I grew up in a city of mostly rowhomes and I love them. Plan on buying one one day.
You still get walk-ability, sense of community and good population density (not as good as a high-rise but still good), but also more privacy, and the space is more conducive to raising a family than an apartment. Also they’re cute as fuck and people can paint them different colors and have cool little gardens on their porches and stuff.
So you carry that bike up 1.8m each time you get home? This doesn’t seem to be barrier free to me. Same with strollers, trolley’s of old people and wheelchairs.
I would not advocate building stairs up the the door in modern building. I just think it’s pretty.
That said, yes, I regularly carry my bike up stairs. It’s just part of bike commuting in America.
There are many solutions to this. Nobody is claiming it’s barrier free. No building with stairs is barrier free. That why there are things like add-on ramps, electric wheelchair lifts, and for bicycles, rear entrances. Almond many other possible fixes. What’s your point?
That I lived in a building like that and it was a huge barrier, that we have to reduce barriers and that includes not fetishizing old outdated ways of construction. Electrical wheelchair lifts aren’t a solution, they are an addon. Add on ramps would demand a complete reconstruction of the setting, having a different entry for you by feet and by bike might work sometimes in this situation in does create additional barriers.
My point is that the lived experience of people who see barriers and problems to be accepted and the material structures we created are to be heavily critiqued.
Solutions to the problems are not addons, they are re-drafts of what is and what could be.
Ok, then redesign. This isn’t an issue with rowhouses. This is an image with a walk-up entrance. Maybe design some with ramps. Boom. Done.
You would prefer condos everywhere? Or larger lots and detached homes? Those are the alternatives.
I wrote a bit to that, but if you give examples of specific row houses you ought to expect call outs if they are excluding a large part of the population. Really not getting why your vibe is as it is right now.
There is like 12 stairs to the front door and looks like there are 2 flights of stairs inside. Of course it isn’t barrier free. Tho I think ideally there would be funding available for people who want to retrofit accessibility features. Like in the above pic I imagine you could make a ramp going across the front of several units to provide access to them. Alternatively, put in a lift that goes along the rail for just one person. Assuming the internal arrangement of the unit would be worthwhile for the person(s) in question. Very likely there is either no bathroom or only a toilet/sink on the main floor so to bathe you’d need to go up the stairs. For new built construction it seems like something you could account for in the initial design if appropriate regulations exist and are enforced. There is nothing inherently inaccessible about a shared wall.
Bikes you lock to the cast iron bike rack which conveniently surround the building. You can buy an extra really heavy lock of a different sort than you usually carry out with you (e.g. you go out with a u lock, you have a chain kept at home). You lock with both at night because then it takes different tools to remove each lock. Or you chose a light bike to carry up the stairs.
Strollers are really rugged these days. I see people doing all kinds of crazy shit with strollers. The other day this lady had 3 babies/toddlers with her in a stroller and I helped her go down 2 full flights of stairs. We just moved a bit at a time. I pulled the stroller down to the first landing while she waited at the top, then we moved the children 1 at a time. Same again to the bottom. It’s very stupid to have no elevator or even escalator available but it can be done.