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Comment by jjoonathan | Hacker News Reader

> they regularly "forget" that you've opted-out

That's putting it mildly -- I think the "door close" button in elevators is more reliable than the reddit opt-out.

I can confirm that the door close button works at least some of the time. I used to ride an elevator every day on the way in to work and was surprised to hear about that button being a sham, since my general impression was that it worked. So, I did a test.

I started timing how long the door would take to close on all of the solo rides I took on my regular elevator, alternating hitting or not hitting the button. The results confirmed my intuition that the button did speed things up significantly. I've forgotten the exact numbers but the increase was pretty large, something like 5 seconds vs 15 seconds, if I hit or didn't hit the button.

Strange. Even with multiple accounts they have never once forgotten what my preference is.

I'm not even sure it's malice. New reddit drops my user session once every few days it seems like. It would also forget my "default to markdown" option as well, regularly. So I just switched back to old reddit.

Why is it that the door close button never works? Any elevator engineers out here?

Largely it's up to building choice. It's a tradeoff of throughput (more people in a single car) and rider privacy. If it frustrates you, grab a UTA key [0] and that will let you put many elevators into independant service mode where the buttons should do exactly what they say.

[0] https://www.ultimatesecuritydevices.com/Original-OTIS-UTA-ke...

The ADA requires elevator doors to be open for >3 seconds, it's easier to just disable the door close button in general than time it

I've heard it justified as forcing you to politely wait for people rather than letting you close the door on them, but that has always seemed implausible because usually there is either nobody nearby or there is someone close enough to trigger the photo-eye. Shrug.

Why is it that the door close button never works?

The Door Close button is not for you. It's for when the elevator is in an override mode, like when there's a fire, or when someone is moving something large in the elevator.

If you have the right key, you can turn the switch to a mode like "Fire" or "Independent," during which the doors do not automatically open and close. This is so the elevator can be moved to a particular floor, ignoring all of the other elevator requests, and the door only opened and closed when the keyholder wants it.

There are some building owners who configure the Door Close button to respond to pushes. But they're not common.

/I briefly worked for a large apartment complex, and had to assist people moving in and out of the buildings.

Here’s a fascinating look into hacking of elevators and how the different modes work

https://youtu.be/ZUvGfuLlZus

Funny enough, in the UK/islands I've found it to be much more common for the 'door close' button to work.

As the other replies have said, the button isn't for you, but it does have the psychological side effect of giving you a feeling of control over your experience, which can help quell anxiety. This is also the reason mirrors are common in elevators; the space feels much bigger and less claustrophobic, and you can waste a few seconds while you check yourself out in the mirror which makes the trip feel faster.

However, the button will usually work in a hospital, as they want the door to be open for a long enough period that people who are less mobile can enter before the door closes, but at the same time there are often urgent situations where seconds count, so you need to be able to get the door closing faster in an emergency.

It works in Europe :)

It doesn't do anything in the USA in normal automatic mode since the ADA became law.

It's an ADA [1] thing. The door will always remain open a certain length of time, after which the door close button starts to work. If you keep it open past the normal automatic closing time (whether with the Door Open button or by manually obstructing the door/sensor), you can usually use the "door close" button to close it immediately after.

[1] Americans with Disabilities Act

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