Big revolving doors. Aren't they... you know... dangerous?

Factual Questions
21

I’ve seen them twice, once at our local hospital where the large size was used to accomodate wheelchairs, and once at the IKEA in Schaumberg, IL.

Both were motorized and spun themselves but would stop if you gave resistance.
If you stopped in it’s path it would bump into you then just stop moving.
The individual doors were also attached to the center spindle on a hinge so if there were an emergency like a fire and everyone rushed the door the panels would bend at the hinges allowing people to flow past the spindle on both sides.

22

Here’s a video of the large airport style ones:

23

But what about the non motorized, little ones? Those have always scared me a little, too.

24

They have them at Johns Hopkins Medical Center main visitor enterance. They are there so people in wheelchairs and flat in beds can get through. They can be big enough to hold 50 people -the one at Hopkins can hold a guy in a rolling bed and an attendant or 2.

Herel is a manufacturer talking about their product’s safety features
The main closing edges are equipped with two infrared safety sensors and safety contact strips. These detect the presence of any person or object that is moving too slowly for the revolving assembly and will reduce the operating speed accordingly. In addition, if a door wing meets an obstruction, sensors cause the door to stop until the obstruction has been removed. The KT Series revolving doors also feature disabled access push-buttons and emergency stop push-buttons.

Here is a second.
*The [edit to prevent commercial ad] Grand Revolving Door is well equipped with safety features. The door’s entry throats have cushioned safety edges that stop the rotation of the door, and prevents limb entrapment. Horton’s patented Stop Guard door wing mounted sensors first slows the door, when approaching slow moving pedestrians and then stops the door’s rotation if a person or object comes too close to the door wing. The Toe Guard cushioned bottom door rail switch prevents injury to a pedestrians foot. Additional safety features include electronic pressure sensing and door wing position cut-off switches. *.

25

Trivial factoid: The old style small ones at MIT have signs over them that say, “Not an Accreditted Egress”. They, like all others at least in Mass., have regular hinged doors on each side of them.