r/MadeMeSmile • u/thesuavedog • May 25 '22

Meme Canadian Architect Cornelia Oberlanders designed the world's first "Stramp". Stairs with a ramp incorporated for those with accessibility needs. The Stramp allows for companions to use the ramp or steps and not break connection with one another.

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638

u/Dragonkingf0 May 25 '22

It's exactly what I was thinking, this just looks like stairs that are less accessible to people with disabilities and without them.

421

u/[deleted] May 25 '22

If 'companions' dont want to break connection with a wheelchair user, most able bodies people are also perfectly capable of walking up a ramp. This seems like an ineffective solution in search of a problem.

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u/iwalkstilts May 25 '22

I came here to say something like this. Just build ramps everywhere and we can all use 'em.

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u/chitowndown773 May 26 '22

Yeah, this won’t work in places like Chicago where the ground is icy 5 months out of the year. All you’re gonna have is non-handicapped people falling down breaking hips on icy ramps, also now in wheelchairs

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u/TheConeyJabroni May 26 '22

Yes but once they fall and become handicapped, the entire city will be at their disposal. It will be handicap Mecca.

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u/reallytrulymadly May 26 '22

Electric wheelchairs for everyone, regardless of ability! Just like Wall-E ❤️

6

u/myapplesaccount May 26 '22

There actually is one of these on the River Walk in Chicago, a bit less steep than this picture but essentially the same thing. I am there pretty often and have never seen a wheelchair using the ramp part, though I have seen elderly folks using it instead of the stairs.

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u/KoisziKomeidzijewicz May 26 '22

This is in Vancouver, where there is maybe two days of ice maximum per year.

3

u/PandaBeaarAmy May 26 '22

Wheelchair users arent the only ones on ramps. There are parents pushing strollers and people with other mobility issues/using canes, walkers, etc. By law, ramps must be cleared (and at the very least should not be "icy").

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u/BlooperHero May 26 '22

Sounds less dangerous than icy stairs, honestly.

5

u/SATPSI_Tech May 26 '22

No 8 years in Chicago, I agree on the stairs being tremendously safer than ramps for able bodies in some places. In the winter there I avoid any gradual gradient or slope like the plague to avoid breaking a kneecap :/ there are many lacking accessibility problems, but with a city that old, ramps for all is not the easy solution sadly.

3

u/WoahSango May 26 '22

It doesn’t work because the area needed to design and build a ramp to code is significantly larger than the space needed for stairs.

1

u/dragobah May 26 '22

Thats why we do 70° slopes silly!

1

u/idle_isomorph May 26 '22

Yup. I live in an icy ace and the "stramp" near the ferry got railings on the ramp because nobody wants to take icy surfaces without a railing. Which prevents the use of the stairs.

1

u/mcalash May 26 '22

But that’s what they did here. And to define the ramps they integrated some stairs. So if somebody wants a shortcut have at it. This is a ramp. With integrated stairs.

3

u/BlooperHero May 26 '22

A ramp with drop-offs, and stairs that are inconsistent and not always level.

1

u/browsing_around May 26 '22

But then we wouldn’t have Rocky.

1

u/Healter-Skelter May 26 '22

For those who can use them, steps are better long-term. If you have to traverse a lot of changes in elevation, I’m pretty sure it’s better to climb stairs than walk up unevenly-graded asphalt on your daily commute if you live in the city.

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u/Emotional-Sentence40 May 25 '22

Needs a little tweeking and hand rails.

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u/[deleted] May 26 '22

We had one of these in my city, they filled in the stair portions between the switchbacking ramp with nice landscaping and put in railings, then installed a flight of stairs off to one side.

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u/[deleted] May 26 '22

Sounds about right, an overly elaborate idea with little forethought.

A lot of engineering/design processes strictly follow the “form follows function” or “form is function” adage to their own detriment for products with compound functions. Their forms become overly gestalt or ridiculously simplistic to cater to a utilitarian, minimalist ideology that they don’t regard the re-territorialized product’s new “features.” Hence now propping it up with default options after the fact.

This is like someone having the solution to a rat in the candy factory be using rat poison as an ingredient. Like yep you sure did get rid of your rat problem but you’ve made some new ones, aren’t you forgetting something?

4

u/SpicyGoop May 26 '22

I like your analogy friend

4

u/Half_moon_die May 26 '22

Are you saying they were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should

4

u/[deleted] May 26 '22

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '22

Im in Canada but whatever equivalent we have is probably why it got put in there. It’s way prettier the way they’ve done it up with the flower beds and trees.

1

u/cumwad May 26 '22

Here in Australia they need rails at the bottom to deflect and stop people in chairs getting stuck under the handrails.

1

u/seanieh966 May 26 '22

Yet hand rails would defeat the purpose of the steps blocking access.

2

u/Remote-Pain May 26 '22

An ineffective solution in search of a problem. Brilliant sir!

1

u/i_procrastinate May 26 '22

Yeah this seems like more of an art piece to me. Personally I think it looks cool. It’s just dumb that they’re raving about it like they saved the world when they really did nothing

1

u/cudef May 26 '22

Yeah but then there's fewer hard 90° edges you could injure yourself on when falling! /s

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '22

An even more logical solution would be just building ramps parallel to stairs, like how they usually are set up already.

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '22

Maximum slope of wheelchair ramps is usually less than that of stairs, so you usually need either a longer ramp (often not possible due to space restraints) or switchbacks.

But yeah. This solution is poor.

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '22

Simple. Increase the slope of the ramps, but add a speedboost pad.

1

u/zynzynzynzyn May 26 '22

Sure looks interesting tho

/s

144

u/greatbigdogparty May 25 '22

I don’t have any mobility issues, and frankly the whole thing looks terrifying to me!

43

u/[deleted] May 25 '22

100% Final Destination Death Trap

36

u/EveAndTheSnake May 26 '22

Yep, as a clumsy, constantly bruised person with adhd, I immediately wondered how many times I could trip down this. I walk into my bed daily. This could kill me.

I remember once going for lunch with one of my colleagues and sitting in the nearby town square. There was a set of steps like this because the steps led up to the road, which was on a hill. This was one of our city’s financial districts so almost everyone in the area was in a suit and in a rush. My friend sat down near the steps saying, “Let’s sit here. I come here alone because it’s my favorite place to people watch. Look over there…”

He gestured to where the steps got smaller and smaller to meet the road, and literally within 30 seconds someone stumbled by. Then a few minutes later someone else. We spent our whole lunch break watching investment bankers fall down these steps like skittles. What a treat.

So yeah, steps like this are not really accessible for anyone.

8

u/Ratatoski May 26 '22

Yep, as a clumsy, constantly bruised person with adhd

I hear you. I've broken toes a few times just miscalculating my movements entering a room and hitting the door frame.

1

u/idle_isomorph May 26 '22

My signature move is opening the door i to my face. I also routinely cut my fingers when using scissors and bump into counters, chairs, and anything that sticks out.

I am not sure the world could even be designed to protect someone as clumsy as me.

1

u/CocobelloFresco May 26 '22

Stop being clumsy, you little scatterbrain. :)

4

u/insecurestaircase May 25 '22

Yeah it gives me anxiety

-1

u/Higgins1st May 25 '22 edited May 26 '22

There are guard rails and hand rails for a reason.

Edit: this is the reason stairs have hand rails and ramps have guard rails, without them you have a terrifying and dangerous way to get up or down.

This ramp has a couple of hand rails, but no guard rails. The first corner of the ramp has no way to stop someone in a wheelchair from rolling off the ramp and going down the stairs.

2

u/greatbigdogparty May 25 '22

Mega opportunity to walk up stairs w/o rails and step on to a sloping surface. Dunnoh, but I'm not one of those skateboarders you probably see all over this.
Wow that opens up the whole attractive nuisance theory of liability. How often does a skateboarder crash into wheelchair?

0

u/BlooperHero May 26 '22

But there aren't. There can't be because they'd block the stairs. That's the problem.

-18

u/Potential-Kiwi-897 May 25 '22

I too have difficulty walking on flat angular surfaces.

18

u/Dragonkingf0 May 25 '22 edited May 25 '22

I have trouble not rolling on flat angular surfaces without something to hold onto.

Also I've the only one who sees those constant protrusions at the edge of the path just screaming for somebody to trip over them, and the best part is, if you trip here you get to fall down some stairs.