Lifts: a regulation for security

Initially confined to luxury buildings, the elevator began to develop rapidly in the 1970s, in step with the urbanization of our society. They have become a familiar and indispensable feature of our apartment buildings, offices, museums, airports, health care centers, public buildings and more.

Elevators play a key role in meeting modern requirements for independence, mobility, accessibility and speed. It reduces fatigue, saves time, facilitates travel and the transport of shopping... It also enables the elderly, who are becoming increasingly numerous given demographic trends, or people with reduced mobility, to live independently in their own homes.

Today, it's the most widely used means of transport. Every day, 100 million people use it, more than use the Paris metro and RER combined. It's estimated that an elevator makes an average of 200 to 300 trips a day, representing some 3,000 kilometers a year. It must therefore be safe in all circumstances, and available at all times.

Another particularly important element is that the elevator is entrusted to the free use of its passengers and made available to all by its owner.

Over the years, regulations have been put in place to govern both installation safety and proper maintenance. Two major, innovative texts have been introduced in recent years: firstly, for the installation of new elevators (European Elevator Directive 95/16/EC of June 29, 1995, transposed by Decree no. 2000-810 of August 24, 2000, as amended), and secondly, for the maintenance and safety upgrading of existing elevators (Urban Planning and Housing Act of July 2, 2002 and Decree no. 2004-964 of September 9, 2004, as amended).

A new Directive 2014/33/EU of February 26, 2014 (transposed by Decree no. 2016-550 of May 3, 2016) has replaced Directive 95/16/EC with effect from 1 ^er April 2014.

What is an elevator?

From a regulatory point of view, an "elevator" is a device designed to serve buildings and constructions on a permanent basis, which serves defined levels by means of a passenger compartment, which moves along vertical rigid guides whose inclination to the vertical is less than 15 degrees, and which is designed to transport either people, or people and objects, or objects only if the passenger compartment is accessible, i.e. a person can enter it without difficulty as soon as it is equipped with controls located inside or within reach of a person inside.

Also considered to be elevators are devices that move along a perfectly fixed course in space, even if they do not move along rigid guides, in particular scissor-guided elevators (decree no. 2000-810...