Unnecessary Electricity Usage Edition:

My favorite overblown power tool..... the escalator.
The escalator can go up or down, true.

But stairs have the advantage of being infinitely scalable in speed, simultaneously going up and down, adjusting automatically to the needs of users going either direction, and never breaking down.

Some people would be lost without escalators. Others would just lose weight. An elevator for people with rolling luggage or strollers would do the trick and be only one thing to have to keep running.

According to specifications and OSHA and such, escalators are not stairs and cannot be considered stairs and walking on them cannot be encouraged as the rise/run are too long and out of code.