[johnnyo]

One reason door close buttons don’t work is because many places have a minimum time the doors have to remain open under ADA guidelines.

Once that time has passed, the door close. So there is no window in which the button would be useful.

[alwayslikethis]

That seems like a prodigious waste of everyone's time. In Japan, from what I've experienced, when there are not many people, you can get the door to close immediately after you get in, and it starts moving very soon after that. Imagine all the productive hours lost because of this.

[themitigating]

Hours? Seriously

[alwayslikethis]

It might only be a few minutes a day, but when applied on millions of people using elevators every single day, it adds up.

[watwut]

It does not create productive hours. One person can achieve quite a lot with additional 2 hours. 120 different people with 1 additional minute wont achieve anything of value in that one minute.

[josephcsible]

> many places have a minimum time the doors have to remain open under ADA guidelines.

What's the logic behind requiring this to happen every time? Why not just have a handicap button like doors do, and letting the elevator stay efficient the rest of the time?

[ec109685]

How would a handicap person hit that button?

[josephcsible]

The same way they do when they hit the handicap buttons that open doors to buildings.

[yellow_lead]

Elevators should have lower buttons for the handicapped

[themitigating]

"All handicapped people are in a wheel chair"

[yellow_lead]

Complain to the government then.

"Car Control Height. Maximum height for control buttons and mechanisms is 54 inches (1370 mm). Minimum height is 35 inches (890 mm)."

https://www.ada-compliance.com/ada-compliance/ada-elevators....

[themitigating]

"No because that's government regulations and they are all bad"

[yongjik]

In Seoul's subway stations, elevators usually take forever to close, like long enough to make you think "Geez if I just walked I would be on the other floor by now!"

And that's exactly the reason, i.e., to shoo away those with a good pair of legs, because otherwise people who do need elevators might end up waiting forever.

[josephcsible]

But even elevators in skyscrapers usually take forever to close, and nobody expects you to walk up stairs to the 50th floor just because you have a good pair of legs.

[j16sdiz]

Elevators in skyscrapers use lots of the energy. Guess the owner wants to save some energy?

[skipkey]

I worked in a building once where the close door button started a 3ish second timer then would close. As a side effect if the door was close to closing already it would sometimes actually lengthen the time the door was open. Drove me nuts when people would come in late and hit the button.

[pontilanda]

Bad programmers are all around us. It could have been fixed with a min() call

[jsmith45]

Yeah. there is a minimum dwell time, and the door close button will never close the door sooner than that on modern code compliant elevators in normal operating mode.

It is possible that there will be a default dwell time that is larger than the minimum, in which case the pressing the door close button would shorten the window to the minimum, but most elevators won't do that as the minimum is long enough already.

Similarly the door close button may have effect when the door open period was extended, such as by the door sensors, or pushing the door open button to prevent door closing, but the exact details will vary.

In other operating modes, especially firefighter mode, but also some maintenance modes, and some modes that expect a dedicated elevator operator (who can ensure the door remains open long enough for disabled people if present), the door close buttons do absolutely do have an impact, and can violate the normal dwell time rules.