Escalators that detect footfall?

 

I’m watching a modern mainland Chinese drama on YouTube that was aired on Chinese TV in 2015.  There’s a scene involving taking the restaurant chef to the hospital for his skin allergy.  I see that the escalators carry on moving even when there’s no one around.

    This makes me think:  why not design them (escalators anywhere, not just in hospitals) so that they only start moving when people approach or step on the lowest step, rather like ceiling lights that go off after x seconds when there’s no movement in the room?

    This should save some energy (and therefore bills as well, so it’s economical, not just ecological).  I think there’s an escalator at a London Underground station (Liverpool Street?) that already does this:  I thought it’d only started to move as I stepped onto it a fortnight ago when I was there.

    Smoke detectors do that, and they’ve been around for a while.

    Automatic doors (in shops, supermarkets and hotels, just to name three off the top of my head) that slide open at the approach of a human being have been around for decades, so why not escalators in the 21st century?

   

    My nearest Tube station, Manor House on the Piccadilly line in north London, does not have that many people throughout the day.

    The London Underground Tube system is so vast there must be loads of other stations (outside central London / Zone 1, or even Zone 2) that have very slack footfall stretches outside peak time.

    I was once in conference with someone in a classroom at the university, in the late 90s.  As we were just sitting there, discussing the text for translation, not moving at all, the lights would go off after a certain duration.  We had to start waving our arms about to set off the movement detectors.

    So, why not escalators in the 21st century when even AI (artificial intelligence) is so advanced?

(2025)