Steps

Steps are a sim's means of travelling up and down one floor at a time. They are useful for reducing the transit burden on elevators, and can be stacked on top of each other. Steps and elevators cannot overlap each other, but they overlap most rooms. Steps have an infinite capacity, but only support a certain amount of continuous traffic. There are two types of steps in Sim Tower.

Stairs
Stairs are available from the start of the game. They cost 5,000 to build and have no upkeep cost. Sims will only travel up or down 5 levels to reach their destination using stairs. For example, if you are using stairs to access offices and fast food is located on level B1, the highest office should be on level 4.

Escalators
Escalators are available once a tower achieves a 3-Star Rating. They cost 20,000 to build and have a quarterly upkeep cost of 5,000. Escalators can only be connected to lobbies, food, and retail spaces. Sims will travel up or down up to 7 levels to reach their destination using escalators, although in practice most sims will only use 5 escalators before giving up. Escalators are a preferred method of travel over stairs, albeit with a placement restriction and a higher cost.

Restrictions
The total number of stairs and escalators in a tower cannot exceed 64.