The Door Close Button
Also, consider what would happen if door close buttons really did what people think they want: to close the door immediately, unilaterally, and without limitation.<p>If elevators allowed that, then as soon as the doors started to open, a selfish elevator rider would think "sorry, you losers out there in the elevator lobby, I gotta get to floor 7 ASAP, so you can take the next one" and push the button.<p>So common sense says the button is only going to let you fine tune how long the door stays open, not have complete control. So you shouldn't conclude from the fact that it doesn't give you complete control that it must not do anything.