In my traditional suit of always running late, I find myself sprinting to the elevators at work in the morning, furiously hitting my floor number multiple times and following it with a punch at “close door.” I’m pretty sure slamming the “close door” button has little to no effect, but I wanted to see if that extra energy exertion each morning was doing me any good.
Now I titled this post “Elevator Button Theories” and not “Elevator Button Facts” because I haven’t spoken to anyone credible and would hate to dissuade people from pushing the CD button if it actually works. From the numerous articles I have read, however, there’s a pretty wide consensus that it’s a placebo button. Some theories suggest that it’s there to pacify frustrated riders, while others say that it only works for maintenance when they insert a key so they can control the door when they need to roll a big package out or are repairing the elevator itself.
My theory is that it varies on each building (groundbreaking, I know). A blogger suggested that in fact pushing the “open door” button is more advantageous than the CD because its censors note that the door is open, so when it moves, it closes. I tried this one out this morning and I was about .8 seconds later than I would have been if I had just patiently waited.
An excerpt from The New Yorker:
“Elevator manufacturers have sought to trick the passengers into thinking they’re driving the conveyance. In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. That the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button’s power.”
Sources:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all
http://gizmodo.com/380741/things-you-dont-know-about-modern-elevators
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/595/do-close-door-buttons-on-elevators-ever-actually-work
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/insidenova/2010/12/the-great-elevator-button-debate-part-ii.html
http://consumerist.com/2010/11/most-close-door-buttons-are-just-there-to-make-you-feel-better.html
One response to “DYK: Elevator Button Theories”
have you heard of the elevator game? there has been speculation about it playing a tole. mind you that s not a likely story but knowing about it, it is an interesting and very creepy theory