I could write an entire book of elevator etiquette advice, I really could, but that’s not what this post is about.
I work in a midwestern high-rise (26 floors), and every day at 9am and 1pm there’s a line circling the entire elevator bay area, winding and bending and circling back upon itself, of people trying to get upstairs. It’s the most infuriatingly stupid of all the stupid things one encounters in a typical work week, simply because it’s so regular, so repetitive, and so utterly pointless. Now, there are a lot of reasons behind the line — too many people located on the upper floors, scheduling logjams wherein the majority of people come in at 9 and come back from lunch at 1, slow-to-respond elevators, etc. — and there have been a multitude of efforts to alleviate these problems. Signs have been put up in the bays encouraging people to fill the elevators to capacity; Timing studies have been done; Office online message boards have been inundated with suggestions from the populace; People have even stood in the bay and guided people to the open elevators, held the doors open for passengers to alight and come aboard, and urged riders to move all the way back into the car to allow the most people on, ushering new riders on in the process. But it occurs to me that the real problem, the pervasive, unfixable problem, is not one of timing or numbers or a desire for personal space. Rather, it is the deep-seeded inclination of the regional culture to stand in a single-file line.
I grew up in New York, and while where I lived wasn’t anywhere near New York City, Manhattanites (or anyone in the state, really) would never stand in a single file, ridiculous line to get on an elevator. It’s an elevator. You’re all going up. New Yorkers would mill about in groups, congregate and amass in an unstructured way. They would wait for the elevator and THEN figure out, organically, who gets on first. Sometimes there might be some jostling or jockeying for position, but everyone understands that they’ll all get where they’re going. Whereas if I told you the number of times I’ve personally witnessed someone here in my office waiting to get on an elevator when the person in front of them in line is further away or not paying attention or whatever, you wouldn’t even believe me. It’s insane. Elevators go up not even 50% full because people (standing in a line so long it wraps around multiple corners, mind you) are too timid to cut in front of someone. (Note: this is not a problem they experience while driving.)
A lot of people chalk this up to New Yorkers being rude as a general rule, but I don’t brook with that. I’ve been on many a New York elevator that never saw an entry line and yet boarding still functioned in a courteous and polite manner. And the lie that Midwesterners are somehow carrying the Politeness Torch for the rest of the country has left more than a few of them a bit holier-than-thou about it, to tell you the truth. However, it is undeniable that the cultures of the areas are VERY different in a LOT of ways.
I told you all that to tell you this: Once about 14 years ago I was at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. I was winding my way through the elaborate, fabricated line structure of one of the roller coasters when I came face-to-face with a woman pushing a baby stroller (… I don’t know) out of the line. I’m not sure if she was lost, or if she’d tried to stand in line with the rest of her party instead of waiting for them at the end or what was going on, but those lines (with the guide rails and the bars and all that) are not all that wide. There was no room for her and the people trying to get up to the ride, much less her and the entire Graco Travel System she was driving. So I said something (I don’t remember what), VERY MUCH under my breath because I am terrified of confrontation, about the exit being the other way or whatever, and she stopped, turned around, and in all her Jersey-accent-glory, said, “I KNOW IT’S THE WRONG WAY.”
Culture. It’s different everywhere.
/jessica
Viable Option 