Elevator/Lift Bells

OK - I never would have imagined that one of the things I'd need to get used to is a different system for elevator bells.

Imagine the scene. You are in a large office tower with a bank of 6 elevators. You press the call button for the lift. Instantly, the light above one of the doors lights and the bell rings. Like Pavolov's dog, you position yourself in front of the doors to wait for the car to arrive. Your mind wanders, you are thinking about work or trying to remember where you parked the car. You are responding to the bells and lights like you have been "trained" to all your life. But nothing happens. After a while, the light above your door goes off and across the lobby a light and bell go off over a different set of doors.

I have now learned that the way elevators work here is that they try to predict which car will bet the first to arrive to your floor. This is the first light and bell that you hear. However, based on who gets in the elevator on other floors and how many different stops the car needs to make, the car that was predicted may not be the one to actually arrive first. Hence the second light and bell above a different set of doors.

I guess the reason I find this so irritating is that so much of this response is unconscious and I find myself standing in front of a set of closed doors for several seconds before I realize that nothing is happening.

However, I was just in Brussels and I've decided it is much better than no light or bells at all. In Brussels, the lift would arrive, the doors would silently open, and I would completely miss it. I had pressed the button and then was staring/daydreaming about something else and would miss the arrival & departure of the lift. I would only notice when I looked to see that the call light was off - and would have to press the call button again - this time telling myself I need to pay more attention. For those of you that know me, you know that it is completely possible for me to miss the second arrival of the elevator car because I have yet again drifted off thinking about something else.