" 'In most elevators installed since the early 1990s, the 'close door' button has no effect. Otis Elevator engineers confirmed the fact to the Wall Street Journal in 2003. "

Interesting. In a previous career I worked at a hotel and had, as part of my job, a "fireman's service" key. Very handy thing.

Elevator banks in NYC offices and hotels have a key slot that, when activated, pulls all the elevators to the lobby. You're supposed to only do this in an emergency, such as a fire.

While the elevators are set to fireman's service, the same key (well, a duplicate, if yours is the one that was used to pull the elevators) is used inside an elevator to control it.

While on fireman's service the doors will not open unless you press the "open" button. If you take the car to a fire floor you really don't want the doors opening on their own.

You have to press and hold the "open" button until they are fully open; also handy in case you start to open the doors and start inhaling smoke.

Likewise, once open, the doors don't close unless you press and hold the "close" button.

I'm pretty sure that once you closed the doors the car automatically returned to the lobby.

Bottom line is, not every control you see on some equipment or machine is meant for everyone to use.