Therefore I hate them.
(Via @funnahmonkey) A revolving door in the middle of the woods in Spain. How awkward.
Slice-n-Dice revolving door in the Boston T system. Bravely modeled by @bpersichetti
Revenge
We were leaving the Prudential center in Boston and encountered a very odd situation. There was a revolving door with an open regular door next to it held open. Naturally I walk towards the safer of the two and as I pass through the door rudely shuts right on me, right in front of two friends who naturally burst into laughter. Apparently the timer ran out on the handicapped button. WTF? I know it seems that maybe karma was being mean and perhaps if I had taken the revolving door things would have been better. Only revolving doors would try to injure you as revenge for mean blog posts.
Quote with 1 note
A revolving door for installation in a building, comprising a cylindrical shell wall, within the shell wall door leaves rotating about a central shaft and between a bottom plate and a top plate, and entrance and exit openings provided in the shell wall, at least one of which having an air-outflow unit disposed at a vertical edge of the shell wall, having an outlet slot for the generation of a vertically oriented and between the bottom plate and the top plate oriented air curtain substantially filling the headroom of the door, wherein the outlet slot is directed substantially radially towards the interior of the revolving door, and wherein during use the door leaves provide an antidraught seal, with the air-outflow unit being placed inside the building.
The Backstory:
I used to like them a lot, especially as a kid when I’d run around and around in them until told to stop and hurry along. Now, as an educated member of society, I’m shocked that these death traps not only exist, but have gained such popularity. Every time you use a revolving door, you are putting your life and safety at risk. They are impractical in almost every situation and they do not offer much benefit in return. First let’s establish what a revolving door is.
The definition is deceptive. Yes, revolving doors provide a pretty good weather seal, but but, the doors are inconvenient and impractical in almost every installation they are found. Large groups have great difficulty getting through them in a short amount of time, given that only one person can move though the door at once. The benefit of using the door versus the amount of time it actually takes to enter a building is way out of proportion. Revolving doors are also unfriendly to the handicapped. Nobody with crutches, let alone a wheel chair can enter or exit through the cramped compartments. It also alienates the elderly, some of whom are too weak or frail to push the door, and others who are intimidated by the technology. And what about people carrying bulky objects or rolling bags? To successfully enter and push the door while carrying something requires far more coordination and concentration than it should. This all leads me to believe that every building with a revolving door also needs to have a regular door for patrons with special needs. If this is the case, then what’s the point of having the revolving door in the first place?
The only benefit I see in having such a door is that it keeps wind out and regulates temperature better than standard swinging doors, thus saving energy. It’s a good concept overall, but the cons of revolving doors significantly outweigh any pros they might present. The same results could be met with the typical two sets of double doors with a small foyer in between, right? Add a handicapped button that opens the door automatically and it’s even more accessible! Even automatic sliding doors would help, though they do not really help the energy problem (and sliding doors have their own problems, but that’s a whole other rant). If temperature and wind control are really the only benefits to revolving doors, I strongly urge building owners to find more creative ways to compensate for the energy cost. I’m a green freak, and love anything to do with energy conservation, but I’m also an advocate for not putting people in peril every time they enter or exit through one of these “green alternatives”, which brings me to my next point.
When you use a revolving door, you put your life and the life of others at serious risk. You don’t think about it, but revolving doors are spinning deathtraps and in rare cases, guillotines. One of the distinct features of the revolving door is that it only spins in one direction (usually counter-clockwise, but maybe not in the southern hemisphere). Picture an overworked businesswoman leaving work late on a Friday night. There aren’t many people around. Typing frantically on her Blackberry and not paying attention to her surroundings, she walks to the lobby door as usual, pulling out her umbrella since it’s raining outside. She hastily enters the door compartment with the closed umbrella sticking out. Not paying attention, she pushes on the door and it spins, but catches on her umbrella. Since the brilliant design of the door prevents it from turning backwards, she is trapped until a passerby hears her desperate cry for help. It could happen to anyone…
In fact, something very similar happened to me on February 16, 2007. Basically the same as the story above, except with a soda can getting blown in between the door and the exterior. Since I am a hardcore geek at heart, I updated my Twitter account instead of calling for help. The following was tweeted while captive:
In fact it was at that moment I knew I needed to warn the world of the dangers presented by revolving doors, but I digress. Where was I?
Ah yes, guillotines. Whenever a high volume of people are entering and exiting at the same time, there’s a tendency for the door to spin faster than expected as a result of inertia. When people are entering and exiting small compartments at a high velocity, accidents are prone to happen. Picture a door spinning at constant, typical speed. Let’s assume a high volume of people and therefore constant use of the door. In the time the compartment is exposed to the outside or inside opening of the door the person inside the compartment needs to exit and the person outside needs to enter all the way. If the door were to spin closed before all limbs were inside, someone could easily break an arm or leg.
One day last summer, I walked past an unfortunate accident just outside a busy hotel. A reporter was taping man on the street interviews with guests and was trying to talk to a stranger. The interviewee ran into a revolving door just outside a hotel and the reporter’s arm, with microphone in hand, followed him in. Crushed inside the door, paramedics and recue squad personnel had to remove the panel of the door to free her. I know this seems stupid and we should let natural selection take its toll, but accidents happen all the time and it could happen to you. You don’t even need to be doing anything wrong to be a victim. Watch the video:
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