Really strange thought has been going around my brain over the last week.

In my life I am often going in lifts. I get in a lift about 10 times a day at work and I get in a lift at home, i get in a lift sometimes on the tube etc.

Loads of times I see the lift doors closing and someone puts there arm/foot/something in the way.

I know lifts (elevators) have sensors etc but I always think to myself "you're fucking mental putting your arm in the way". As if the computer might not know there is something in the way and then take your arm off. I've not googled it because it might give me a fear!

I dont have a fear but I do find it a bit weird putting my trust in the mechanical doors to close softly and reopen not hurting me. Maybe its because i hear of lifts breaking all the time so if something isn't that reliable, i think twice about putting my arms into to catch the lift before it goes.

Would/do you put your arms in to catch the lift before it goes? Ever thought what might happen if it didn't stop closing? Ouch..

Mick wrote on 07/21/11 at 06:28:30:

Same as Mick, I dislike Kinect style.

I always just put my foot in the way. Alternatively, I just press the button.
I don't know how you've been thinking about this for a week....  

Use the stairs you lazy fucks.

I got my hand stuck in one once.  I was already in the elevator and tried to stop the doors from closing for someone that was coming.  Took a couple seconds to get my hand out after the elevator had already started going up.

Elevators have a sensor at the bottom of the shaft door called a scan guard. It'll sense when something is moving through the door area, which causes it to reopen. Of course since it's at the bottom, it works best to put your foot in the door, as that is at the same level as the scan guard.

I know of a story of a lady who tried to get through a closing elevator door, basically running and diving head-first into it. The door didn't reopen because it was too late to sense it, and the door closed on her. She hit her head on the door and must have got injured pretty badly. The funny thing was though that she sued the elevator company (which I work part-time in an office for), which of course she failed at. People may be in a rush, but I don't know who would dive head first into an elevator, and then sue on top of that.

The only time I usually use an elevator myself is at school. My school is 15 floors high, so if I have to go anywhere near the top (usually 8+), I take the elevator. There's six elevators though in the area, so if I miss one, another comes pretty quickly. I've had instances where I run to a closing elevator door though, and either somebody in there sees me and presses the button to open the door, I stick my foot in and it reopens, or I know I won't make it and I just slow down and wait for the next one.

I think it's really impolite to shove your fist into an elevator as the person is already taking off.  I usually yell and then push the button if the person doesn't open it on the other side.  I just find the concept of forcing the elevator doors open barbaric.  I do like when you're inside as it's closing and the person signals to you, "I'll just take the next one."

Can't take the stairs if you're carrying a lot of luggage.

I press the button or use stairs

I stop it with my hand.  I've never thought about what would happen if the door kept closing, but that's because I've never seen it happen.  The bigger worry should be if you're in the elavator and it gets stuck.  It's hotter than Hell if you sit in one with other people for a long period of time.

anyone living my life taking the stairs would lose their job or just have a worse life. We're on the 3rd floor and often have to go to the 11th. Going up that as opposed to taking the lift would be stupid in the corporate world, dressed in a suit carrying a laptop or not.

Just saying.. its not about walking. Its more about trusting technology to do what it should...

Goose wrote on 07/21/11 at 16:32:48:


This is a bit ambiguous and not quite true, although I see the idea you're going for here.

I think the better way to put it would be that the more complex the technology, the more prone to failure it is. This could be because we don't fully understand the technology, and therefore cannot use it to its full capacity. It also could be because it has more parts, meaning the probability of failure is greater than that of say the screwdriver, which is a single piece and pretty simplistic.

An example that more advanced technology is more prone to failure would be like saying something like, an old car from the 60's is more reliable than a modern car, which is more technologically advanced. Assuming the old car is original and not modified in any way, the modern car will be less prone to failure, despite being more technologically advanced.

The way I see it, is that the more things any particular object has, the more things there are that can go wrong.