Wednesday July 6, 2005
Vertical transit
Strange things, elevators.
You step into this box, rather like an oversized metal coffin standing on end, with a dozen strangers. The doors close and seal you inside. And you go to your destination, completely cut off from the outside world.
Yet we take elevators for granted. We only become conscious of them when they don\’t do what they\’re expected to do.
On a recent ride, I pushed the button for an odd-numbered floor. The light would not go on. I pushed the button again. Same result. The elevator slid past my floor, and kept going up.
I felt, for an instant, as if I had been caught in some kind of science fiction tale where elevators had minds of their own. Perhaps this one wouldn\’t stop at all. Perhaps it would keep going, right out the top of the building, up to some distant galaxy, boldly going where no elevator had gone before…
If it had, of course, I wouldn\’t be writing this column.
Weird logic
“It doesn\’t stop at odd-numbered floors,” another rider explained. “To stop at an odd-numbered floor, you have to get on at an odd-numbered floor. Because you got on at an even-numbered floor, this elevator will only stop at even-numbered floors on the way up. On the way down it should stop at all floors…”
Did I mention that this elevator was in Ottawa?
It seems, somehow, like government logic.
But having made me aware of its existence, the elevator reminded me of other facts that I hadn\’t thought much about.
Did you know, for example, that elevators move more people than public transit systems?
A few cities have experimented with free transit systems. They reason that if you make the bus free, more people will ride instead of taking cars. Which will reduce the need for downtown parking. Which will lessen the wear and tear on roads. Which in turn will more than repay the costs of operating the buses.
But a lot of people condemn free public transit. Actually, they condemn free anything. They object to all subsidies, in principle. They defend individual freedom of choice. They support free enterprise.
These people are often quite influential. They insist that users should pay for any services they receive.
But elevators carry more people than buses. Free. And they\’re not subsidized by taxes.
They just happen to carry people vertically, instead of horizontally.
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I wonder if the user-pay proponents would accept pay elevators. Perhaps you\’d need to drop a coin in a slot to get the doors to open. Or swipe your credit card to get it to move. Perhaps frequent users could buy a monthly elevator pass…
No doubt there would soon be an Elevator Rewards program. And competition, as Otis and Schindler demanded de-regulation and equal space in high-rise buildings to attract elevator riders…
Why not? It works for the airlines, doesn\’t it?
Me, I prefer the free system. Even it doesn\’t stop at my floor.
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Copyright © 2002 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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