watch your step

Please watch your step and hold on to the sanitized handrail.

The friendly tape recorded message that greeted me as I stepped onto the escalator at O’Hare. The handrail was spooling out of a little contraption -- that was sanitizing it, I guess -- with a video screen on the endcap that was playing some kind of “Welcome to Chicago” video.

I wonder if there’s been a decline in handrail use (and maybe an increase in falls from escalators?) since word got on the street that escalators handrails are germ-ier than port-o-potties. (Lord knows I haven’t touched them since I got the memo.)