The article mentions that it's a problem to ride the elevator past the top or bottom floor, but it is unclear why. I don't see why this should be an issue.
Thanks to the warning signs I wasn't really afraid. They made me realize that this sort of thing likely happens quite regularly.
I used to do this in the Paternoster in the Roger Stevens building at the Uni Of Leeds in the 1980s.
Imagine you’re in a building with 22 floors, and your event with a few hundred people just ended on the 18th floor. The elevator has three bays with cars that only carry about 20 people at a time.
While you’re in the crowd waiting to go down, you hear elevator cars race to the top of the building, then when they come back down, the doors open and you’re met by a car that is already packed with people. A lot of the passengers are avoiding making eye contact, and wait a second, some of them look like people you just saw leaving by the stairs in the fire escape!
Apparently, the elevator algorithm is trying to be efficient by starting at the highest floor with a request. Do you wait where you are, take the fire escape up one floor, two floors, or just walk down 18 floors moderately disgusted with the situation?
Where I’ve seen this happen is after speaking events in the university clubs near Grand Central Station in New York. The complete dynamics of the situation probably involve a minor risk to social reputation, and some people playfully trying out game theory to amuse their friends.
Based on the adage that every (non-)warning sign is there for a reason, I can only assume that there have been incidents of people panicking after they realized they had gone to far.
Just to be clear: it’s absolutely safe to go around. Any other stories you may hear are the inside joke of those five beaurocrats on the top floor enjoying their tiny fiefdom of chaos.
Edit: could people downvoting this please give a reason? I’m really not complaining, just terribly curious what could possibly stroke people the wrong way in this benign post. Or is this the Paternoster conspiracy coordinating to keep their secret?
There is a variation which isn't - the "man lift".[1] Those are dangerous, and sometimes seen in parking garages for staff only. Those really do turn upside down at the top. They're usually equipped with a switch to shut them down if someone rides past the top landing.
But if you jostle the car while it's going around the top or bottom, there's a risk of jamming the mechanism.
Even in the care-free days of the early 20th century I don't think a device that would casually throw you around like that would be open to the public!
There were also no signs stating that you shouldn't ride over the top ... so we did and probably would have even if they flipped.