# Your arms are not broken. Open the door. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 13, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662 "2004-12-13T21:29:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iggy\_popov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@iggy\_popov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iggy_popov)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/1 "2004-12-13T21:29:43Z")
I work in the library at my local community college. Every day I come across more than my fare share of idiot students. The ones that get me the most though are the people that are perfectly healthy, not carrying anything in their hands and yet, use the handicap door opener. The front desk is close to the doors and every day I have to hear the whining of the electric motor over and over again. If someone is carrying a load of books or cannot open the door for a legitimate reason thats fine, but how hard is it to open a door? The most frequent offenders for this are other people who work in the library and the jocks that wander in. Come on people, we’re all adults here. Open the door yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/2 "2004-12-13T21:36:16Z")
Good lord that pisses me off as well. I try and go out of my way to avoid electric doors if at all possible. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/3 "2004-12-13T21:37:23Z")
Luddite. 🙂 Wait a few years and they’ll be logging on from their cellphones and ordering the door to open over the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/4 "2004-12-13T21:40:47Z")
Is the act of using the the auto door opener what bothers you? Or is it having to listen to the annoying sound of the motor that’s actually the cause of your frustration? ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/5 "2004-12-13T21:41:15Z")
A while back I had a summer job at an office building, close to 300 people worked there. Sometimes I think I was the only one who manually opened the door. How much energy is wasted per year by doing this? It’s probably not alot but multiply it a couple of billion times and I’m sure it’s something. ---
**Author:** ![iggy\_popov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@iggy\_popov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iggy_popov)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/6 "2004-12-13T21:45:38Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > Is the act of using the the auto door opener what bothers you? Or is it having to listen to the annoying sound of the motor that’s actually the cause of your frustration? It’s the people who are too lazy to open the door coupled with the annoying sound of the motor in the door. I mean its a door, you don’t even have to turn a knob or push a lever you just pull it open by the handle coming in and when you leave you can just push the door open. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/7 "2004-12-13T21:45:51Z")
> [@iggy popov](#): > > The ones that get me the most though are the people that are perfectly healthy, not carrying anything in their hands and yet, use the handicap door opener. If my coworkers are any indication, those people are simply afraid of picking up germs from the door so they use the handicap switch instead. ---
**Author:** ![iggy\_popov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@iggy\_popov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iggy_popov)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/8 "2004-12-13T21:47:53Z")
So the regular method of opening a door may spread germs but the handicap buttons are sterile? ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/9 "2004-12-13T21:52:13Z")
Ufff, when I was going to college over the past two years for my masters I’d see plenty of people who weren’t handicapped bypass the revolving door for the automated one. While it wasn’t a big deal in the spring or fall, in the dead of winter with snow blowing around it really sucks when someone opens that door. And it was usually someone who didn’t need the damned handicapped door. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/10 "2004-12-13T22:04:39Z")
Since when were automatic doors just for handicapped people? Did I miss another memo? ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/11 "2004-12-13T22:08:34Z")
When the motor prematurely burns out due to over use, the folks who really need at are the ones who are most inconvenienced. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/12 "2004-12-13T22:13:37Z")
> [@iggy popov](#): > > So the regular method of opening a door may spread germs but the handicap buttons are sterile? Well, no, but one doesn’t need to press a handicap button with their hand. A knee or elbow will do. The people I work with will do anything to avoid touching a doorhandle with their bare hand. ---
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/13 "2004-12-13T22:24:03Z")
I know at one local university, there are signs on the doors instructing able-bodied people not to use them so as to save electricity. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/14 "2004-12-13T22:39:08Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Since when were automatic doors just for handicapped people? Did I miss another memo? If you’re physically capable of opening the regular door and are otherwise unencumbered, using the wheel chair push-button door opener is a sign of pure laziness, and as **NurseCarmen** pointed out, causes unnecessary wear and tear on the device. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/15 "2004-12-13T22:55:05Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > If you’re physically capable of opening the regular door and are otherwise unencumbered, using the wheel chair push-button door opener is a sign of pure laziness, and as **NurseCarmen** pointed out, causes unnecessary wear and tear on the device. Whining about “laziness” that has no direct impact on you is just being overbearing. And believe it or not, the door-opening mechanism is designed to do its job thousands upon thousands of times before failure, so a few people using it for other than your “approved” reasons is not going to noticeably shorten its life. Get over it. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/16 "2004-12-13T23:24:50Z")
It could be worse, the automatic doors could have a cheerful and sunny disposition, it would be their pleasure to open for you and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done just imagine a door emitting a satisfied MMMMMM…Yum! every time it opened and closed, the horror, the horror… lets just hope the elevators don’t try to make you happy as well as take you up (and down!) to your floor 😉 ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/17 "2004-12-13T23:26:02Z")
Not sure if this is true at your school, but at mine, whenever I use a door with an automatic opener, if I open it manually, I still get a tinier sort of painful whining. Though it’s probably not true, it always seems like I’m killing the poor thing by manually opening it, sort of forcing it open. And of course that door is heavier because of the automatic opener. So yeah, people are lazy. -Lil ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/18 "2004-12-14T00:14:40Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > If you’re physically capable of opening the regular door and are otherwise unencumbered, using the wheel chair push-button door opener is a sign of pure laziness, and as **NurseCarmen** pointed out, causes unnecessary wear and tear on the device. Buttons? Where I’m from, automatic doors are, well, automatic. With the older ones, you put weight on a rubber matted steel plate. With the newer ones, you move under a motion detector. Why mess with buttons? ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/19 "2004-12-14T00:23:17Z")
I generally agree with this. However, at my school there are a few sets of doors that, by opening them manually, you start the automatic motor to open the door the rest of the way and hold it open. In these cases, it really doesn’t matter whether you press the button or pull, and I’ve gotten into the habit of pressing the button… Sidenote- Lib, the button we are referring to (I think I just used the royal we) is indeed the metal pad with a spring. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/20 "2004-12-14T00:25:22Z")
I believe the OP is referring to a type of door that is by all outward appearances a regular old hinged door, but which, upon the depression of a large button/pad will swing open. I don’t think he’s talking about the sliding automatic doors of convenience store and supermarket fame. Could be wrong. FWIW, the button/pad for the former generally has the universal symbol for handicap use (blue stick figure in wheelchair) depicted thereon. The OP opens a whole new realm though, not meant to be a hijack - is it unethical to use the handicap stall if the regular one is available? what if the regular one is not available? I may take this to great debates. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662.md?page=2)