Calling the handrail police!
A few days in Porto made me realize that I should stop complaining and learn to adapt to a different world with different standards.
A decade ago, when I was writing for Treehugger, I used to have a “stair of the week” column where I would show really attractive and welcoming stairs that would encourage people to use them instead of elevators. With tongue firmly in cheek, I also threw in a few of what I called “deathtrap stairs” that were architecturally interesting but obvious killers, which would draw the attention of the “handrail police” who complained about my choices. Example:
Now that I am ten years older, my thinking has evolved. As Kelly and I wander through Porto, I wonder where the handrail police are. Yes, the topography is tough and the buildings, paths, and stairs are often centuries old.
But even in museums, there are often stairs without handrails. This one, The MMIPO - Museu da Misericórdia do Porto, no doubt attracts an older crowd. Very surprisingly, no handrails.
No handrails at the Museum of Transport and Communications, but then it had no transport or communications either, it was basically empty, so there are not a lot of people to fall down the stairs here.
Credit is due to the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis for trying, although it is pulling off the wall at one point and breaks every rule about handrail design with all the sharp jogs and discontinuities, it is certainly better than nothing.
The real craziness happens outside. Here, a restaurant is filling the stairs with tables, and pedestrians have to work their way up the ramps on either side. I am not saying where this is because the restaurant is wonderful, but people live up here! This isn’t just a problem for old people; anyone can crack their head after slipping or missing a step. My mom did, and I worry about it all the time.
The streets are often so steep that even they need handrails, and I was surprised to find one that actually had one.
Even our absolutely fabulous AirBnB, designed by a talented architect, has a tough winder at the bottom yet no continous handrail. The bath is upstairs and the bedroom down, and negotiating this at night was tricky.
Lisbon has a different problem: magificent marble sidewalks that turn into skating rinks when it rains. I was beginning to think that this entire country is a deathtrap.
Yet the statistics say I am wrong; according to one study I found, Portugal has fewer falls per 100,000 than Canada, and way fewer than other countries in Europe. The people who live here clearly know how to walk in these conditions and how to cope.
Perhaps the real lesson here is that I should stop being a cranky old tourist and walk more like the Portuguese do. I used to say that just getting out there and walking or climbing makes your legs and heart stronger, and makes you more comfortable on your own two feet- As Peter Walker noted in his book “The Miracle Pill” (my review here)
"Staying active as you age is a huge predictor of how likely you are to remain healthy and independent. Regular physical exertion has been shown to affect everything from strength and balance (and thus the likelihood of falling) to bone mass and cognitive ability, as well as the risks of developing all sorts of debilitating illnesses.”
They do a lot of climbing here in Portugal, developing and keeping that strength and balance; perhaps that is why they are comfortable and I am not.
But also as Kelly says, I should just look where I am going.
There are not many better predictors of healthy aging and a long life than the number of stairs (height of the hills) you climb in a day. If you can make that climb without relying on a railing the benefits are even better because of the balance required. We spend too much time and effort trying to make our physical life easier as we age (like eliminating stairs in homes for the elderly and making elevators/escalators the only real choice in many public spaces for example). The more we learn about aging well the more apparent it becomes that continuing to challenge ourselves physically as we age is critical to achieving that goal.
That said, there is a significant and growing percentage of the population that relies on aides like stair rails to be able to meaningfully participate in our society so we should be doing what we can reasonably do to make sure they can continue to do so. That requires money and the private sector has little motivation to step up absent a profit motive, regulation or insurance risk so if we want it to happen we should all stop voting in politicians who’s only promise is to lower our taxes while gutting the public service sector.
Pay good attention to Kelly, Lloyd.