So here we are, the day after Thanksgiving, and around my house is Christmas-decoration time. It means that once again, old Dad will make the precarious climb up the oak tree to hang a big star from a sturdy branch. Each day my wife is relieved when I return to terra firma, and we do not have to make an infirmary run.
This time of year is high season for ladder falls. It is no mystery, really, with yahoos like me climbing to hang decorations and others cleaning autumn leaves from house gutters. The Home Safety Council says that in a new national survey, four out of five U.S. households plan to use ladders around their homes to get ready for the holiday season.
In fact, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. says November is the No. 1 month for injuries caused by falls from ladders.
This could be a nice break (no pun intended) from doing all of those tired day-after-Thanksgiving shopping stories.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a 2004 report:
The holiday season, Nov. 1 to Jan. 31, can bring with it an increased risk of injuries from falls, as people use ladders, stools and other furniture to hang lights, ornaments and other decorations.
About 5,800 people, two to three every hour, were treated in emergency departments for fall-related injuries sustained while decorating during each of the 2000, 2001 and 2002 holiday seasons. Men were more likely than women to be injured (58 percent vs. 42 percent).
Holiday fall prevention strategies should focus on raising awareness about seasonal fall hazards, using ladders safely, and using stable step stools rather than furniture when arranging holiday decorations.
The majority of those injured in falls while decorating for the holidays (62 percent) were young and middle-aged adults (20-49 years of age). In contrast, this age group comprises only 30 percent of people injured annually in falls.
Most holiday decorating-related falls were from ladders (43 percent), followed by falls from roofs, furniture (including step stools), stairs and porches.
Fractures were the most frequent holiday decorating-related injury (34 percent). Slightly more than half (51 percent) of the fractures were caused by falls from ladders.
The Home Safety Council survey of 1,000 adults found that those who use ladders at home often don't follow proper safety practices. Of those surveyed:
- 52 percent work on uneven ground when decorating outside
- 47 percent reach further than they should when decorating around windows
- 38 percent decorate outside after dark
- 36 percent stand on the top two steps
- 36 percent string lights while they are plugged in and using an aluminum ladder, which conducts electricity
- 22 percent, or more than one in five adults surveyed, drink alcohol when using ladders to decorate for the holidays
Tiny/Illegal Parking Spaces
I will tell you the main reason I shop online. I hate mall parking lots. I hate careless people dinging my truck with their car doors. Leave a note of apology? Are you joking?
Part of the problem is that parking spaces in some parking lots are just too darn small. In some cases, you may find they are against city code.
Then there are lots of people who park big old cars and vans in spaces designed for compact cars. See this collection of photos.
I have found no uniform size for parking spaces. In Massachusetts, each parking space should be 9 feet wide and 18 feet deep. Zoning boards may allow small-car parking spaces (8 feet by 16 feet) to be substituted for up to 50 percent of the standard parking spaces. Compact parking spaces should be marked by clearly visible signs.
In Sonoma, Calif., the required width depends on the angle of the parking space [PDF], which makes sense to me.
The Seattle Times looked at this issue earlier this year:
All over Seattle crowded lots, tight garages, skinny stalls and giant vehicles are conspiring to create a parking experience that ranges from unpleasant to downright harrowing.
And nearly everyone who owns a vehicle has an opinion on the subject.
"Parking spaces are getting smaller," says Susan Curhan, who had just nudged her red Toyota SUV into one of the spots in the Trader Joe's parking garage in the University District.
She'd returned from a relaxing day of skiing to find herself fending off other drivers, including an SUV that pulled in next to her, missing her car by centimeters.
"It's crazy," she said.
Actually, parking spaces haven't been shrinking. Seattle's current parking code was established in the early 1980s following the oil shortages of the '70s, when people scooted around in Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas.
A commercial lot with more than 20 spaces can designate about two-thirds of its parking as "compact" -- spaces that are 7.5 feet wide and 15 feet long, about 5 inches narrower and a foot shorter than the average space.
Problem is, drivers usually ignore the compact designation, parking their big vehicles (a Ford Expedition is 6.5 feet wide, not including mirrors) into whatever space is available.
"Until we're safely away from the SUV trend, we're going to have problems," says Peter Hockaday, an architect with the Seattle firm Perkins+Will.
The story continues with this advice:
Auto-body shops have also noticed the parking crunch. Rod Biell, owner of Carriage Rebuild in Bothell, has been in business 32 years, but he's seen a significant jump in parking-related repairs in the past five or six years.
The cost to repair a door ding can vary anywhere from $500 to $2,000, depending on where the damage occurs. Biell says carmakers are using thinner metal, which contributes to the damage, but he also points to the decline of angled spaces, a design that makes parking easier.
These days most parking designers use the straight, or 90-degree, stalls. The belief is that the 90-degree spots are more cost effective, says Mary Smith of Walker Parking Consultants in Indianapolis. She has been designing parking structures for over 30 years.
"Architecture schools teach that 90-degree parking is always most efficient," says Smith, "so less experienced architects always start out using 90-degree spaces."
The most natural angle, however, is 60 degrees, says Smith. She bases this on her own unscientific study -- watching how drivers parked in a lot where the stripes had worn off. "But to design anything below a 75-degree angle just isn't efficient at all."
So the question becomes how to navigate the treacherous parking lots.
"It's all based on gambling, and you can reduce the risk," says Paul Davis, who created http://www.parkingbydesign.com/, to help people improve their parking ability and avoid "door wounds."
"Remember that not all spots are created equal," says Davis, who lives in Southern California and won't even park in the Trader Joe's lot in his neighborhood.
He recommends using gravity to one's advantage by parking on the upward side of a slope, taking the spot opposite the driver's side, and parking next to concrete barriers to reduce the risk of damage. Something as simple as parking farther away from the entrance is one of the easiest and most overlooked parking strategies.
Parking Etiquette
Shouldn't this be something that goes on a driving test?
Who is the final arbiter of who should get a parking space, especially if you and your foe spot the space at about the same time and you are coming from opposite directions? Is it the person who is pulling in from the direction opposite that of the person who is leaving? (I think so.)
Here is the way I think of it. If the car in front of me backs up and heads north, and I am pointed north, then the space is mine because I can seamlessly turn into the space. If the car backs up and turns south, then I would have to cut across the path of another motorist to get the space. So I think the other guy gets the space.
However, my seatmate on a flight to Denver last week argued that I am wrong. This guy, a quality-inspection engineer, said the driver coming from the opposite direction of the car pulling out should get the space because it would be easier to swing into the space.
I bet you could have some fun watching people hose each other for parking spaces in this "Season of Joy and Giving." Maybe malls should reserve 20 spaces near the front door and reward really nice people with priority parking. When a security patrol sees somebody give up a space that was rightfully theirs, they would get one of the premium spaces.
Day-After Holiday Not Guaranteed
It may be a bargaining ploy, but the New Jersey governor says that next year, state government workers may not automatically get the day after Thanksgiving off. See The New York Times' story. The day-after is traditional but not embedded in any statute.
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RE: "Here is the way I think of it. If...
