From “Escalator Myths and Fears,” posted on the website of the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation.

MYTH: The biggest myth about escalators is that you don’t have to pay much attention to them.
TRUTH: Escalators are six-ton moving machines and should be treated as such. Pay the same attention to an escalator as you would to a moving bus.

MYTH: Escalators can reach out and grab you.
TRUTH: No part of an escalator can do this.

MYTH: If an escalator is standing still, it is just a set of stairs.
TRUTH: Not at all! Escalator steps are not the correct height for normal walking and should not be used in that manner.

MYTH: Children often think that the steps fall into the basement and have to be restacked every morning.
TRUTH: Escalator steps move on an endless chain system. At the bottom they rotate under and over the underside of the chain to reappear at the top.

MYTH: The steps will flatten out and all the people will slide down.
TRUTH: This is impossible. Each step is a full triangular structure consisting of tread and riser supported on a track and cannot flatten out.