How to Get People to Take the Stairs

Researchers monitored 13 stairways and 12 pairs of escalators in seven connected shopping centers in downtown Montreal. A total of 33,793 pedestrians were counted ascending or descending over 35 days. The researchers found that increasing the distance between a stairway and an escalator by 100% accounted for 71% variance when shoppers were going up, and 21% of variance when they were going down. Overall, that’s a 95% increase in stair use. — Environment and Behavior, July 2015