This is a really interesting read about a seemingly mundane subject.
Longest most terrifying sentence ever. Flying UP at 60 mph now scares me more than free falling. Wonderful.Trying to run in through closing doors is asking for trouble; so is climbing up into an elevator car, or down out of one, when it is stuck between floors, or letting a piece of equipment get lodged in the brake, as happened to a service elevator at 5 Times Square, in Manhattan, four years ago, causing the counterweight to plummet (the counterweight, which aids an elevator’s rise and slows its descent, is typically forty per cent heavier than an empty car) and the elevator to shoot up, at sixty miles an hour, into the beams at the top of the shaft, killing the attendant inside.
I was recently told by a fireman that in tall buildings if you hold the number of the floor you want to go to and door close simultaneously the elevator will make a really fast, no stop trip to floor, fast enough to be a bit scary even. I haven't had the chance to try it yet, but it could be even more star trek-like. Give it a try if you get a chance.