So there’s a seldom-used escalator well in the middle of my building.  Running 7am-6pm.

Now, we know escalators never break, they just turn into stairs.  If you’re going downward, it’s basically the same thing.

If you’re going up, “just stairs” are fine for the first two or three floors.

Of course, it’s fine if you’re going up 8 floors to have the thing be automated.

So how about this: motion-sensor activated escalators, so they’re off unless you walk across the sensor, and since you know the exact travel time of an escalator passenger unless they’re also walking (forward or backward, with or against the escalator’s direction) you know when to turn the thing off (say, the approximate travel time, plus a couple seconds, immediately following the most recent crossing of the first sensor on the thing).

Mostly this is for power-saving.