Everyday I pass through these revolving doors, into and out of my building at work. There is a sign on the adjacent double doors that says, "please, use revolving doors." I always wonder to myself as the doors get clogged up in the morning and evening rush why we cannot use the adjacent double doors. I have seen people lug suitcases and open umbrellas through those revolving doors. Sometimes in the morning, I struggle for the strength to get them moving. Some day, I am going to have the time to sit and wait until someone gets fed up and uses those unlocked double doors. I wonder if the building regulars would continue to use the double doors if the sign was removed.
This makes me think of the subway, especially the revolving door-sized turnstiles that have become ubiquitous in many stations and cause huge bottlenecks - until someone busts open the door with the alarm because they're sick of waiting and pretty much everyone else follows through (to get away from the wailing alarm).
ReplyDeleteIs it an energy-efficiency thing? Less cold and hot air exchange in the winter and summer months, that I can sort of understand. But the fact that people wait in a somewhat orderly line, in New York City? That's pretty amazing to me. Have you ever seen anyone go through the double doors? I wonder if they would get yelled at...
So here's my human behavior comment... What is it that causes someone to defy the "rules"? Is it personality? Gender? Experience? Something about how important it is to them? We need to understand this if we are to understand how we get people to break the rules on sustainability and we haven't gone very far with that -- yet.
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