Mechanical circulation of people - Analysis of needs and traffic

Vertical passenger traffic has become one of the key parameters for quality of life in any building that uses elevators. The simultaneous evolution of needs and technology requires new factors to be taken into account when defining elevator equipment.

The additions to the original text are therefore intended to incorporate these "new developments."While the traffic calculation approach remains unchanged, the emergence of new techniques and the appearance of new concepts of use and service are generating solutions that can be applied to elevator projects in buildings under construction, as well as to the modernization of elevators in existing buildings. Traffic calculations incorporate this new data, and simulation offers advantages in determining elevator equipment.

Under pressure from developers, users, design offices, and manufacturers, and thanks to technological advances, the definition of elevator equipment is becoming increasingly precise in order to achieve the difficult compromise between two main requirements: minimizing the space taken up by elevator installations while improving comfort by reducing waiting and travel times. The interfaces that enable communication between users and elevators (button panels, floor indicators, and cabins) are diversifying to contribute to this evolution. Needs are changing, solutions are evolving, and traffic calculation assumptions are also changing.

Furthermore, and in general, people's mobility is constantly increasing and, as a result, vertical traffic is increasing in all types of buildings. For example:

• in office buildings: the quest for better internal and external communication results in more people traveling;

• in hospitals: shorter hospital stays and more appointments mean more people coming and going.

An elevator is a means of transportation on a vertical axis, just as trains, planes, subways, and cars are on horizontal axes. Like them, it is subject to the same laws: transport capacity, transport time, waiting time, saturation, safety, etc.

Architecture is evolving... in style and in action. It is no longer isolated buildings that are the focus. It is not even architectural ensembles, however large they may be (Place Vendôme, Place de la Concorde, Place des Vosges), but a whole new dimension: the entire city must be conceived, shaped, and prepared.

This stage is already...