The elevator in our building is interesting. It appears to be from a time when elevators were first invented and it gives the impression of being on its last legs so we only use it if we are loaded down with groceries or laundry. The elevator has two sets of doors: inside bifold doors and outside doors that you have to pull to get in or push to get out. The outside doors are locked except when the elevator is on that particular floor. The elevator opens and closes the bifold doors and I have to watch that my packsack doesn’t catch on them because they stick into the elevator by about 8 inches when the doors close.
When you go to the elevator, you try to pull open the elevator door. If you can’t, you know the elevator is not on your floor so you have to call for it by pushing the button. The button starts to flash when the elevator arrives.
When two people get into the elevator and want to go to different floors it’s quite interesting. First of all its very cosy so if you are uncomfortable being face to face of the order of 6 inches, maybe you should just let your neighbour get into the elevator and wait for the elevator to come back. In any case, the elevator cannot multitask so whoever pushes the button first gets to go to their floor. The elevator will not accept any more buttons being pushed. It’s not that it complains, it just doesn’t do anything. There aren’t that many people in the building so people are often surprised by that feature. If for example, two people get in the elevator for floor 2 and floor 4 and the person going to floor 4 pushes the button first, then the person going to floor 2 has to take the extra ride to the 4th floor, and wait until that person leaves before the elevator will pay any attention to their attempts to push the button for floor 2.
WR Foster 