Innovative interventions in the planning and design of stair and escalator facilities call for understanding their effects on stair use. This study considers five planning variables for the twinned stair and escalator facilities–stair pitch and width, angle of deviation, height and separating distance. Public sites were identified in 8 commercial districts in Beijing. Facilities (n=21) presenting heterogeneously across variables were sampled for simultaneous up and down pedestrian counts in 18 5-minute video segments middays, for a total of 1464 counts. Stair width accounts for 20% of the variance in ascending rate and 10% in descending. Plan angle accounts for 2% in ascending and 5% in descending, while pitch accounts for 1% in ascending and 5% in descending. The study confirms the effects of layout and design of stairway and escalator facilities on facility choice. The results point directly to interventions in support of higher stair-climbing rates.

(1) Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is a prognostic factor regarding long time morbidity and mortality. To assess CRF the well-known gold standard is cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), which is a time consuming and expensive test. Therefore, alternative methods for routine evaluation of CRF are needed for the general population as well as for specific patient groups such as children and young adults with congenital heart disease. The Stair Climbing Test (SCT) is a simple and resource saving test reported in the current literature. This test is used in various settings to assess different health associated risk factors including cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular resilience, therapy effectiveness or pre- and postoperative morbidity and mortality.