Hi Peter,

that was a nice observation you posted!

Interestingly the elevator is a public utility with a personal interaction. And that lends itself to some amusing observations.

- There seems to be a general confusion on the purpose of the up/down buttons. Some think it is a call button : like if he reads the current position of the cage as "12 " and he is on the 10th floor and wants to go up, he still will press the "down" button thereby calling the elevator to his floor.
- There is this other guy who could'nt care less on the current position of the cage and just presses the button based on his requirement - up for up and down for down.

- The third variety ( with no gender bias) will want to play it safe and will ALWAYS press both buttons irrespective of his intended direction of travel. True, these people find it limiting on the final floors where there is only one button to push.

- Once inside a packed elevator, some automatically assume the job of the operator. Leadership qualities ? ( here in India we still have lift operators in some buildings - even though the elevator has the "automatic" option).

And incidentally elevators are "lifts" in most parts of India.

And have you ever wondered why is it a lift or elevator when for 50% of the time, it is lowering people ?

Raghu