Mechanical circulation of people - Analysis of needs and traffic

Vertical movement of people has become one of the essential parameters of quality of life in any building using elevators. The simultaneous evolution of needs and technology means that new elements need to be taken into account when designing elevator equipment.

While the traffic calculation approach remains unchanged, the emergence of new techniques and new concepts of use and service are generating solutions applicable to elevator projects in new buildings, as well as to the modernization of elevators in existing buildings. Traffic calculation integrates these new data, and simulation brings its advantages to the determination of elevator equipment.

Under pressure from developers, users, design offices and manufacturers, and thanks to technological advances, the definition of elevator equipment is becoming ever more precise in order to achieve the difficult compromise linked to the two main needs: minimizing the footprint of elevator installations while improving comfort by reducing waiting time and transport time. The interfaces that ensure dialogue between users and elevators (button boxes and indicators for landings and cabs) are diversifying to take part in this evolution. Needs change, solutions evolve, and so do traffic calculation assumptions.

Furthermore, the mobility of people is constantly increasing, and as a result, vertical traffic is on the rise in all types of building. For example:

• in office buildings: the quest for better internal and external communication means more people moving around;

• in hospitals: shorter hospital stays and more consultations mean greater traffic flows.

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

Architecture is evolving... in style, in action. It is no longer an isolated building that will be the object. It won't even be an architectural ensemble, however large (Place Vendôme, Place de la Concorde, Place des Vosges), but a new dimension: the entire city must be thought out, shaped, prepared.

This stage is no longer sufficient. We need to go a step further: district master plans, regional master plans and so on.

What is the underlying reason for this development? The...