8 ms·
Vancouver’s ban on the doorknob
- test9394 13y agoTypical Vancouver approach, ban all the things to sound more richeous. "Best place on earth" yeah right.
- iLoch 13y ago...That's pretty sour. Come on over, we'll grab a Tim's and talk things out.
- lostlogin 13y agoExactly. Keep everything legal and just sue each other. Much better.
- untog 13y agoShrug. On the balance of things, I still think Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the Western world. Maybe not so affordable, but still.
- moomin 13y agoIf you have kids on the way, I highly recommend knobs over levers for the exact reason Vancouver is specifying the opposite: they're harder to open. Between 1 and 2, it's invaluable.
- fatman 13y agoAgree 100% - but now that mine are a bit older, I'd like to replace them all with levers so I can open them with my hands full of laundry, kids, bags, toys, etc...
- igravious 13y agoSo patent the knob to lever transformer thingy.
- atwebb 13y agoWouldn't you just need a lever with a C shape that snaps of the existing knob with inner padding for grip and different handles?
- umsm 13y agoGrips wear out... Just have two holes on the lever which can be used for drilling pilot holes and then screw in 2 screws.
- jlgreco 13y agoJust take some clamps used for woodworking and slap those on. Some of those come with racketing mechanisms and can hold for very long periods of time (often necessary, since sometimes people clamp wood into place for months at a time).
- atwebb 13y agoI'd think the grips would wear out due to friction which should be minimal in what I'm thinking. Something that is a no tool install would sell much better.
- chronomex 13y agoIt's already been done. https://www.ncmedical.com/item_187.html https://www.ncmedical.com/item_187.html
- igravious 13y agoDamn you North Coast Medical - I thought I was rich, rich I tells ya!
- eco 13y agoI replaced the knob on my garage door with this one which opens with basically any manipulation of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odA_OaVA0PU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odA_OaVA0PU I also installed this magnetic door stop on the same door. http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Hardware-Magnetic-Doorstop-Nickel/dp/B0011N0LP4 http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Hardware-Magnetic-Doorstop-Nic... These two combined have given me godlike powers of grocery transportation.
- adolph 13y agoSaw a demo the other day of a lever that you can also push and pull: http://brinksppr.com/ http://brinksppr.com/
- jtbigwoo 13y agoChild-proof covers for lever door handles work pretty well and cost less than $10. They also can keep clever pets from opening doors with lever handles.
- jlgreco 13y agoHow many people have pets or children? How many people are incapable of operating a door knob? It seems to me that having the first group all buy $10 adapters per door will almost certainly be more expensive than having the few people who cannot operate door knobs buy lever handles.
- tomkarlo 13y agoWith an aging population, there's going to be a lot more people who have trouble with doorknobs (due to common arthritis and other impairments) than those who have kids young enough to be stumped by doorknobs but not levers (say 3-5 years old) or dogs who turn lever handles. (So maybe 10% of homes.) It's not a "few" people who have trouble with doorknobs - it's probably close to 20-30% of your overall population and maybe 30-40% of households. E.g. it's about 1 in 5 Americans who are impacted by arthritis (of some form), plus you have people with repetitive strain injury and other non-arthritic conditions who will also benefit from lever handles. Compare that to the relatively small fraction of people in wheelchairs and this seems like a no-brainer compared to ramps.
- jlgreco 13y agoOld people have trouble with falls too. Maybe we should ban slick bathtubs, tile floors, and raised floors.
- tomkarlo 13y agoFloors and their traction level are in fact already regulated as part of ADA for many buildings. And there's tons of building codes regarding your residential bathroom for similar safety issues - minimum clearances, height of fixtures, anti-scalding valves, types of glass. As others have pointed out, the entire building code is basically a balance between cost and safety. Anything having to do with egress tends to get extra attention, as well. If there was a zero-cost way to prevent slips and falls, it might well end up in the building code, yes.
- DanBC 13y agoInstall the levers upside down, so you have to lift them, not pull them, to open.
- mprovost 13y agoA lot of older houses here (NZ) have the door handles about 3/4 of the way up the door, about chest height for an average adult. I always assumed it was to keep them out of reach of children. In modern times they've moved down to waist height, most likely for accessibility. Which also makes them accessible to kids and pets.
- dmix 13y agoI'm curious if all regulation will eventually turn from a blacklist approach into a whitelist one? When every minor detail is finally legislated, the logical end-game is to be told what you can do at every point, instead of simply what you can't. Note how in this example, it's not just about "banning" door knobs, but about requiring levers.
- mhurron 13y agoThis looks to be about as 1984 as ADA is. This whole thing appears to be an accessibility issue.
- jerf 13y agoSpecifying it for all government or public construction is ADA-ish. Specifying it for private residences is more in the 1984 direction. I say "in the direction" because no, I don't think this is a boot stomping into our face, forever. But it is heavy handed. Hardly unprecedented, of course. Pushing out "accessibility" requirements into the general home market is something we've not done for good reason; it's an expense incurred quite widely for little societal benefit, unlike public spaces. We can't afford to make every residence everywhere handicapped-accessible, childproofed, elderly-appropriate, etc etc. Private residences do have variance due to the variances in people.
- nknighthb 13y agoI don't know the intricacies of Canadian code enforcement, but in the US building codes for private homes are only relevant at a few points: New construction, substantial renovation, certain not-wholly-private use cases, and certain types of financing when buying. New construction is where it's strictest. In a case like this, your contractor may have to install handles to pass inspection, but nothing stops you from changing them out for knobs if you want to.
- jerf 13y ago"In September, Vancouver council adopted new amendments to its building code, effective next March, that, among other things, will require lever handles on all doors and lever faucets in all new housing construction." ... "Will Johnston, the former Vancouver chief building inspector who wrote the changes in consultation with the building industry, doesn’t see this as the inevitable death of the doorknob because the rules aren’t retroactive. People can also still buy doorknobs and put them back on lever handle-equipped houses."
- shittyanalogy 13y agoBut but but, handles get caught on your pant loops.
- protomyth 13y agoI'll go a bit further, if the group you are working for during the summer as a Tutor / Counsellor has bought combination key-chains, ID lanyard to hang around your neck, then friggin handles are an accident waiting to happen. I was bending down to help pick up a whiteboard (wall mount) and one of the other T/Cs decided to open the door fast[1], catching the lanyard, and sending me head first into the ground. I was knocked-out for about 10mins and was bleeding from my head. I should note that I came too before they had decided if they should call 911. I feared for the children that summer and stopped wearing that damn thing[2]. Handles are bad[3], that is why we use door knobs. 1) She later claim to be an experienced camper and place here tent directly in a ditch prior to a thunderstorm 2) I get a little nervous with ties these days 3) never mind problems with children and large pets
- lostlogin 13y agoMy god. I thought I'd done well when mine caught a handle and ripped the pocket off a brand new tailor made shirt work bought for me. Right in front of the managing director, great. Lanyards should always have a release mechanism to prevent throttling etc.
- protomyth 13y agoI think the lanyard / key chain combo sounds great on paper, but lacks some basic safety features. Also, fellow workers unconscious on the floor with head wounds should be a red flag that some action is needed. We live in an imperfect world.
- kennywinker 13y agoThis is a case against lanyards as much as it is against door handles.
- donatj 13y agoI personally find handles much more difficult to use, requiring me to bend my hand to unnatural angles.
- kennywinker 13y agoA proper horizontal door handle can be opened with ones butt cheek while holding stuff.
- graywh 13y agoOnly if you're tall enough.
- colanderman 13y agoMany of them you can open upward in one fluid motion. I find this much easier.
- cylinder 13y agoThis article is so unnecessarily long. It takes a full page before it even mentions what the doorknobs are being replaced with, and for what reason. It doesn't show a picture of a lever door knob nor does it even explain how one works.
- RyanMcGreal 13y agoThird paragraph: > In Vancouver, the doorknob is heading into a setting sun. Its future has been date-marked, legislated out of existence in all future construction, a tip to society’s quest for universal design and the easier-to-use lever handle.
- kevinpacheco 13y agoClick on the first photo or the "Photos" link above it to see additional pictures.
- bonemachine 13y agoAnd more importantly, that it's not a "ban" on existing doorknobs, but rather a proscription for new development only. Linkbait.
- knackernews 13y agoFor those curious but don't have the time or desire to read 1294 words of fluff, the reason (which I got from another article) is to make buildings more accessible for the elderly, disabled and the arthritic. It's much easier to use a door lever than it is to twist a door knob.
- MattGrommes 13y agoThe entire article wasn't fluff. One thing it talked about was the idea that this specifically isn't "for the elderly", etc. It's to make it more accessible for everyone, which in turn helps the disabled.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- iluvuspartacus 13y agoMax Brooks, if you're reading this, you definitely have to add this little snippet as to why Vancouver fell in the great zombie apocalypse. (While zombies were unable to operate traditional doorknobs due to lack of coordination and mental ability, levers were another story...)
- umsm 13y agoWhen we remodeled our house, we specifically bought lever-style door handles so that it's easier to open / close doors, easier on arthritic hands, etc. But, I wonder: Are there are other door mechanisms which will prove easier to use? Did anyone ever install spring controlled doors in a home for this reason?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- minikites 13y agoI'll never understand backlash against accessibility improvements. People fought against ramps and now they're the reason all people can have wheels on their luggage. Accessibility is important.
- Zancarius 13y agoThe accessibility-oriented non-sliding doors I've seen fairly common to most new construction in my part of the US (and likely elsewhere) tends to be electrical button-operated doors. I'd imagine that someone who's wheelchair bound wouldn't find levers to be quite as accessible as electric doors so the accessibility argument seems a bit of a stretch. That said, most establishments here tend to have push/pull handles or sliding doors, doing away entirely with the notion of something you "twist."
- skoob 13y agoHaving a disability doesn't necessarily mean that the person is wheelchair bound.
- Zancarius 13y agoReally? I had no idea. I was using the example as an extreme. It's curious to me that in most debates, you'll find no shortage of contrarians. More to the point: Ramp access and automatic doors are viable, proven improvements to accessibility. Levers? No so much. I suppose I ought to re-iterate why I find the notion that a lever-operated door to be "more accessible" than a door knob suspect, particularly if you consider people with carpal tunnel, other wrist injuries, or osteoarthritis in their digits (particularly thumbs). In these populations, wrist movements of any kind may be painful or impossible. To that end, I would believe that simple handle-operated doors that require push/pull only access ought to be far more accessible. But again, automatic doors are something of a comparative panacea regardless of the disability. If you can approach the door or push a button, you can gain access to the structure. So what was your point again?
- protomyth 13y ago
- DanBC 13y agoIf you ever need to fit anti-ligature door furniture please avoid the conical style handles. The worst I've used was like this, but without the cutaways. http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2013/10/17/11244306/CRX-K-NEWx500_1.jpg http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2013/10/17/11244306/CRX-K-NEWx5... Really hard to use. Even for people with good hands who are not off their faces on meds.