Motion Activated Escalators in TTC or in the City

Hi, I was wondering long time ago about this topic. 20 years ago while visiting in Europe I saw them using motion activated escalators for the first time. Since lots off counties use this power saving technique. In TTC on some stations I see escalators just working and no people around. This is just a waste of electricity and also wear and tear of the equipment. Why doesn't TTC or the City will install those sensors to stop the escalators when nobody around. I tried to research a bit but didn't find too much information from North America about those. Anybody knows more about the topic?

Here is a few videos on how it works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xwA5Qqt1Fw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLDoJPzr6jQ

The escalators at the Old Mill Station used to be that way. Even switching directions as needed. No longer, they are up at all times nowadays.

They used to have them in the Montreal Metro (and may still do) in a few less-used stations and I think I saw them in Washington DC a couple of years ago. I suspect the motion detector is just one more thing to go wrong and the TTC has pretty busy escalators so maybe best to devote $$ to keeping them running. It is also possible it can't be retrofitted and is only possible on new escalators with variable speed motors?

I'm almost positive I've seen them at Pearson, but you don't notice them because of how busy it is

I'd also imagine it could be harder on an escalator, to have the motor changing speed like that

There are motion activated escalators in Terminal 1.

whatever said:

I'm almost positive I've seen them at Pearson, but you don't notice them because of how busy it is

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Yes, Pearson T1 has had them since it opened. They don't really completely stop, just go very slowly.

DSC said:

They used to have them in the Montreal Metro (and may still do) in a few less-used stations and I think I saw them in Washington DC a couple of years ago. I suspect the motion detector is just one more thing to go wrong and the TTC has pretty busy escalators so maybe best to devote $$ to keeping them running. It is also possible it can't be retrofitted and is only possible on new escalators with variable speed motors?

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Some of the montreal stations, it's insane how deep they are. It would be really physically challenging to get out without escalators (seriously).