Why are stairs used more than slopes?

Question

Stairs are harder to walk, and higher risk of injury than slopes (imagine falling from stairs versus falling from slope).

So why aren’t slopes used more commonly in buildings?

Even stairs-shaped escalators are more common than slope-shaped escalators.

**Edit:** By “slopes”, I mean “ramps”. Pardon my English.

In: 0

Answer 1

Stairs built properly are actually safer and easier to use than a slope.

Slopes are great under good conditions – when the slope is of a gentle gradient and the conditions are good they can essentially be treated as flat ground and just walked on normally.

The problem occurs when you don’t have perfect conditions. When the slope gets steeper for example, it starts to require better balance to use (as you are no longer standing flat against the ground, but at an angle), and much more importance is put on friction between your feet and the ground – if that surface gets wet or icy for example, you now need to be able to prevent yourself sliding back down the slope, unlike a flat stair where you will remain stationary without any input.

When it comes to the decision to place one step at a change in height, or a ramp, generally it covers down to practicality and ease of use. A stair provides an instant change in height, and marked properly is obvious to users and easy to navigate. A ramp requires a much longer distance to ensure a gentle enough gradient, and the change from flat to sloped and back to flat again is more likely to unsettle someone.
The benefit of slopes is for things like wheeled trolleys which have trouble navigating steps, but again you need to ensure that the slip is long and gentle enough so as not to unsettle the contents of a trolley, or that too much effort will be needed to push it up a long, steep slope.

To this end, most countries provide legislation regarding slopes and stairs to ensure new infrastructure is suitable and safe for users – slopes should be kept to certain gradients, stairs should be of standardised heights and pitches, and both should be provided with suitable flat areas to allow users an opportunity to stop and rest of needed, and handrails for support.