Luggage escalator, railroad station, Coburg, Germany

Luggage escalator, railroad station, Coburg, Germany
Originally uploaded by rllayman

In his comment to the previous entry, w mentions the existence of luggage escalators at train stations in Germany. Here is an image by Gretchen Meyers. Imagine if there were something like this at the National Airport and Union Station subway stations.

Again, by building in considerations for different types of rider demographics into your planning frameworks, and not limiting your consideration of best practices to only your own locality, you can maintain, strengthen and extend livability and quality of life not just for residents, but for everyone. But if you look at these issues within extremely narrow confines, you're not likely to do much of anything new or better.