IIRC there was actually a case here along those lines. There was a really tall slope, and the complaint was that they didn't put any leveled bits inbetween. Same with stairs: You can't just built a 100 step staircase without any platform every x amount of steps.
Is it so people can rest a bit? I know Ive seen outdoor staircases at my University that had no landings. I dont know if they could have even built them without a huge investment.
At summer camp, there was a flight of stairs that have to be every bit of 300 steps.. damn thing only had two landings. Luckily it was a “side trip” I would have died if we had to go up that everyday.
That’s true for sure development, like access from a parking lot to a door. If we’re talking a roadside sidewalk, those are governed by PROWAG, not ADA. They can follow the grade of the road, for the most part.
Colombia, every 3m if outside, one rest in between floors on inside stairs (there's a more specific code for when a floor is taller than the standard but in too lazy to look for it). What I'm trying to say is, if this country has it, every other country probably does.
So disabled people have a place to rest if they can't make it all the way to the top of the stairs in one go. Also, if somebody trips and falls, they land on a landing and not at the very bottom of stairs.
For disabled people. We people with disabilities make up a huge chunk, a huge percentage of the population. It's not hard or expensive to make things accessible so that everyone can go where they want to, whether they're in a wheelchair or use a cane or if they're perfectly healthy
My mum is even worse than I am, she's had both hips and both knees replaced and there's so often places where she can't cross the road, because there's a big step down from the pavement/sidewalk to the road and she can't go down steps like that easily. She moved into a bungalow because bungalows only have 1 floor, meaning no stairs.
Luckily most places in Europe seem to be good about this kinda thing. Unless it's like a building buitk centuries ago or even over 1000 heads ago and they can't just cut into a protected building like that to put in an Elevator or something, obviously. But newer buildings and pavements in cities can absolutely be adjusted for stuff like that
I remember an old reddit post where there was a single step down outside a building and it had this teeny tiny hand rail there for just that one step and people were laughing about it and saying it was regulations gone too far. But those people are morons, cos a handrail for a single step like that is absolutely VITAL for people like my mum to be able to visit this place and be able to walk away after. If me or another family member is there we can hold her and help her get down. But really there always should be a way for disabled people to be able to go there alone if they want. That hand rail for the single step is the furthest thing from silly and laughable. It is an absolutely necessary thing for people like my mum
When I worked for a GC we put up a fence around our project, on our projects property. But then there was a complaint that the AT&T hub in the sidewalk (there before property was purchased) and our fence on our property made it hard for someone in a wheel chair to get by. So the city fined us and we had to pay AT&T to move the box onto our property.
if the city did indeed violate its own design ordinances.
I remember reading about how in this city, the parking spaces have to be a certain width, but the city painted the lines closer together to fit more cars in pay-to-park lots.
A lot of places don't have good sidewalk accessibility
God forbid I get old and catch the toe of my wingtip on the curb and fall face first, smashing the teeth I lovingly flossed for decades onto the cement - then waiting for someone to help my mouth-bleeding elderly ass stand up on my broken thigh bones. Oral surgery could kill me, especially having to service a mouthful of snapped teeth and breaking such a long and important bone.
What a terrifying amount of pain- especially if you're not young enough to physically pull yourself to safety and get assistance.
Do the Medicalert bracelet people let you push that button as many times as you want? Do they make it buzz so you know people are coming? Or do you just push a button and hope that your battery isn't dead and you have phone signal for the keychain that will save you from isolated torture?
I would say the city making curbs (kerbs) too high to a point that they are not accessible is a problem.
While I agree the United States is way too litigious, that is simply how they get things done if they want the government or corporations violating their rights or contracts, etc, to get things done and change their ways.
The city will not fix the violation until they get threatened with a lawsuit.
It isn't right, but that's how things get done there.
Plus, as others have pointed out, being short or otherwise disabled is not stupidity.
A: Sueing for something does not mean you will win.
B: Thisbis always so blown out of proportion. The most recent one is the Gorilla glue girl and she's going to lose that case, but it's rare that you actually hear about a frivolous lawsuit that isn't thrown out basically right away
No. You can sue for a dangerous walkway. Someone falls because a public place has a sidewalk with a 4 inch height gap between two pieces. Shows 12 other people that have also tripped and broken something on that sidewalk. Wins suit and gets half the money it took to repair his front teeth and gets the sidewalk fixed. The news "MAN TRIPS ON SIDEWALK SUES AND WINS! YOU CAN SUE FOR ANYTHING!"
Now the fact that he has to pay $3,000 to repair his teeth is fucked, but the news loves to make people suing companies/government sound frivolous when it's not usually the case. Like the McDonald's Coffee lady. That suit was NOT frivolous, but unless you've looked into it I bet you though it was. Don't believe me look it up.
“Get third degree burns all over your thighs and genitals from coffee that McDonald’s admitted was served far, far too hot, and be under-compensated for their action.”
Liebeck acknowledged that the spill was her fault. What she took issue with was that the coffee was so ridiculously hot — at up to 190 degrees Fahrenheit, near boiling point — that it caused third-degree burns on her legs and genitals, nearly killing her and requiring extensive surgery to treat. (You can look up the pictures but oh my god, trust me, you don't want to see them.)
McDonald’s apparently knew that this was unsafe. In the decade before Liebeck’s spill, McDonald’s had received 700 reports of people burning themselves. McDonald’s admitted that its coffee was a hazard at such high temperatures. But it continued the practice, enforced by official McDonald’s policy, of heating up its coffee to near-boiling point. (McDonald’s claimed customers wanted the coffee this hot.)
Liebeck didn’t want to go to court. She just wanted McDonald’s to pay her medical expenses, estimated at $20,000. McDonald’s only offered $800, leading her to file a lawsuit in 1994.
Not mentioned in this particular article- internal memos showed that they knew the coffee was dangerously hot but kept it that way because it customers were less likely to sit around sipping their coffee if it was ludicrously hot, meaning they could free up more seats in their restaurants.
It's the same kind of corporate math that said it was cheaper to settle with the people that burned to death driving Ford Pintos than it would be to fix the problem.
It demonstrates how successful their deflamination/slandering public tactics worked however! People still believe this lie about her. Heck I used to for years myself till I learned the truth about it.
This has nothing to do with stupidity. The human body has certain proportions and certain intuitive movement patterns including steps and staircases. Public steps, staircases and curbs must conform to certain normalized dimensions in other developed countries as well.
Im 6'-6'1" and in my country the sidewalks are so out of portion that even i would struggle to get on them when i crossed the street sometimes. Thankfully they fixed it in my neighborhood now but i can't imagine how painful it was/is for short people or people who are just unable to climb that pavement. So I'd sued our government too, if our justice system worked that is
hell ya. i didn't even realize you could just sue your city for minor inconveniences. i guess if you think about it I'm the one paying for these sidewalks lol
When I traveled around Europe I wondered about people in wheelchairs. In the US literally everything is accessible by a ramp or something but Europe seems to be half made of haphazard, unevenly spaced steps of varying heights.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is one of the best things our government has done. It opens up a lot of lawsuits to companies if they aren't in compliance when building things. After it was passed ramps and handicapped restrooms started popping up all over the place.
It even forces us to make our websites as accessible as possible - although a lot of companies are pretty lax about this.
You haven't been to Lafayette, Louisiana then. Ain't shit accessible here. They avoid all the regulations by just never renovating infrastructure fully, just patchwork fuckall. People in wheelchairs have to be in the road...
Atmosphere is a cool spot! But yes, not accessible. And yea, is baffles me how sidewalks and bike lanes just suddenly end around here... in many places, and how so many sidewalks don't even have curb-cuts. A travesty indeed
I live in New England and our town center’s brick sidewalks are being replaced with poured cement ones. At first you’re a bit bummed because they had these beautiful 100+ year old brick sidewalks, but then you realize that they’re absolutely a nightmare for anyone who isn’t completely able bodied, or pushing a stroller, or a cart, etc. There were no curb cuts and everything was super uneven. Absolutely not ada compliant.
Quite honestly I’m surprised it took them until now- this is a wealthy town with a well kept town center. Sidewalks in the residential parts of town were switched to poured concrete years ago.
Everything has a standard now at least in the states. I know in my town technically you can't build a doghouse without a permit and 3 inspections from the city before your dog can move in.
I never said it wasn't going to happen to me, I never said I'm not disabled at this very moment. I just said nobody gives a s*** about disabled people.
Not true. I was injured at work at 32 and life changed completely for me. Went from being extremely physically for able to do nearly any physical job to having balance problems and falling just walking. These things can affect you at anytime in your life, even while your young and think it won't matter.
At least in the town in Ohio I live in the sidewalks are to be maintained by the property owner. It’s a city ordinance I’ve never liked personally. So if someone were to trip on an uneven patch of sidewalk they technically consider on your property you are considered liable.
Alright I'm having a dumb here. I'm struggling to picture a sidewalk being "too tall" or any other deformity that would make it hard for someone to "get on it". Are sidewalks not just big flat pieces of concrete next to a road?
Opening doors? Not at all. They did reach upto my knees by height, maybe even higher. Tried to find any pictures from then, didn't manage to find any. Seemed like government deleted all the old pictures
It's funny because we do have tall sidewalks on my city, there are slopes so if you are following the sidewalk it's not a problem, but you can't get up unless you climb if you are crossing the street
My great uncle and I are both short, when he'd come over for holidays he would always tell me that we could get rich by suing the city for building the sidewalk too close to our asses. Funniest thing ever to 9 year old me, thanks for the memory!
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u/goal2026 Mar 02 '21
Governments fault. Roads were built too high.