Escalators

The La Independencia neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia sprawls up a hillside, leaving the inhabitants to walk up to 10 flights of stairs every day. An ambitious development program is considering building an outdoor network of escalators.

The small town of Perugia, Italy has left its traffic worries behind by implementing various driving restrictions and transportation solutions like escalators and a "minimetro".

Escalators are major energy wasters, so many cities are looking for greener solutions. 35 new green escalators were recently installed in the New York Subway, with mixed success.

This article from Next American City looks at escalators -- the expensive, energy-intensive, and often under-used transportation mode.