Our friend Jim, whom you might know as author James Finn Garner (Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, Recut Madness), offers a most interesting idea. He writes:
I got on a crowded elevator at Northwestern Hospital. As everyone entered, they had to stop and check to see if their floor had been pressed already, but no one could really see anyway, because there were too many people and they all had to cram in to block the panel. This created a logjam, and more confusion, which created a bigger logjam.
Here’s my idea: Why not put the control panel on the back wall? That would change the traffic pattern: old riders could stand against the wall better, creating a corridor for new riders to enter and push their floor buttons.
An additional addition: In a crowded elevator, the rear panel might still be hard to read, so why not install something up high to indicate which floors had been pushed? I mean, the fake wood panelling is nice and all, but it ain’t exactly library quality, and function should win out over aesthetics–even if it’s hardly an issue.
Now, watch Otis run away with my idea.
Jim, who had absolutely nothing to do with the video (’Elevator,” by the rapper Florida), is also the creator of the baseball poetry site, Bardball.com and has his own terrific Blog.