But the escalators carrying the people "down" have the help of the gravity pulling all those people down and the motor works mostly as a brake...if the motors f

But the escalators carrying the people "down" have the help of the gravity pulling all those people down and the motor works mostly as a brake...if the motors fails, it speeds up: https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/uegc45/escalator_breaks_causing_it_to_speed_up_out_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/uegc45/escalator_break... So, if the motor worked as a generator too, it would only use power when turning the empty escalator (because of friction), but when enough people are standing on it, it could actually generate power.