MathJax by default doesn't use $ as a delimiter for inline equations, but instead uses \( and \) to avoid confusion with monetary quantities. Perhaps a similar thing could be done.
Off the top of my head, I feel that using that syntax would increase the chances that you would run into issues trying to differentiate between escaped characters and expressions, though it's an interesting recommendation (and if MathJax has been able to make it work, I'm sure it's feasible).