Carry the pram side by side

Ten years ago I was at the bottom of a flight of stairs with my daughter asleep in her pram. A woman stopped and offered to help. I went to take the handle, expecting her to grab the front. She didn't. She stood beside me on the same step, took hold of the frame and said we'd carry it side by side.

It made so much sense. The pram stayed level. Neither of us took more weight than the other. My daughter didn't wake up.

Most people carry a pram the other way. One person takes the handle, the other takes the front. It feels natural, but on stairs one of you is always lower. The pram tilts with the baby inside, and the person below ends up holding most of the weight. If they stumble, so does the pram.

Side by side fixes all of that. You both stand on the same step, each hold the frame, and walk up or down together.

Ever since, whenever I help someone with a pram, I suggest we do it her way. People get it straight away. I like to think somebody once showed her too, and she was paying it forward. Now I'm doing the same.

London needs this more than most cities. Around two in three Tube stations have no step-free access. In Kentish Town, TfL has said a lift isn't physically practical, so those stairs aren't going anywhere. Folding a pram with a sleeping baby in it isn't always realistic. People will keep helping each other on the stairs, which is one of the nicest things about this city. They may as well do it well.

I had a go at designing a sign for it, and had great fun doing it. It gave me a new respect for the people who make universal symbols. The picture has to make sense to anyone, in any language, at a glance. And drawing stairs straight on is much harder than it looks.

Mostly, though, I'll keep passing it on the way I learned it: one helpful stranger at a time.