Does Your Elevator Keep You Waiting? 

Have you ever heard the idiom “a watched pot never boils?” It means that time passes very slowly when one is waiting for something to happen, if that is the only thing one is thinking about. The idiom could have easily been switched to “a watched elevator never arrives,” as many frequent passengers feel this way about their daily ritual of standing at the elevator bay, waiting for their ride. 

By the Numbers: Typical Elevator Wait Times 

Elevator wait times vary significantly depending on many factors such as the number of floors, elevator cars in operation, number of passengers and the algorithm used to open and close doors and the speed of the ascent and descent. 

For instance, in Hong Kong, where building construction is rapid and more than 1,500 elevators are added each year, Boston University physicist Zhijie Feng decided to examine quantitative research on elevator waiting times. What he discovered was that “For a 100-story building with one idealized infinite-capacity elevator, Feng and Redner find that waiting times typically fall between five and seven minutes. With elevators that can carry 20 people each, and buildings that hold 100 workers per floor, this cycle requires 500 trips over 2 hours — or 21 elevators — to get everyone to work on time.”

Closer to home, and in buildings with fewer than 100 floors, our reality is that wait times are typically 30-90 seconds, depending on how many stops the elevator needs to make on its way to you. A 2010 IBM Smarter Building survey found that office workers in US cities waited for and rode elevators for an average of 3.2–4.2 minutes per day.

Factors that Impact Wait Times 

There are several factors that impact how long you will be waiting in the lobby for your elevator car to arrive, including design and engineering, building height and traffic volume, dispatching algorithm, number of elevators within the building and health/maintenance of the system. 

Design and Engineering 

The speed of arrival of your elevator car may depend on the design and engineering choices made for your system. For instance, hydraulic elevators (common in shorter buildings) use pumps and fluid, making them inherently slower and sometimes noisier than cable-driven traction elevators.

Building Height & Traffic Volume

The taller the building, the longer it takes to get to a desired stop. Additionally, peak traffic times (such as morning and evening rush hours) generate demand spikes that can strain even the most advanced elevator control systems, leading to slowdowns and delays.

Dispatching Algorithms 

Smart systems leverage AI to predict demand and efficiently assign elevator cars; in contrast, outdated or simple logic (such as the “nearest neighbor” method) often performs poorly during peak demand.

Number of Elevators 

The more elevators in the building, the shorter the wait times tend to be. However, many people tend to congregate near the closest elevator bays in the lobby, which slows them and causes more stops. A pro tip would be to walk a few more steps to a further elevator bay to avoid crowds. 

Health & Maintenance of the Elevator System

Lack of proper maintenance can cause elevators to slow, increasing wait times; good elevator management systems proactively monitor this issue.

Ultimately, the duration of your elevator wait is a complex interplay of engineering, building usage, and the intelligence of the system’s management. While a watched pot may never boil, proactively addressing factors such as maintenance, optimizing dispatch algorithms, and ensuring your building has the right number of high-performance elevators are key to minimizing delays. By understanding what impacts wait times, building managers can move from frustrating waits to consistently efficient vertical transportation for all passengers. 

Contact Buckley Elevators today to learn more about wait times and how to keep your elevator systems working efficiently.