The Maximum Number of Passengers Boarding a Lift in Office Buildings Based on Automated Passenger Counts

While a lift is serving a landing but is already carrying several passengers, the passengers on the landing need to decide whether to board the lift or wait for the next. The boarding decision is made by contrasting the space available in the car to the required space, which assumedly depends on physical, behavioural and social factors. As already observed in the 1960s, passengers do not typically fill a lift up to its rated passenger capacity, i.e., the maximum number of passengers in a lift car that must not be exceeded due to lift safety standards. If, in lift traffic design, the maximum number of passengers in a lift car is assumed to equal rated passenger capacity, the lift group may not reach its required handling capacity in practice. Regardless the known contradiction, the maximum number of passengers accepting to board a lift has not been studied systematically. This paper aims at filling the gap by analysing automated passenger counts in three existing office buildings. Car capacity factor is defined as the ratio of maximum passenger count in a lift to rated passenger capacity. The highest car capacity factors are derived for different traffic conditions as well as related to both handling capacity and pedestrian level of service criteria. The results indicate diverse behaviours when passengers are about to board a lift.