Interesting. There are a lot more physically fit and able bodied using handrails just because they’re there than I imagined.
I should have differentiated up vs down. Standard stairs have about an 8 in step, with 8 in riser. That is plenty of room going upward to catch the toes and ball of your foot, which is the major support zone. Whereas coming down, that is just short enough that heels get in the way and can prevent many people from getting their toes and ball of foot on the step.
When I was a tad younger and fitter, I frequently would take steps two at a time, especially downward. Nary a concern. Now that I’m older and chunkier, I have to take my time more to keep from getting winded.
The key to rapid descent was foot placement. You can’t go for the heel against the riser, you have to angle your legs so your feet step along the length of the stair.
Aeons ago I had surgery on my knees, and even though I can basically do everything just fine now, going down stairs is hard. I really don’t have enough knee stability to justify not using a handrail.
But truth be told, I’d use it anyway, because I’m hyper safety conscious like that.
I live on the fourth floor of a walk-up, and travel on the El at least twice every day, which is a three-story stair climb. I always skim my hand on the rail, just in case I trip or someone else does nearby, nothing like a game of human dominoes!
My back stairs, I do grip more often. It’s all wood deck, and I think they skimped a bit when they built it, so I feel like the steps are just a tad narrow and the risers are just a tad taller, so it’s a bigger step up or down, and the ball of my foot lands just a bit more over the edge than I’m used to. I don’t like those stairs at all, and avoid using them at all to go up, but use them at least once a week to take trash out the back - so I’m also always carrying something awkward, too. I completely missed a step once in the dark, and it was a very good thing I already had a grip or I likely would have broken something.
I am physically fit (27) and use handrails, although not so much for the support; I tend to go up stairs two at a time and use the handrails to sort of pull myself up.
I’m 53. I am not quite “mobility impaired” - but my knees hurt a lot going downstairs. Also, my right knee sometimes freaks out on me, and refuses to work properly. I always hold on to the handrail - just in case.
When I was young I ran up and down the stairs with ease, and never held on.
I’m a fat, middle aged woman with bum knees, balance issues and trifocals - I use the rail both up and down if there is one. On stairs without, it’s either a cane, a companion or very slow going. On a few steps with no rail, toddler style (one at a time).
I live part time in a second floor walk-up and don’t carry anything up or down that requires both hands.
Physically fit, I dare say ninja-ballet-acrobat-gymnast-esque ;). Even cats fall of the table however, and I’ve had some stupid doozies that make me wonder how anyone ever survives to old age. So it’s handrails for me.
I use them at home mainly for a sense of security. Sometimes I’ll trail my other hand against the wall.
If I’m in a public place, I get grossed out about germs. If I don’t have a long sleeve that I can pull down over my hand, I tend hover over them or try to hook my wrist over them so they’re close just in case of emergency.
I’m somewhere between “able bodied” and “physically fit” (it depends on how, exactly, you define your terms).
I’m also clumsy and can trip over a line in the carpet. And I’m mildly phobic about heights. So I use the handrail more often than not both to keep myself from falling on any stairway and on high stairways to keep myself from freaking out about how I might plummet to my death at any second.
Well, crap, so now I see I needed to factor in options for relative clumsiness, factors for sensitivity to heights, factors for prior injuries or other psychological backgrounds, etc. :mad:
I’m still impressed by the number of people who use them regularly even though they don’t feel they require them, just on the “justincase” principle.
