One of the first things I noticed about using a wheelchair is that Residential Carpet is Evil. Between the cushy cut loop pile and the cushy, luxurious padding, it’s got a murderous coefficient of friction. Who knew I’d need all-terrain tires to cross my own living room?
Commercial carpet, on the other hand, is usually fairly benign. Short closed loop and no padding mean it’s not much harder to push on than a hard floor. Unfortunately this is not true of whatever they put in the Boulder Public Library. To the naked eye, it looks like any other industrial carpeting, but wheeling on it is like pushing through gravel. Like pushing through treacle. It’s the only place I have to push going DOWNHILL.
It’s very sad.
