transitory space and crowd control at the muse d'orsay

Today at the Muse d'Orsay I noticed there was far more stairs than escalators, and not just that but most of the stairs went up and most of the escalators went down. Was this some kind of subtle crowd control? The top story of the museum were the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist exhibits obviously the most crowded exhibits in the museum. By having stairs to climb would this slow the flow of people into the space and by having escalators down would this speed people out of the space thus creating a kind of population osmosis?

Or maybe the act of walking up five floors of stairs to see some of the most popular art works of the 20th century is in itself a pilgrimage of sorts? Solnit discussed that after the pilgrims arrived there was not only the reward of arriving but also food and drink stands and cars waiting to pick them up? Could the escalators be an approximation of that idea?