Choosing between stairs and escalators in China: The impact of location, height and pedestrian volume

OBJECTIVE: This research examines whether Beijing residents are more or less likely than Montréal residents to avoid stair climbing, by replicating a study in Montréal, Canada that measured the impacts of distance between stairs and escalator, height between floors and pedestrian volume on stair climbing rate. METHOD: 15 stairways, 14 up-escalators and 13 down-escalators were selected in 13 publicly accessible settings in Beijing. Distance between the bottom or top of nearest stair and escalator combinations varied from 2.1 m to 114.1 m with height between floors varying from 3.3 m to 21.7 m. Simultaneous counts were conducted on stair and escalator pairs, for a total of 37,081 counted individuals. RESULTS: In the ascent model, pedestrian volume accounted for 16.3% of variance in stair climbing, 16.4% when height was added and 45.1% when distance was added. In the descent model, 40.9% of variance was explained by pedestrian volume, 41.5% when height was added and 45.5% when distance was added. CONCLUSION: Separating stairs and escalator is effective in increasing stair climbing in Beijing, accounting for 29% of the variance in stair climbing, compared with 43% in Montreal. As in the Montreal case, distance has less effect on stair use rate when descending. Overall, 25.4% of Beijingers opted for stairs when ascending compared with 20.3% of Montrealers, and for descending 32.8% and 31.1% respectively.