Photo by Rolenz

How does that Mitch Hedberg joke go? An escalator can never break — it can only become stairs. You would never see an “Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order” sign, just “Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.” Seems at least for the time being, we’ll have to repeat that mantra in our head as we encounter every broken Metro escalator.

Starting Thursday night, Metro officials decided that all 588 escalators needed to be inspected to ensure safety, according to the Washington Post. The decision to launch a system-wide inspection comes after two incidents stemming from faulty breaks: one in the L’Enfant station injuring six riders, and another in the Gallery Place-Chinatown station, still under investigation.” In light of recent incidents, [he] decided that a proactive precautionary measure would be in the best interest of safety,” said Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.

But most interestingly, all other escalator repair work will be put on hold, for a about a week, while inspections are completed. This probably also means My thighs are burning already just thinking about it.