Why are elevators so sluggish in response to button-push?

You get into the elevator and push the button for the floor you wish to be taken to, and you can almost visualize the elevator itself issuing a put-upon sigh, putting aside the Agatha Christie paperback it was reading, standing up, giving you a sour stare, and then resentfully and slowly closing the doors, belching, adjusting its balls, and finally pulling the lever to engage the lift motor.

I’m going to hazard a guess that it has something to do with a belief that elevators in a building work more efficiently if you provide ample opportunity for any additional trailing people who also wish to board to get into the damn thing before it takes off, but does anyone know for sure? Can anyone corroborate? And, if so, is there any kind of statistical justification for such a belief, that a sluggishly responsive elevator gets more people to their destination more efficiently? I would think a very mild delay, maybe a half-second, would be better (especially insofar as the doors will reopen once they’ve started to close if anything — foot, elbow, fingertip, edge of briefcase — gets between them before they close). The very long delay would only accomodate people trailing significantly behind the one(s) already in the elevator who pushed the floor-button, and on behalf of whom the person in the elevator has no inclination to insert an arm to hold the door. Meanwhile, it slows everyone else down, and they stand there repeating poking the button in annoyance and frustration, eventually wearing out button-parts, necessitating button-repair, which takes the elevator out of service and delays people even more.

Anyone know of any statistical justification for long-delay elevators, or, alternatively, solid evidence backing up my indictment of them?

[A move to the Pit would not be met with my objection if there does not appear to be any relevant empirical evidence]

I’m sorry that I have no answer but your first paragraph was really frickin funny. Thanks for the smile. :slight_smile:

Performance vs. reliability is a continuum. Which would you rather do, wait a few seconds for the doors to close or wait an hour or two for a repairman to come fix the broken-now-but-fast-when-it-works express elevator?

In the SF Bay Area, they had a problem with the BART trains taking too long for some commuters. So, they changed the programming so that they would accelerate harder, reach top speed sooner, stay at top speed longer, and brake harder (and shorter) when it was time to stop.

The programmers didn’t bother checking with the people who built the engines, brakes and other moving parts to see if this was a good idea.

Average travel time was, indeed, shortened, until the trains started to break down. All at about the same time…

Rather than start a new thread, I’d like to ask another “Why do elevators do this?” question.

When I accidentally hit the up call button when I really want to go down, I immediately hit the down call button. Now, both buttons are lit, and only the first one pressed (up) goes out when the 'vator arrives. I get on, and press my floor, which is below me. No one else is there to press a floor button above. The elevator doors close, there is a pause, then they open again before closing and taking me to the floor requested.

It seems to me this behavior would only make sense if the down call button were pressed after the doors close the first time. If the call was made before the elevator arrived, it should not assume there are others who will want a down elevator. Why the double door-open?

Well, there’s a short Dope article on why the close door button doesn’t work.

As far as general slowness goes, as soon as I read your (quite funny) OP I immediately remembered the elevator I waited for each day I was on jury duty in downtown Trenton last year. It really was five times slower than any elevator I had ever ridden in – agonizingly slow. It was easily 30 seconds before the doors even began their slow motion closure.

It wasn’t until the final day that I realized that this was likely intentional: imagine the embarrassed look on the face of a cowering defendant who had bolted from the courtroom only to find that his elevator doors didn’t shut until it was far too late.

This is because elevators aren’t very smart. Since both buttons were pressed, it assumes there are two people wanting to use the elevator. Since it was already going in a certain direction it stops for the one going in that direction. If it gets no request to continue in that direction, either from the imaginary person or from another floor, it decides that person changed their mind or took the stairs or something. I then decides to reopen its doors to let you on and take you in the opposite direction. If you had gotten on to go down when the elevator arrived and pushed your floor button, the elevator would have still gone up if someone on a higher floor had called it. It would have then gone down and stopped at your original floor to answer the second call. Then, finally, it would have taken you to your destiantion (possibly stopping to let the other person off, first.)

I’m interested in situations where there are multiple elevators. Like the cruise ship I was on. There were 5 elevators on the ship I was on, all with a single call button and readouts of the floors they were on. I was constantly annoyed that it seemed only one elevator would ever respond to a call. I’m on floor 3, and the readouts of some of the other elevators show they are on nearby floors. When I push the button, the elevator on floor 11 is the one that responds, because it was on the way down anyway. Of course, I end up waiting for a while because it stops at 10, 9, 7, 5, & 4. It just seems to defeat the purpose of multiple elevators.

I thought about writing a simulation myself to see if it would make more sense to have the closest elevator respond, but I never got around to it and I’m sure there’s studies out there already.

The other stupid thing about that setup was that only 2 of the elevators went to floor 12, and there was no way to request those specific ones. You’d have to go to floor 11 if you got the wrong one and walk up a floor.

An elevator door closing within a half-second would violate rules of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those people you denigrate as “trailing behind” are coming as fast as their wheelchairs or crutches will allow – give 'em a little consideration, for gosh sake! What you’re rushing off to isn’t really that all-fired important, after all.

Someday you’ll be elderly too, and moving a bit slower – then you’ll appreciate having a bit more time to get on the elevator.

Why would it in any fashion violate ADA for an elevator to close within a half-second of a passenger having pressed the “4th floor” button from within the elevator? Did you perhaps misunderstand the problem, or is there something I’m missing?

I’d think the disabled (/ancient/slow/whatever) person would be disadvantaged if an elevator, upon arrival, opened its doors only for a half-second then closed them and ran off with or without passengers, but unless elevator passengers tend to be assholes who would hit the destination button and laugh while someone on crutches fails to get to the elev door before it closes in their face and takes off without them, I don’t see my proposed half-sec rule being a problem for them. And my general experience has been that elevator passengers will detain the elevator they’re in if they see you coming.

According to the actions of those in the last building I worked, it’ll come faster if you repeatedly jab the button as fast as possible. Pretend you have the right arm of a 14 year old boy alone in a bathroom pleasuring himself to a TV Guide. Now, move it in front of the floor button you desire and attack it for the better part of a minute.

There, see how much faster it went?

:smiley:

Certainly pushing the button lots of times brings the elevator more quickly. It thinks there are a lot of people waiting on that floor and hurries to get there. Rotating your finger in a circle and saying “come on, come on” works as well, as long as the circle is in a vertical plane. The two acts have a synergistic effect.

On the other hand the door close buttons are there to give you something to do while you wait for the doors to close by themselves.

Excellent explanation. It’s worth noting that while elevators aren’t smart, the people who designed the algorithm are. Given very few inputs (two buttons on each floor, n buttons in the elevator) and an unknown stream of people going every which way, the path the elevator follows is very efficient.

I have the opposite problem from the OP. My office is on the top floor of the building and it seems like the elevator doors here want to close immediately after opening. My shoulders get crunched at least once a week. What’s strange is that this doesn’t happen on the other floors. It’s like the elevator is scared of something up here.

That’s the second person who has misinterpreted what I was saying/recommending.

I don’t think the elevator doors should just close a half-second after opening. I think that would be annoying. I think that would be a stupid design.

I think the elevator doors should close a half-second after someone steps into one and hits one of the floor-numbered buttons.

It should also leave. It should not close its door and then sit there for 10 seconds before going up or down.

If you’re on a busy floor, there’s a stream of people coming into the elevator, all pushing the button at different times. Under your system, the door would slam on whoever’s coming in after the first button is pushed.

The elevator doors in my world reopen automatically if they encounter intervening body-parts. Those in yours don’t?

Yes, but people don’t like this – see ascenray’s comment 3 posts earlier about being ‘crunched’. And this makes people stop, and jump back, and be hesitant about entering the elevator. All things that cause a slowdown in filling the elevator, thus taking longer overall.

Elevator companies are aware of all these issues, and set the controls to be a compromise that is effective overall. And building owners are all over them if there are problems with the elevators.

So in your ideal world you’ll have the doors jerking back and forth as people enter the elevator and press their floor button? And should there be a wee break in the line, and the doors close part way, you’re gonna have to risk a limb to enter the elevator? No thanks, I think the elevators in my world work perfectly fine as is.

Exactly! Even though you know/hope in your mind that the door will open back up when it touches you, for a split second it’s “Oh, hell, I’m screwed” A bit disconcerting, to say the least.

Same thing with automatic garage doors.