6 ms·

Other things about Japanese elevators 99% the "close door" button works immediately. Vs say USA where 80% are not even connected and where some are connected

• counttheforks 4y ago
  > In Japan it's not uncommon to have someone exit the elevator and just as they exit, press the close button so the door will close immediately behind them. This is a "sorry I interrupted your time by having to stop the elevator" gesture. This wouldn't work in the USA because the light sensors would trigger the doors reopening. Sounds annoying. If I see an elevator stop at a floor then I'd like a chance to actually get on it, instead of having my time wasted by a futile gesture that might save someone a second or two.
  • ninepoints 4y ago
    You don't think that before doing this gesture, the individual would check if there were people waiting to get on the elevator?
    • counttheforks 4y ago
      Hardly seems like it'd save any time if they would.
      • Dylan16807 4y ago
        They're walking out, it will be clear if someone is there and take no additional time.
      • ramchip 4y ago
        It doesn't take any time, you just see if there's people outside or not when the doors open.
  • b4je7d7wb 4y ago
    I never saw anyone do this in Japan. Because you can slide out before the doors are fully open, in this case people in elevator can close the doors earlier. If you wait for them to fully open and close them yourself then its wasting time.
    • jrockway 4y ago
      I haven't seen this either, but the only building I'm particularly familiar with used 2 story elevators (board at 1 or 2, arrive at 17 or 18), so I'm guessing the close door button isn't going to do much (the elevator on the lower level has to deal with the loading conditions of the upper level, and vice-versa).
• ehPReth 4y ago
  In the USA close door button is generally gated behind the firefighter's emergency operation key being activated from what I understand?
  • wyldfire 4y ago
    I don't think this is the case. Maybe it's a placebo button in some cases? But I've definitely ridden in elevators where the "close door" button has nearly immediate effect (usually older ones). The button never overrides the safety bumpers that reopen the doors, they just bring about the natural closing sooner.
    • vineyardmike 4y ago
      Elevators have a “manual mode”. This is mandatory by law to exist for firefighters/emergency workers, but can be used for other purposes (eg when moving into a high rise apartment, you reserve the elevator for a few hours to move furniture), in commercial buildings sometimes the cleaning staff will use it to hold the elevator and their equipment on their floor as they go floor by floor. Manual mode does override the sensor that checks if something is in the way, but doesn’t override the pressure sensor that responds if the door hits something when closing. You usually have to hold the close button while it beeps to close the door. The buttons exist for manual mode. If they work elsewhere, that’s lucky. When I lived in a high rise, it took ~20s for my elevator doors to close. If you were the last one in, you might hit the button and see the doors close immediately, but only because of you timed it right, not because the button did anything during day to day usage. I’ve timed it, and my Otis elevator didn’t close faster due to the button. The “open door” button obviously works most places.
• Gigachad 4y ago
  The elevator of my building does seem to respond to close but it’s not super instant. It’s common for the people left in the elevator to press the close button which theoretically should work.
  • alistairSH 4y ago
    My office close button works. But then you’re standing in a closed elevator going nowhere. Hitting the floor button also closes the door. This is for a stopped/open elevator. Once it’s moving with several floors selected, the open and close buttons don’t seem to do anything.
• johnnyo 4y ago
  One reason door close buttons don’t work is because many places have a minimum time the doors have to remain open under ADA guidelines. Once that time has passed, the door close. So there is no window in which the button would be useful.
  • skipkey 4y ago
    I worked in a building once where the close door button started a 3ish second timer then would close. As a side effect if the door was close to closing already it would sometimes actually lengthen the time the door was open. Drove me nuts when people would come in late and hit the button.
    • pontilanda 4y ago
      Bad programmers are all around us. It could have been fixed with a min() call
  • yongjik 4y ago
    In Seoul's subway stations, elevators usually take forever to close, like long enough to make you think "Geez if I just walked I would be on the other floor by now!" And that's exactly the reason, i.e., to shoo away those with a good pair of legs, because otherwise people who do need elevators might end up waiting forever.
    • josephcsible 4y ago
      But even elevators in skyscrapers usually take forever to close, and nobody expects you to walk up stairs to the 50th floor just because you have a good pair of legs.
      • j16sdiz 4y ago
        Elevators in skyscrapers use lots of the energy. Guess the owner wants to save some energy?
  • alwayslikethis 4y ago
• remram 4y ago
  In the USA 99% of people press the "close door" button immediately upon entering, without looking whether someone else is currently headed to the same elevator. It makes sense to disable a button that people can't use politely.
  • Arnavion 4y ago
    How do you know they don't just do it because they're used to the door not closing immediately?
    • ablob 4y ago
      Does it matter in a situation, where you don't want to close the door immediately?
    • remram 4y ago
      They are, and it doesn't. I don't understand your point.
      • Arnavion 4y ago
        They press the close door button because they know they have the time to turn around, notice someone else entering and press the open door button.