Commuters are notoriously impatient – late trains and crowds making a commute tense and irritating. This can’t be a great mindset if you are headed to work, or even headed home and just wanting to relax.
Throw into the commuting mix the thought of going up and down a flight of stairs. Trudging with your kids, just wanting to get to your destination. Take the escalator, it will save time; we can take the stairs another time.
But…..what if?….. Yes, what if taking the stairs became FUN? Would we change our minds? Would we forget about the time we are trying to save, and just go for it? This is a question that the clever people at Volkswagen thought long-and-hard about. This multi-national company came up with a concept that they named “The Fun Theory” and set about making the mundane act of walking up a flight of stairs a little bit of fun for the commuters in a transportation station in Odenplan, Stockholm, Sweden. The plan was a simple one, let’s turn the stairs into a giant piano.
Click on the link below and be amazed at the result of this simple but effective scheme to get people to exercise more, and have FUN in the process. The difference in the number of people from the beginning, who all took the escalator and are now happily, and musically, taking the stairs is very noticeable. ‘Chopsticks’, anyone?
