shove you if you're in the way because you're supposed to stand on the right. We're not on vacation, the fact that the POTUS is changing actually means more work for most people in the federal government, everything's more crazy...and tourists are clogging up the escalators and causing people to miss trains, be late to work, etc. Fights and assaults break out. Metro Police had learned the lesson long before then.

Turn off the escalators and people automatically use them like stairs without much thought in a rather orderly and efficient manner.