Eventually It Closes

I always suspected that there was something amiss with door-close button in the lifts. A Newyorker article throws light:

In the old system -- board elevator, press button -- you have an illusion of control; elevator manufacturers have sought to trick the passengers into thinking they are driving the conveyance. In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button does not work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) ....That the door eventually closes reinforces people's belief in the button's power.