I don’t get it. Is it really so exhausting to open the door manually rather than punching the button? Where I see this most often is people exiting the restroom, so I suppose they’re trying to avoid the “germs” on the door handle. The flaw in their logic being that other people try the same avoidance trick so there are “germs” on the button too. The door opens more slowly so it takes longer to get through the door. I know some people have “hidden disabilities” that may necessitate the use of the button but that can’t possibly account for the numbers of people who do it.
Okay, that was me, but you should have noticed that my arms were full, and I had to hit the door opener with my knee. It was just more convenient than trying to hook the door handle with my foot.
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Some people are child like and just like to hit buttons.
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Some people are too lazy and dumb at the same time to understand it takes longer.
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A few people find the doors hard to open and make use of the opener.
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That’s all I got.
The only place I use it is at our local Post Office, where
a. the button is a long way from the door, so it is open by the time I get to it and
b. the door with the opener is almost un-pull-openable by hand.
I use the button when:
a) It is sufficiently far enough from the door so that by the time I reach the door, it’s open.
b) I’m with a group of people; it makes it easier than holding the door, or each person grabbing the door from the person in front of them.
c) My arms are full.
That’s about it.
The disabled door is often hard to pull. And, seriously, who’s it hurting if I push that button?
I often do it when I’m with my toddler because it’s a lot easier to herd her through without doing the awkward twisty dance of holding the door open for both of us with one hand and holding on to her (and whatever I might be carrying) with the other while we both go through.
I’ll also sometimes do it in particularly dirty bathrooms because (particularly when it’s one of the big round flat buttons) I can push it with my hip rather than with my just-washed hands.
It depends on the situation. The doors stay open a lot longer when you hit the button, and in a small foyer or store the heat loss or cooling loss can be, well, unfair to those in the store. Apart from that, it’s no big deal I guess.
Is this an inconsiderate thing to do? Like others here, there are one or two places where I regularly encounter doors that are quite unwieldy and where the button has been placed at a sufficient distance from the doors that they will be open by the time I get there, so I use the button rather than struggle with the heavy doors themselves. As an able-bodied person, I try to be considerate – never park in a handicap space, don’t use the handicap stall unless it’s urgent and that’s the only one open, etc. It never occurred to me that using the button for a door would be in any way inconsiderate to the less-able-bodied, or otherwise noteworthy by unaffected bystanders. Am I being oblivious here?
Is it ok if I do a Jedi hand-waving thing after I hit the button?
Even better, just lean against the wall in front of the button and hit it with your butt when someone comes up to the door. Wave your hands around like a magician and take a bow as they pass.
I’ve been told that those buttons are somewhat delicate and have to be serviced/repaired/replaced relatively often. So telling non-disabled people not to use it is really about avoiding unnecessary wear and tear. Don’t know how true that is.
We have on in my building at school, this being Chicago the heat loss actually is a big deal. Just opening the door normally drops the hallway temp, letting it stay wide open for several counts is obviously much worse. It’s an old building and there isn’t an entryway to buffer the cold like you might have in a new building.
This is true (at least it is for the button to the handicap door at my library). But it’s also true that pulling on the handicap door can strain the opening mechanism causing the door to break quicker.
I just like to push buttons, sorry. 
I also like when my son (aged 8) bounds to the door in front of me – the ones with the electric eye that open automatically – and says “Look, mom, I’m going to open the door by magic!” I can’t help, I get enjoyment out of small things. I could see being annoyed if I were somehow keeping the disabled people from using the button or going through the door, but being as I was reared in the South, I know better and hold doors open for the aged, infirm and pregnant.
I taught my 3-year-old to use the one at the mall, since she can’t open the door otherwise, and thoroughly enjoys (in the way that only a 3-year-old can) opening a door with the push of a button. I personally feel lame if I use the button, so I don’t.
Same here.
I do think people just like pushing buttons. That’s why kids are ‘allowed’ to push the elevator button or the crosswalk button. Some never grow out of it.
I like pushing buttons too. The doors like this at school are kind of slow and the buttons aren’t always far enough away to make it worthwhile, so if I use the automatic door it’s usually only when there are enough people going in and out the other doors and I don’t feel like waiting for them.
Where I used to work, there was a locked firedoor that required a card swipe to get through, but to come back out, you could just push on the door and it would open. Most of the other doors in the building needed a button before you could come back out. Anyways, despite the fact that everyone knew that you didn’t need to push the button there, pretty much everyone did it anyways… because the button that was there was a GIANT RED button that had “PUSH” on it in big white letters! We all admitted that there was a certain amount of childish glee related to actually being allowed to push that button!
They’re a godsend for stroller-pushers. Sure, I have enough experience to hold open a door and get a stroller through it, but it’s something of an acquired skill.
Let’s see.
Hands full.
Button can be pushed, when the door being pulled will make me lose my stuff.
I push button.
I don’t drop my stuff.
I also lose my grip on the handle sometimes because of my problems and slam into the door.
Push the button and avoid finding today is one of those days.
I got my converter box at Walmart two weeks ago and of course the door alarm went off. The day was already going bad, and I was having a bad coordination day. The lady hands back my receipt unfolded so I can’t fit it in my wallet with the bags I was holding. I get the receipt in the wallet again. I bump into the side of the doors when leaving. I knocked the doors into the emergency swing out position. I just snapped them back into the frame and left.