Are Americans truly incapable of understanding elevators? Or is it just Oakland? Not having spent any real quality time in New York recently, I am not able to discuss definitively whether or not people in a major city like that have the same issues. But here in Oakland, people simply lose all common sense and curb all courtesies (assuming they ever possessed any) when it comes to using an elevator.
I work in a building with 27 floors. Not a super tall building by any means, but relatively large by Bay Area standards, and certainly high enough to necessitate the daily use of the elevators. Almost every day, with out fail, I observe first hand stupid elevator behavior. For example, one of the most baffling behaviors I experience daily is when the elevator doors open, the people standing in the hallway rush in without regard to the people trying to get off the elevator. This particular behavior is vexing to me because if you remove the concept of the elevator and look at the situation from the simple point of view of space: how can two people fit into the same space at the same time? Do you sit down on lap of valet when he delivers your car to you at the front of the restaurant? No, most people, even people in Oakland, I suspect, would allow the valet to get out of the car before they get in. What is so hard about this concept? In order for you to get into the elevator, the people occupying the space inside the elevator must be allowed to move out. And if they are not getting off at your floor, then you must wait for next elevator cab which, hopefully, will have less people in it. Y
ou don’t smash into a crowded elevator. Not only is it rude, but it is dangerous.
Another sampling of elevator mis-behavior that I observe every day is where the people getting off the elevator do so at a saunter. In some cases I have wondered if it is really possible to move one’s body any slower? The elevators cabs in my building are only about five feet deep. That is not more than three or four steps for most people from the farthest reaches of the cab to the doorway. Surely you can muster three or four reasonably hurried steps out of your tired, depressed, inconsiderate body so that the rest of us, who aren’t employed by the government, can move in and get on with our task.
I work in a building with 27 floors. Not a super tall building by any means, but relatively large by Bay Area standards, and certainly high enough to necessitate the daily use of the elevators. Almost every day, with out fail, I observe first hand stupid elevator behavior. For example, one of the most baffling behaviors I experience daily is when the elevator doors open, the people standing in the hallway rush in without regard to the people trying to get off the elevator. This particular behavior is vexing to me because if you remove the concept of the elevator and look at the situation from the simple point of view of space: how can two people fit into the same space at the same time? Do you sit down on lap of valet when he delivers your car to you at the front of the restaurant? No, most people, even people in Oakland, I suspect, would allow the valet to get out of the car before they get in. What is so hard about this concept? In order for you to get into the elevator, the people occupying the space inside the elevator must be allowed to move out. And if they are not getting off at your floor, then you must wait for next elevator cab which, hopefully, will have less people in it. Y
ou don’t smash into a crowded elevator. Not only is it rude, but it is dangerous.Another sampling of elevator mis-behavior that I observe every day is where the people getting off the elevator do so at a saunter. In some cases I have wondered if it is really possible to move one’s body any slower? The elevators cabs in my building are only about five feet deep. That is not more than three or four steps for most people from the farthest reaches of the cab to the doorway. Surely you can muster three or four reasonably hurried steps out of your tired, depressed, inconsiderate body so that the rest of us, who aren’t employed by the government, can move in and get on with our task.
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