MaldivesFreak

That article is BS. Check the link and you'll see the massive correction.

AlwaysFlyStar

I usually do this (albeit with my foot rather than hand) when I am escorting my grandparents or if someone is pushing a pram or wheelchair. But that is primarily because some lifts will close until they meet resistance rather than just going by sight and I don't want the doors to knock them over.

BobMiller

A bit related to point # 1: People who get off and then stop at the end of an escalator. Don't they realize there are people behind them welling up and falling over each other?

jrl767

yeah, that's not so much "DYKWIA" as ... rude, inconsiderate, spaced-out, oblivious ... probably a dozen more adjectives

OldVines

Number 3 may soon be obsolete. A lot of elevators in new buildings now don't have any buttons. You need to go to a panel in the lobby, select the floor you want, and the system directs you to the appropriate elevator. The system is planning the most efficient utilisation of the elevators.

But those who are new to the technology often follow the crowd into the elevator, look for the button because they are going to the 4th floor, and end up on the 19th because that is the first stop. Great amusement from those who understand the system!

jrl767

last week at the Hampton Inn (El Segundo CA) someone tapped the control pad maybe three seconds after I did, going one floor below me ... how efficient was it to have him wait for a dedicated elevator? if there was another one at the lobby already, fine, but it seems to me that it would have been just as easy to add a second stop for the elevator that I was about to ride

that could indeed be entertaining

MKE-MR

Yeah, that sounds great until the fifteenth time it happens, when the doors are about to close and wait for "just one more".
Of course it happens with regular lifts too.

My problem with the automated programming lifts, experienced on multiple occasions, is that in high traffic buildings they also allocate capacity so that the lift doesn't get full. So, each person is expected to key in their floor individually.
No prizes for guessing what happens when a meeting on the 45th floor lets out and everybody heads downstairs to lunch, but the button's only been pressed one time...and that whole, completely packed lift car has to stop on 44...and 43...and 42...because the lift thinks there's only one person inside so it can pick up more.

jrl767

ouch, yeah, didn't think about that (it was ~2030 and we were the only two people headed to the elevators)

yet another instance of clever designers (both the system concept/architecture and the software) who don't think in terms of those who actually have to use the systems they design

Proudelitist

I tend to think it's like when you see Japanese people on their cell phones bowing to whomever they are speaking to..as if the person on the phone can see them bowing. There is a kind of muscle memory. But still, it's unthinking behavior and irks me.

pa3lsvt

My favorite elevator story:

Spent PHX-PHL next to "elbow in the ribs and fight for the armrest" guy. Not a fun 4 hours.

We arrive, and I make my way to the parking garage elevators (with a stop at the lounge).

At PHL, Baggage Claim is on G (surface level), the terminal is level 1, and parking starts on 1 and goes up from there to the top.

I call for the elevator on 1 to go up to 4 where I was parked. The elevator opens and my PHX-PHL seat neighbor walks off (I let him off first) right past me. I walk on and the button for 4 is already lit.

The guy stops, realizes he isn't on his floor but is at the terminal (clearly he was coming up from baggage claim to 4), turns around and has the doors close right in front of him with me smiling at him as he asks me to hold the door.

Annalisa12

I don't understand that system. I've never heard of it so I'd be one of those people you make fun of.

So can't change your mind on where you are going once you get in the lift?

Annalisa12

Justice!

sethweinstein

Correct. It's particularly bad in one building I frequent in New York. The inane redesign of the building has everyone taking one elevator to the fourth floor, then traversing a long hallway to get to another set of elevators. Midway along this hallway is (1) a control panel where you select a floor and it tells you what elevator to go to and (2) a dimwit security guard who tells you not to run.

Well, twice recently, having walked, I've missed the elevator I was supposed to take. So now I'll both run and reselect the floor when I get to the other control panel near the elevators, hitting the darn thing every few seconds until the elevator shows up.

Seth

maniac78

I usually wait until I'm just about to get off.

Annalisa12

I prefer when I get in so I can enjoy it.