Knobless oblige
New building rules will help old folks—who now risk being eaten by bears
IT IS rare for changes to a municipal building code to become headline news. But Vancouver’s ban on doorknobs in all new buildings, which went into effect last month, is an exception. It has provoked a strong reaction from the door-opening public and set off a chain reaction across the country as other jurisdictions ponder whether to follow Vancouver’s lead. The country is on tenterhooks.
The war on doorknobs is part of a broader campaign to make buildings more accessible to the elderly and disabled, many of whom find levered doorhandles easier to operate than fiddly knobs. Vancouver’s code adds private homes to rules already in place in most of Canada for large buildings, stipulating wider entry doors, lower thresholds and lever-operated taps in bathrooms and kitchens.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "Knobless oblige"
From the April 19th 2014 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from The Americas
Why Ecuador risked global condemnation to storm Mexico’s embassy
Jorge Glas, who had claimed asylum from Mexico, is accused of abetting drug networks
The world’s insatiable appetite for Canada’s maple syrup
Production is booming, but climate change is making output more erratic
Elon Musk is feuding with Brazil’s powerful Supreme Court
The court has become the de facto regulator of social media in the country