Maximum number of elevators?

[DSC]

My condo has 4 elevators (for ~44 floors), and yes, when one breaks down you can instantly feel it. When two breaks down, it's better to stay home IMHO. What makes it worse is that we have the floor numbers outside of the elevators (like an office building) which I still feel simply doesn't work for residential. What happens - and I sometimes do it myself for shame - is that we'll keep pushing the button for floor we want to go to, and end up calling all 4 elevators, which obviously exacerbates the problem.

If I'm going down to Ground, what I find helpful is to call to go up a floor, and just jump on that - it'll eventually make it's way down, and is much faster than waiting for the proper down elevator you were assigned.

If pushing the button 4 times calls all 4 elevators the programing needs to be fixed!

 

[lenaitch]

My condo has 4 elevators (for ~44 floors), and yes, when one breaks down you can instantly feel it. When two breaks down, it's better to stay home IMHO. What makes it worse is that we have the floor numbers outside of the elevators (like an office building) which I still feel simply doesn't work for residential. What happens - and I sometimes do it myself for shame - is that we'll keep pushing the button for floor we want to go to, and end up calling all 4 elevators, which obviously exacerbates the problem.

If I'm going down to Ground, what I find helpful is to call to go up a floor, and just jump on that - it'll eventually make it's way down, and is much faster than waiting for the proper down elevator you were assigned.

I'm missing the connection between posting the floor number at the elevator lobby and how many times one pushes a button. Posting the floor seems like a reasonable assistance for delivery people, responders, etc. If you live on the 44th floor, do you tend to push the button 44 times! What if you are below grade; how do you negatively push a button?

 

[tripwire]

I'm missing the connection between posting the floor number at the elevator lobby and how many times one pushes a button. Posting the floor seems like a reasonable assistance for delivery people, responders, etc. If you live on the 44th floor, do you tend to push the button 44 times! What if you are below grade; how do you negatively push a button?

I'm not sure if it's clear, but in the elevator lobby it's not up or down buttons, but an electronic screen with buttons for each floor. After you push the button for your floor, the display will tell you which of the elevators to wait for (e.g. elevator A, B, C, or D). Then you wait for your assigned elevator - you don't go into any other elevators that might come first - 98% of the time it won't go to the floor you want to go to. Once your elevator comes you get in and that's it, there's no floor buttons inside the elevator to push[1]. It messes a lot of the food delivery guys up the first time they encounter it.

Another feature is that you can do a "group call" - if you have a lot of people over you can use group call to get an elevator dedicated just for you and your party (and yes it can be easily abused, but I've rarely seen it happen).

If pushing the button 4 times calls all 4 elevators the programing needs to be fixed!

What happens is that you push the floor you want to go to, wait over x minutes, get impatient and push again. Now, it won't necessary assign you a different elevator right away, but you wait another x minutes, get impatient and push again, and wait and push, and wait and push, etc. Eventually, you end up calling up all the elevators - and this is not just "you", but everyone else waiting for the elevators in the entire building - which obviously bogs the system down even more. Usually this system works alright, but if an elevator breaks down, or even if one is booked for delivery, the algorithm is pretty crap and it bogs down. When two elevators are down, it really can take > 20mins to wait for an elevator.

That's why I mentioned that when I'm trying to go to ground and it's taking a long time, I'll push to go up a floor and ride the elevator up, as it'll eventually go down to ground again. And this is faster than waiting for the "official" down elevator that was originally assigned. It's stopping the frustration/impatience and temptation to push the damn button again that's key.


[1] there are buttons inside the elevators actually, but they are locked behind a panel. The panels are only unlocked when you've booked it for delivery (and I guess for emergency personnel, or if the display is broken or something).

 

[lenaitch]

I'm not sure if it's clear, but in the elevator lobby it's not up or down buttons, but an electronic screen with buttons for each floor. After you push the button for your floor, the display will tell you which of the elevators to wait for (e.g. elevator A, B, C, or D). Then you wait for your assigned elevator - you don't go into any other elevators that might come first - 98% of the time it won't go to the floor you want to go to. Once your elevator comes you get in and that's it, there's no floor buttons inside the elevator to push[1]. It messes a lot of the food delivery guys up the first time they encounter it.

Another feature is that you can do a "group call" - if you have a lot of people over you can use group call to get an elevator dedicated just for you and your party (and yes it can be easily abused, but I've rarely seen it happen).



What happens is that you push the floor you want to go to, wait over x minutes, get impatient and push again. Now, it won't necessary assign you a different elevator right away, but you wait another x minutes, get impatient and push again, and wait and push, and wait and push, etc. Eventually, you end up calling up all the elevators - and this is not just "you", but everyone else waiting for the elevators in the entire building - which obviously bogs the system down even more. Usually this system works alright, but if an elevator breaks down, or even if one is booked for delivery, the algorithm is pretty crap and it bogs down. When two elevators are down, it really can take > 20mins to wait for an elevator.

That's why I mentioned that when I'm trying to go to ground and it's taking a long time, I'll push to go up a floor and ride the elevator up, as it'll eventually go down to ground again. And this is faster than waiting for the "official" down elevator that was originally assigned. It's stopping the frustration/impatience and temptation to push the damn button again that's key.


[1] there are buttons inside the elevators actually, but they are locked behind a panel. The panels are only unlocked when you've booked it for delivery (and I guess for emergency personnel, or if the display is broken or something).

Thanks for the explanation. Wow, that sounds unnecessarily complex. It seems the traditional call button at the elevator lobby and floor buttons inside - in use for decades - wasn't good enough for some designer. A 'solution' in need of a problem.

 

[Bayer]

I saw a similar system in a condo building in Montreal, the Tour des Canadiens. I would enter my floor number on a screen, and it would tell me which elevator to go to. And the elevators felt considerably faster than what is the norm here - almost as in a large office building.

 

[tripwire]

Yeah typically the system works OK. It's when elevators break down or are otherwise not available (booked for delivery) that the algorithm fails and wait times become ridiculous. The problem is definitely more of elevators breaking down in the first place, but this type of elevator system seems to work worse when the # of elevators become "sub-optimum".

 

[W. K. Lis]

Yeah typically the system works OK. It's when elevators break down or are otherwise not available (booked for delivery) that the algorithm fails and wait times become ridiculous. The problem is definitely more of elevators breaking down in the first place, but this type of elevator system seems to work worse when the # of elevators become "sub-optimum".

The minimum rule maybe fine when everything is working, but they should assume that one (or more) are out-of-service for deliveries or maintenance.

 

[taal]

This is where older buildings shine So we have ~ 150 units over 18 floors and 3 elevators - additionally we're modernizating our elevators so they're even faster (gearless system / faster door closures) ... when all 3 are working, I typically do not see anyone for multiple days in a row - most wait times are under 20 seconds.

I will say demographics play a major role as well here. So older buildings often (not always) have a larger range of ages (e.g. many more retirees, more families) and the effect of this is a wider distribution of elevator usage time - less of a "rush hour" so to speak.

 

[Bojaxs]

This is where older buildings shine So we have ~ 150 units over 18 floors and 3 elevators - additionally we're modernizating our elevators so they're even faster (gearless system / faster door closures) ... when all 3 are working, I typically do not see anyone for multiple days in a row - most wait times are under 20 seconds.

I will say demographics play a major role as well here. So older buildings often (not always) have a larger range of ages (e.g. many more retirees, more families) and the effect of this is a wider distribution of elevator usage time - less of a "rush hour" so to speak.

My retired father lives in an older condo in Oakville. Full of retirees. An elevator is always available. Similar to your experience, when I visit my father, a lot of times I feel completely alone in the building.
My dad's condo was built in the 1980's. Very well maintained by management. Units are solid and spacious. Parking spots are big enough for two cars.
You don't truly realise how bad a lot of these newer condos are until you step foot in one of these older condos.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Minimum requirements should consider "rush hours" or when the school buses arrive to pickup students or disembark them.

 

[chrisw]

Very interesting system for your elevators. I can see how it makes sense to group some people together to make it more efficient. For example, the elevator won't need to stop on as many floors. Or it could just go to some lower floors and then head back down.

Though it sounds like the algorithm could use improvement. Or the UX could be improved.

 

[Jonny5]

This is where older buildings shine So we have ~ 150 units over 18 floors and 3 elevators - additionally we're modernizating our elevators so they're even faster (gearless system / faster door closures) ... when all 3 are working, I typically do not see anyone for multiple days in a row - most wait times are under 20 seconds.

I will say demographics play a major role as well here. So older buildings often (not always) have a larger range of ages (e.g. many more retirees, more families) and the effect of this is a wider distribution of elevator usage time - less of a "rush hour" so to speak.

A friend lives in an early 1990's condo in Scarborough. It's 20 stories and has three elevators, and they seem to work the same and have been modernised, though they certainly do not have fast door closures.

But there is one oddity I find interesting. The building has two underground parking levels but only one of the three elevators goes down to the second parking level, with the other two stopping at the first.
And of course my friend's parking space was assigned to P2, so there's a one in three chance you can get down there directly on the elevator, otherwise you have to go down and then actually transfer to another, or walk through the garage down the ramp, or take the stairs.
I have no idea why they decided to construct it that way or why. Maybe the TTC designed it? It it Scarborough so transfers are a given, right?