I was reading an old building code book and found a rule about door swing that seems designed to fail

It said a door in a public hallway must swing open to cover at least 80% of the adjacent door's width. Found it in a 1978 municipal code from Springfield. Has anyone else seen a rule that practically guarantees people will get hit by opening doors?

3 comments

3 Comments

stellag211mo ago

Wow, that's a rule written by someone who clearly never carried groceries... Imagine trying to leave your apartment and the neighbor's door just smacks your pizza right out of the box. It's like they wanted to create a domino effect of people getting knocked over in hallways. Classic 70s logic right there.

troycarter1mo ago

My buddy lived in a building with that exact setup. He got a black eye from his neighbor's door while taking out the trash. The code writers clearly never tested their own ideas.

gavin_mason315d ago

Your buddy's story is funny but the timing's a bit off. Those rules about door swings come from the 1950s, not the 70s, before anyone really thought about hallway traffic patterns. The original code just said doors had to open a certain way and nobody bothered to check if it actually worked in real buildings. I've seen apartments where you have to hug the wall just to get past a neighbor's door. It's like the code writers lived in houses all their lives and never imagined two doors could face each other.