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Saturday, October 23, 2004

Revolting Doors

I really don't like revolving doors! And yet they seem to be everywhere on campus - the Main Library, University Centre, Arts Building, the Guild, etc. etc.

They are supposed to facilitate efficient entry/exit to/from the building, and stop draughts, but more often than not they just generate queues and near-accidents.

It may just be my inadeptness but twice now I've entered the doors (hesitantly due to the fact that they move so fast and you have to get the timing perfect!) and got my foot or my rucksack jammed in the door. Aside from the embarrassment, the end effect is actually somewhat amusing - everyone else inside the door at the time simultaneously hits the glass in front of them with a dull 'thud' as the door stops dead. And maybe it's just me but the thought of squeezing through a 3-foot-wide gap as a sheet of glass and metal swings towards me at high speed, then trying to walk at precisely the right speed to match the rate of rotation, is quite off-putting.

After watching people using these doors (yes I'm that sort of sadistic person) I suspect I'm not the only one to have these sorts of hesitations!

What's most galling about these doors, though, is the fact that due to disability requirements the building must provide 'standard' opening doors at the same entry/exit point (imagine trying to get a wheelchair through a revolving door).

So why bother wasting the extra wallspace and inconveniencing everyone with a dangerous revolving door, when there is at least one perfectly useable normal door right next to it!

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