Background:

A previous idea (July 19, 2021: worstplans.com/2021/07/19/) was to make stairs safer by specially marking the top and bottom stairs.

But why not expand this idea to the entire staircase!

The Issue:

Surprisingly, falling down stairs is a major source of injury. People are particularly prone to falling down stairs when they’re distracted in some way (e.g. when carrying objects, putting on shoes, rummaging for house keys, etc.).

Sometimes, it isn’t visually obvious where one stair starts and the next one ends.

Proposal:

Stairs are almost always a uniform color. Yet it seems obvious in retrospect that the steps should actually be different colors (Fig. 1)! 

This idea has the added benefit of not technically even costing anything extra! For carpeted stairs, the alternating colors could printed directly onto the stair carpet pattern (assuming the stair dimensions are known / standardized), or could be applied afterward by using a dye on every other step.

For hardwood stairs, alternating colors could be achieved by using a different type of wood or a different staining color on every other step. Easy!

There’s really no downside to this, but stripes aren’t really in vogue for interior decoration, so it might be difficult to persuade business owners and homeowners that stair-striping is worthwhile.

Conclusion:

It costs nothing and is easy to do. Some PhD student should run a study and see if people-falling-down-stairs rates are affected by this striped-staircase idea!

PROS: May reduce national health care expenditure due to stair-related injuries.

CONS: None! This is a clear case where fashion will just take a while to catch up to functionality.

Originally published 2024-09-02.