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. It’s a little like prayer. Elevator design is rooted in deception—to disguise not only the bare fact of the box hanging by ropes but also the tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command.
— Nick Paumgarten: Up and Then Down (Via and via.)
Wow, it’s a lot like voting!
This is also true of the London Underground. Most of the trains have door open/door close buttons, which often still light up when the train is in the station. They’re obsolete now, however – the doors are either automated or controlled by the driver (probably automatic with an override). People still press them when they’re impatient to get on or off.
Another example is right on your browser window – Internet Explorer has a progress bar that doesn’t actually indicate progress. When waiting for a site to respond, the progress bar climbs slowly… but no progress is being made. Your computer has no way of knowing how fast the server is responding to your request, but fills that bar just so the user has the illusion of progress. The traditional approach for this would be a throbber (an animation that makes it clear the program is working, but does not tell you how fast it is working) however old versions of Netscape were notorious for freezing up while keeping the throbber running, so people don’t trust a throbber… thus, the meaningless stupid progress-bar.
In my experience it also seems to be a cultural thing. I live in the same building as an ESL teaching company, and their students seem much more likely to push the close door button than Bostonian ‘natives’.
Interesting. I’ve often though the same thing about the “push to walk” buttons at some crosswalks.
As far as I can tell, this is a myth, though it makes for a good metaphor. I first heard it from Zizek, and every authoritative source I have come across since has disconfirmed it. And when you think about it, it’s a pretty silly conspiracy theory, given how many people work with elevators (in repairs and maintenance, e.g.). These are not incredibly complex pieces of machinery. It’d be pretty easy for someone to open one up and see whether the button does anything.
I just tested the one at my apartment building as I was tossing the trash. It works after the first 3 seconds after the door opens. I.e:
Push before the third second – the door closes after 9 seconds.
Push at the Nth second where 3 < N < 7, the door closes at the Nth+2 second.
Otherwise, the door closes at the 9th second (which is way too long)
I guess that if the person testing the button is less anal than I am, it may look as if the button is not working. I would not be surprised if many elevators work the same way.
By the way, the open button works in less than one second, at any time.
I know of some push-to-walk buttons that work instantaneously after five or six seconds of traffic. Any sooner than that, and the light turns yellow after five or six; if no one pushes it, it stays green, but the second some one does, yellow. It makes me feel powerful.
Other push-to-walks, if they don’t clearly change the traffic light, do change the walk light. I always push it because otherwise, I don’t get a walk sign– the traffic will stop, but I’m not sure if I have enough time to get across.
Kevin:
It’s as if people pushed the elevator buttons at random with neither an idea of what was on a given floor nor if the button they pushed would actually take them to the floor marked on it.
I assure you, as a former Pedestrian and Bicycle Planner, that crosswalk buttons do, for the most part, work. However, they may not work to your liking. What the crosswalk button does in most cases is extend the green light parallel to you *when that green is up for rotation* – so you might want hitting the button to make it turn to walk, and that’s not going to happen. What it’s doing is planning the time for you to walk across the street into the existing signal rotation, so most often that means an extended green on the street parallel to your walk. However, you still have to wait until that phase of the signal is in effect. Many people never see the benefit that their signal gave them because they get impatient and cross against the light, which I sympathize with, but when you’re timing signals, there’s only so much you can do.
>tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command.
Same goes for thermostats in an office building.
The close buttons in my office building and parking deck both work–possibly because they’re both ancient. I’m quite glad of it in the parking deck, as there are often shady characters around and a former co-worker was mugged in that deck a few years ago. Being able to ride the elevator in peace feels like a bit of a safety measure.