Why do people have to actually stand on transportor pads?
Many times we see the technicians are able to transport people to or from other areas, including within the ship itself. Is there an in-universe reference to an answer?
Good question. The transporter pads are like the base antennas that reach out and disassemble someone from where they are. They could transport them to some other place, but maybe it is easier, safer and more energy efficient to transport them to the pads in the transporter room.
But ... and why do they always have those three slider buttons that all slide up and down at the same time? Why not just have one slider? ;-)
As I recall, in the original series it was considered very unsafe to intraship transport; I would guess, in-series, that at that time there were interference issues with the the transporters and the re-integration process when they occur that close together, similar to microphone interference. By the time of TNG, that problem appeared to be solved.
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