Solving Urban Transportation’s Last-Mile Problem

City Monitor‘s article on Vigo, Spain’s recently installed moving walks came at an opportune time. Covered in this month’s issue of ELEVATOR WORLD, the Project of the Year winner “Mechanical Ramp of Gran Via Vigo” saw thyssenkrupp Elevadores S.L.U. install six top-of-the-line moving walks to transport up to 7,300 people/h. The rest of the story, it seems, include six more new outdoor moving walks, with a further dozen to come this year.

The article offers an interesting history of public escalators and elevators, which it calls “the most popular daily form of mass transit, used by over a billion people each day.” With more and more heavy-duty outdoor vertical-transportation equipment, Vigo is fast becoming a model for accessible urban last-mile excellence.