Does Seattle need ‘mobility slides’ added to its staircases?

Seattle is becoming well-known for its support of alternative forms of transportation. So maybe slides aren’t out of the realm of possibility.

Early this week, amid a flood of tweets about the jaw-dropping debate between our two presidential nominees, Seattle Department of Transportation City Traffic Engineer Dongho Chang sent this question out to his more than 2,000 followers:

Could Seattle's public urban stairways be enhanced with mobility slides? https://t.co/kZJNJnEVDP

— Dongho Chang (@dongho_chang) October 10, 2016

It’s an interesting question for Seattle, especially in a city where leaders are always trying to find ways to improve mobility.

The idea, which stems from a post in WebUrbanist, is based off of a slide at a suburb railway station located in Utrecht in the Netherlands. The intention of that slide — called a “transfer accelerator” — was added during reconstruction of the station to allow commuters to “quickly descend the station stairs and access platforms.”

Here’s a video of it in use.

Urban slides outside of the playground aren’t exactly a new idea. Just take a look at The SkySlide fixed to the side of a skyscraper in Los Angeles. But that’s more on the side of entertainment.

One could argue that Seattle has enough stairs to justify a study. But what is the likelihood that some kind of slide program would be successful? Other, somewhat out-of-the-box ideas haven’t worked so well in the past.

Those self-cleaning public toilets that were going to revolutionize how we relieve ourselves ended up being a financial disaster.

The city’s bike-share program was — some hoped — going to connect more people with transit. So far, that program hasn’t necessarily been money well-spent.

The other question would be: are Seattleites so lazy that they no longer want to walk down stairs?

Well, the city is working to change its bike-share fleet to all electric. At least one man in the Netherlands would argue that, yes, people in Seattle and the United States are that lazy (just look at the caption).

On the other hand, those city slides have become a hit.

Maybe if Seattle adds slides fewer people would miss their light rail trains. And the city could start promoting itself as a board-game friendly city, once the giant games of “Chutes and Ladders” start up.

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