What Are You Trying to Say, Stairs?
Hey Team,
I work in an office, and while most of the cautionary whales use the elevators exclusively, I occassionally dabble in a hobby I call "Using the Fucking Stairs."
What I don't like dabbling in is madness:
Now, our stairwells have other signage as well. The classic "No Smoking", and "DEAR GOD HOLD ONTO THE RAILING." Now, those seem a little silly, but fine, it's a legal thing. And it wasn't really until the 1990's that people stopped smoking in office buildings [Ed--gross, right?]. But this guy...what are you telling me?
Cameraman, bring it in for the closeup:
The colour blue generally denotes non-mandatory information. Yellow means caution, i.e.: you could break something. Red means warning/danger, i.e.: you could break yourself. Blue is kinda neutral (in North America). So, we're in an FYI situation. But...what information are you for, signage?
It is clearly a picture of a flight of stairs. It matches the physical surroundings (see above). The area that can be walked on with standard human feet indeed has steps, and the underside of the flight is indeed smooth.
However, the signage seems to imply that the steps, where feet go, can only be used to travel upwards. To travel downwards, one must ...slide down the underside of the stairs? Gravity won't allow that bullshit. You won't slide at a downward diagonal, you'd just fall down onto the steps below. Though because the sign is blue, it's not saying you MUST use the underside to travel downwards. Just that it's an option. Possibly a best practice?
Wait, let's back up. Do the arrows denote travel direction? Or simply which way the user should be facing while using the means of conveyance? Therefore implying that the stairwell is best ascended traditionally, facing the direction of travel, but descended by walking backwards. This would then double the import of the "HANDRAIL!" signs (which are yellow, denoting caution). Following this train of logic [Ed--pfa, what?] when using the smooth side of the stairs, one should be travelling headfirst, belly down. But that doesn't solve the gravity issue.
Oh, shit, this entire analysis assumes the sign is for humans.
I, FOR ONE, WELCOME OUR NEW MACHINE OVERLORDS.
-Julia out