
Elevators in an age of higher towers and bigger cities - prostoalex
http://www.curbed.com/2017/4/24/15385658/elevator-skyscraper-urban-design-kone
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frik
The Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building (just got finished), has the
fastest elevator in the world. The Burj Khalifa, while it's the highest
skyscrapper, the top spire contains nothing, the visitor platform in the
Shanghai Tower is located higher elevation. The Shanghai Tower visitor
platform is at floor 118 (546m), a restaurant is at floor 119.

Trying out the fastest elevator, I am spoiled, now every other elevator feels
so damn slow. It feels like taking off in an airplane, it also has similar
slight effects on your ears.

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jsemrau
The best elevator I ever used was in Beijing. One would select the floor to
visit and it would allocate an elevator grouping you with everyone who wants
to go to the same floor or +1/-1 floor. Unused elevators would go back to
level 1.

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cylinder
These systems are used in NYC

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madengr
I have recurring dreams of being in elevators that move sideways. Probably
watching too much Star Trek as a kid.

Rode in a mineshaft elevator recently. Not for the claustrophobic. Pitch black
and two levels; you load one group, then it moves down the shaft enough to
load another group on top.

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feelix
I wish that when elevators were built, they would build a spiral slide for
those descending next to it. That would instantly reduce the traffic by about
half considering that I believe most people would opt for the slide.

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sxates
Sounds fun, so long as you're ok going all the way to the bottom, not just a
lower floor :)

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crooked-v
I think it's fair to say that in the vast, vast majority of multi-story
buildings, people are only really be interested in visiting a single story
(for their destination) and maybe the basement (for parking). The exception is
shopping centers, which use escalators or stairs for most traffic rather than
elevators.

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reustle
So you'd need a ton of space for N number of slides exiting at the ground
floor, where N is the total number of floors.

Unless people can enter mid slide somehow without affecting the journey of
other sliders :P

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kpil
Air guns at each floor. It will be great

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Theodores
They should open their mine shaft as a tourist attraction. Imagine - 'the
hole' \- and being able to venture far underground. At the visitor center at
the top they could have an IMAX cinema with an orientation film:

[https://youtu.be/s19xcVf5Jto?t=37s](https://youtu.be/s19xcVf5Jto?t=37s)

There could be rocks for sale in the gift shop. Imaginably there could be
conference center facilities and what not at the bottom of the hole, a cafe,
recording studios and more, all accessible by one experimental lift.

If you happened to be in Finland and just so happened to be passing 'The
Hole', would you pop by and have a cuppa in the quiet of the mineshaft,
getting there on the coolest of lifts? I doubt such an attraction would
challenge Disneyland or even pay for itself but I know a minority of people
would go.

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mannykannot
"Inside a glistening white elevator cab, pressurized to make my brief ride
even more comfortable..."

How does that work, when it comes to getting off, unless each floor is
pressurized?

A quick search finds only references to pressurized shafts, for smoke control
in the event of a fire.

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deegles
Pressure drops as speed increases. A rapidly (enough) moving elevator car
experiences this.

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mannykannot
Thanks - the Venturi effect, I am guessing.

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Animats
There's been interest for years in elevator systems with more than one car per
shaft, and in elevators that can move horizontally as well as vertically. Both
Otis and ThyssenKrupp have built prototypes, but there are no passenger
elevator installations yet.

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sksksk
There is a lift in Italy that goes horizontally and then vertically:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A739p5HkRZ8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A739p5HkRZ8)

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arnon
At 4 WTC, the official rule when fire breaks out is "Use the elevator". I've
never heard of that before.

New elevator technology is amazing and they're extremely reliable. Perhaps the
safest mode of transport, even before aircraft in people-per-km-travelled

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robbiep
Did anyone else find that article terribly written?

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kgabis
It is, the information density is annoyingly low.

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Markoff
on related note - any cheats for faster ride skipping floors which actually
work nowadays without special key?

