In a taxi in NYC, on the way to the airport, I noticed this sign on the door.
Despite the sign, when he stopped to let me out, he immediately explained, in a difficult to understand accent, “Push the lever, then pull the door”. It took 3 tries, but eventually I was able to get enough leverage on the red lever to push it down, which then made it possible to open the door.
The problem here isn’t so much the labels, it’s the lever. Unlike some vans, it’s not a button you simply press in with one hand as you grab the handle. The lever is high and far enough you can’t activate it as you grab the door.
I assume the designers weren’t stupid. They must have been thinking of something. Only… I can’t figure out what it was. The only thing that occurs to me is that maybe this is the ultra-low-end model. These are normally on car lots as loss leaders, like the one-only ads where you find the only one at that price is a hideous eggplant purple. Maybe all the ‘real’ models have electronic buttons, but the cab company (or owner-driver), knowing the short life and hard times of taxicabs, bought the loss-leader model only to discover its Pushmi-Pullyu aspects too late. (His signage doesn’t really help.)
My best guess is, since it was a beat up van, than the plastic button that was there got worn out and they had to replace it. Rather than find the actual plastic button (out of stock? Unavailable?), the shop added the lever as a replacement. The driver got sick of telling people, so put the stickers on, but learned it didn’t help later.
Major Design Flaw
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