In other words, "I’m one of those lazy slobs who regularly does what is rightfully being criticized, but since I can’t really argue that, I’m going to have to demand to see a cite that an elevator is for going more than one floor. Otherwise, I’m just going to continue to be a jerk, because ‘hey, no documentation that says I can’t ride the elevator one floor.’ "
in other words, no, there isn’t any rule, regulation, documentation etc that elevators are only for travel more than one floor, but I still want to argue the point anyhow, so I’ll just call some more names.
got it.
Other legitimate reasons to use the elevator:
Many of the stairwells I’ve seen are designated fire escapes, and won’t allow for some one to exit except on the ground floor. if you need to get back into the building you can only do so from the ground floor, which may be problematical.
Some of the stairwells are unsafe, being non public areas, folks can (and do) lurk in the area. Some people may be legitimately concerned for their safety.
Many people have disabilities that are not readily discernable by the casual observer. this has been covered already.
There are times when a person may not have the time to take the stairs (the OP’s guess as to wait time for the elevator was a guess).
The amount of time necessary to stop at a floor and have passengers get off or get on is negligable. and is the same amount of time regardless of the floor. so, some on getting on the floor below the OP has ‘cost’ the OP the same amount of time as those they’re grousing about. Some one gets off at Floor 3. Does the OP demand that those intending to get off at floor 2 disembark now and walk?
The elevators in buildings are there for general use of all the patrons of the building. try and get along, wontcha?
No - it wasn’t the point of the OP, but it is a valid point, nonetheless. If you want to take the elevator down one floor while being perfectly physically able to take the stairs, and potentially make someone who is NOT able to take the stairs late, that’s you prerogative. I just think it’s a bit jerky. Sort of like using the handicap stall in the bathroom, when other stalls are available and a person in a wheelchair is waiting. You won’t go to jail for it, but it’s not a very nice thing to do.
can you please point out where I said that was ok? what’s that? you can’t 'cause I didn’t? you’re just assuming my position would be to force some one in a wheelchair to wait while otherwise able bodied persons took all of the available space on an elevator even though they were only going one floor? thanks, but no, that’s not my position.
I’m answering the OP’s point. had the OP stated “I use a wheelchair, waited for an elevator and was unable to get on one 'cause it was full of apparently able bodied people who were only going down one floor” I’d have agreed that was rude behavior on their part. But since that wasn’t the OP, ya know, I wasn’t going there. Simply calling folks rude for using a public elevator for its intended use is, IMHO, rude.
I’m not being obtuse, I simply don’t agree with you. If I held everyone to my standard, the OP is a lazy fucking bum. But, you see, I acknowledge that other people are, well, other people and they have different viewpoints from mine. I would walk down the 15 flights. I would choose to do so. Other people would prefer not to. The OP is complaining because he chooses not to use the stairs (and it IS A FUCKING CHOICE) but when others choose not to use the stairs (for some of whom it probably ISN’T A FUCKING CHOICE) he gets all snarly about it. 15 flights or 1 flight, it’s still a fucking choice. His fucking choice is undoubtedly inconveniencing someone, somewhere. Probably a yak herder in Tibet.
The moral of this entire thread is this: People are inconvenient things to have around.
No, there’s no such rule. You win. :rolleyes:
There’s no rule that says you need to let someone into traffic.
There’s no rule that says you need to hold a open for a person behind you.
There’s no rule that says you need to need to let a pregnant lady sit down on the bus.
Some of us just happen to do those things because we think that it’s part of living in a courteous society.
actually, yes, there are laws regarding yielding ROW
no, there isn’t. But that wasn’t the issue presented by the OP, either. and I’d have agreed that in most circumstances, holding the door open for the person behind you is the polite thing to do. However, I wouldn’t say that you’d have to ask the next three people if they intended to go in or not, and offer for them as well, for example.
once again, that’s not what the OP was about. If you keep on assuming (incorrectly) my position on various other things we’ll run out of space eventually. why not answer my objections to the specifics on this thread and stop assuming what my position would or wouldn’t be in other circumstances? eh?
super duper. and I think courtesy also suggests that you not call people rude and other names w/o reason. Our mileage obviously varies on that.
really, at least can we stop w/the straw men? I’m generally most curteous - I hold doors open, when folks appear to need help, I offer it, I let people in traffic, I even say “thanks but no” to telemarketers.
I actually prefer wring’s initial point, which was that folks seriously are not nearly as inconveninced as they seem to be making it out. I think this is actually a more general problem, folks allowing themselves to get annoyed and distressed over unimportant things. I am not trying to tell people what they can and cannot be annoyed about, but I find my life is much less stressful if I let most little things slide.
In order to be consistent, you should be arguing that I’m not allowed to sit down because I might be inconveniencing someone else inadvertently, and besides, how lazy would it be to sit down when I obviously don’t have to?
Using a door, sitting in a chair, using the elevator, each of those things could possibly inconvenience someone else. Perhaps I want to go through the door when someone else does, too! That might force them to wait a few extra seconds. Perhaps I’m seated while someone else who forgot their Dr. Scholl’s shoe inserts is standing by with achy feet. Inconvenience, thy name is Julie. And perhaps at some point I’ve gotten on an elevator when someone already on the elevator has to wait a few seconds.
Other people going about their lives can be an inconvenience for me. The world isn’t designed around me, more’s the pity.
Hell, I get judgemental about folks who refuse to take the stairs one flightup! I walk up to my work everyday–all 4 flights. I average 13,000 steps at work a day, too. Then after work, I walk down and off I go to my car. I do this for exercise and also because it’s quicker than waiting on sore feet for an elevator.
Sorry, but in this world, rightly or wrongly, you are assumed to be able bodied, unless physically obvious or stated elsewise. The only place I know of where the assumption does not work is on airplanes these days–the bit about if you cannot maneuver this door or are unwilling etc, then we will reseat you etc.
There are probably as many reasons to use an elevator, even for short “flights” as there are people. That fact does not preclude the fact that there are just as many people out there who just use the 'vator 'cause it’s there. I imagine perceived convenience has alot to do with it.
I certainly don’t equate those who recklessly indulge in short trips in elevators to say, war crimes or animal abusers–but they are one more small aggravation in a day filled with it. Think about it–if some of these folks actually used the stairs–they might positively impact on their own health in a fairly innocous way.
And of course, those with medical issues are exempt from this–I can’t believe that that even has to be spelled out.
DignanI SPECIFICALLY stated that I wasn’t targeting you, and that it was only ONE segment of what you’d said that put into perspective some of my questions and subsequent post. Which was, as I stated aimed at EVERYONE who is deciding that taking the elevator is lazy, rude and anti-social, if it’s done from a certain “unacceptable” floor number.
However, once again, WHY does it matter if even a young healthy person is taking the elevator? Are they taking your place? Causing you to not get a space on the elevator? Crowding you in some way?
Now, in that same vein, would the ele-police please tell us at which floor it IS acceptable to take the elevator and in what state of health?
Some have said from the third floor and below is rude. Some have stated that from the fifth and below is rude.
Like some others have mentioned, these people whether healthy or not are NOT taking your place on the elevator, they’re not displacing you, or making you get off, so how exactly is this rude or “anti-social”? And as others have mentioned, those getting on at much higher floors are “holding you up” for just as many seconds as those “holding you up” on lower floors, so what is the difference? Other than your need to control others’ behaviour and be all nitpicky about "they don’t need to use the elevator for “ONLY” X amount of flights.
Lastly, to Trunk the reason people are bringing up that yes, some of us are injured is NOT to show that there are a vast number of injured people but to illustrate that JUST by looking at someone, you do NOT know if they are “completely healthy” or not. So judging someone on YOUR perception of them is wrong and just as “rude and a little anti-social” as you’re accusing the elevator takers.
Sez who? Do you have a cite for the “intended” or “legal” uses of elevators?
bolding mine.
Again, sez who??? Why is it more “necessary” for a person to take an elevator 4 floors, than it is for the person who’s already BEEN up the flight from the 1st to the 2nd floor 15 times since 8 and it’s only 915 and they are not only sick of it, but need to get quickly to a meeting? What DIFFERENCE does it make? It holds up others on the elevator no MORE than it does for them to have seperate and different groups of people stopping them on all of the other floors.
3 folks from the 15th floor stop at the 8th, 2 people each get on at the 14th, 13th and 12th in order to ride to the 2nd, 4 people from the 8th stop on the 4th…and so on, so what the hell difference is the 5 or 6 seconds of the folks getting on on the 3rd to ride to the 2nd or 1st going to make?
Okay, I’m REALLY bad at math, but even I know that, first off, it’s not 30 seconds per stop, and secondly that the time taken for the stop doesn’t multiply out over each person waiting for it on the lower floors! And lastly, a crowded elevator coming from the 15th floor is going to take a minute or two to get to the bottom floors even WITHOUT people getting on on the “unacceptable” floors.
Those bottom few floors are only going to add a few seconds to the whole trip from the top. Hardly adding up to a 10 minute wait.
If the elevator in question has some sort of epidemic of hordes of extremely young and healthy people getting on at the unacceptable floors and IF that is then somehow making handicapped people wait 10 and 15 minutes every time they want to use the elevator, and if these people are aware of this particular building’s elevator problem, then yeah…but with ordinary elevators in ordinary buildings? Those are weak analogies at best.
Whoda thunk the lazy were so vociferous in defending their actions?
Look this is easy:
An elevator stop is unquestionably a minor inconvenience for the people on it. No, it’s not on the order of a heart attack or even a flat tire, but it’s a minor inconvenience.
That inconvenience is transferred to every person on the elevator.
No one cares about someone stopping the elevator so that they don’t need to trudge 5 flights on stairs.
People roll their eyes, and PIT apparently, when that gets extended to someone causing the inconvenience in order to avoid ONE flight of stairs.
Yup, but you’re all correct. Nowhere is it written that you can’t stop the elevator to take one flight of stairs, so you win. It has nothing at all to do with actually considering the people you deal with in daily circumstances. If there’s not actually a rule written down somewhere barring it, then any sort of behavior is completely hunky dory.
Trunk:
A. How is the person waiting for the elevator to know how many people are on it? (addressing your concern of relative number of people inconvenienced)
B. how is the inconvenience for the person on the elevator different waiting for some one on floor 2 vs. floor 6? Neither “had” to happen. (addressing the concern wrt ‘inconvenience per person’)
C. Why are the minor inconvenience (of waiting a few seconds) of the people on the elevator more important than any consideration the person waiting for the elevator? (addressing original concern wrt “inconvenience to elevator rider”)
Calling some one “lazy” because they disagree w/you is rude, by the way. Note, too, that these (except for the first) are questions I’ve put to you already that you’ve ignored in your quest to simply call names. One might perceive that as laziness as well.
A. Because the OP is talking about an elevator in an at least 15 story office building. And, it’s part of that person’s estimation that there is a reasonable chance that it’s occupied.
B. For the same reason you don’t give up your space in the line at the grocery store to someone with 10 items. For the same reason you don’t stand there holding the door for a person 50 feet behind you. You make a judgment based on your estimation of the inconvenience to YOU and the inconvenience to THEM.
C. Because there are NUMEROUS people on the elevator, not one.
D. I’m calling you lazy not because you disagree with me. But because I suspect you’re a person who takes an elevator one floor instead of walking. That’s lazy (*).
(*) No, not if you have gout, two bad knees, a prothestic, gangrene, a broken leg, a bad back, a migraine, or. . .what was the last one. . .temporary or permanent breathing conditions.
I don’t understand something. Since you cannot possibly know what condition anyone has, how can you say at all that someone getting on on the whatever floor is lazy? is it just the fact that they might be lazy that bothers you?
What about people who take the escalator up, or god forbid, down a floor? Shouldn’t they always take the stairs unless they are infirm because they are holding up people who really need the escalator? (Yes, it does cause a holdup if lots of people are trying to get on and off. Less able-bodied people on the escalator would speed things up for everyone else.)
What about those moving sidewalks in airports? Healthy people should walk on the floor because they really don’t need the assistance of the moving sidewalk, right?
Someone earlier mentioned the bus - should everyone stand at all times unless they are infirm because if they sit they are taking the possibility of sitting from some infirm person?
How are you able to see and know for certain who is getting on the elevator because they’re lazy and who has some condition that according to you makes it permissible to use the elevator? I would like to have that talent too.
A. insufficient. Especially since your claim is also that “the greater number of people x small inconvenience”= more important than “whatever” inconvenience to the person waiting.
B. again, unresponsive/insufficient since your claim seems to be that (some unknown) number of people being mildly inconvenienced outweighs whatever inconvenience to the single person waiting at the lower floor.
C. again - insufficient/unresponsive. so if it ws only one other person on the elevator, the person on floor 1’s actions wouldn’t have been rude? how on earth could they avoid your condemnation? how many people’s minor inconvenience does it take to avoid the condemnation of “rude” from you, vs. “how much” inconvenience to the single person. what if there were 10 people waiting on the 1st floor? will that change your equation?
D. Once again you’re making assumptions about me w/o evidence. That is, once again, rude behavior. and I suspect, lazy as well, since you’ve never bothered to ask. to save time, I’ve arthritic knees and have trouble with the three steps up to my office. (and yes, down, as well). do I always take the elevator? no. But I did refuse to take the outside open air steps out of my polling place, opting instead for the main entrance w/cement stairs. yes, taking those stairs vs. the ramp.
Once again (from my post #46 in which I also provide cites for other statements in my post)
Lazy, as defined by dictionary.com is as follows:
- Resistant to work or exertion; disposed to idleness.
- Slow-moving; sluggish: a lazy river.
- Conducive to idleness or indolence: a lazy summer day.
- Depicted as reclining or lying on its side. Used of a brand on livestock.
Synonyms: lazy, fainéant, idle, indolent, slothful
These adjectives mean not disposed to exertion, work, or activity: too lazy to wash the dishes; fainéant aristocrats; an idle drifter; an indolent hanger-on; slothful employees.
Americans work more hours than any other country, and even those “runners up” work some damn long hard hours.
Please explain to us how a person, or persons, trying to save time in an already OVERWORKED (read: not lazy) schedule are “lazy”.
Also, you still haven’t answered why the 5 seconds of a person getting on at the 2cnd floor to go down somehow is more assholish and inconsiderate to those on the elevator than the other groups “holding them up” at other floors.
In the grand scheme of time spent on the elevator, people getting on on the bottom floors adds no more time than the several stops at the top or middle floors.
So, other than the need to indulge in a self-righteous “jeez, ONE FLOOR” rollie eye, what DIFFERENCE does it make to the other elevator riders?
We didn’t ask why you were annoyed at them, you’ve already made that clear, you believe that they’re “lazy”.
We asked what difference it makes. It doesn’t take more time. It doesn’t mean anyone has to “lose a spot” (and we’re talking about normal elevators here, not the hypothetical WAY too popular elevator that is mysteriously always packed and always takes 10 minutes to get from the 2nd floor to the first, despite the fact that there are only 15 floors in the building), nothing is gained or lost by those on the elevator.
So, what actual phsyical to YOUR day difference does it make?
I can understand if there’s say…you and a crippled guy waiting for an elevator and there’s only room for one person. Then yes, you would truly suck if you didn’t offer your space on the elevator to that guy.
but what the hell is wrong with using a device for its intended purpose?
I already asked that. apparently, though no one so far has been able to provide evidence to prove it, the “intended use” of an elevator is to move people more than one or two (the authorities here are unclear) floors. Makes one wonder why there are elevators in two story buildings w/o an armed guard on it insuring that only persons with provable physical limitations use it, but there you are.