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America Is Stuck With an Elevator Crisis (axios.com) 244

Posted by BeauHD from the aging-tech dept.
America's aging elevators are facing significant repair delays and rising costs, creating accessibility challenges and leaving vulnerable populations stranded. Experts argue that implementing federal standards and modernizing systems could address these issues. However, fixing the nation's approximately one million elevators is "becoming a heavy lift," reports Axios. From the report: America's aging elevators are time-consuming and costly to fix. The workforce of technicians who know how to fix them is aging. And buildings with elevators in need of repair often need to wait ages for replacement parts due to arcane supply-chain issues. [...] Elevator parts shortages appear to stem largely from two issues: Parts suppliers often prioritize their biggest customers, which in this case happens to be builders in China, where the vast majority of the world's new elevators are installed, according to [Stephen Smith, executive director of the Center for Building in North America]. And parts are often no longer available for aging -- and often obsolete -- elevators, meaning they often have to be custom made.

"In some cases, the entire elevator system may need to be modernized or replaced, leading to substantial costs and potential disruptions to building operations," an advisory called The Elevator Consultants reports. A patchwork of state regulations and union rules make it laborious for building owners and contractors to comply with current standards, according to Smith. who said the U.S. would benefit from federal elevator standards. "The feds have not involved themselves in regulations of the construction industry since Reagan took an axe to it in the 1980s," Smith said. The good news is that "about 80 percent of reliability issues can be solved by replacing the doors," Joseph Bera, at VP at Schindler Elevators, tells commercial real estate publication Propmodo.

America Is Stuck With an Elevator Crisis More | Reply

America Is Stuck With an Elevator Crisis

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  • jobs for folk (Score:3)

    by ZERO1ZERO ( 948669 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @05:02AM (#65069117)
    Could be a good time to train as an elevator technician, seems like there's going to be a demand for this type of work.

    • Re:jobs for folk (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @06:43AM (#65069257)

      Could be a good time to train as an elevator technician, seems like there's going to be a demand for this type of work.

      I suspect there's a subcontext behind the situation: nobody wants to pay for it.

      There's apparently demand. Supply would exist if the demand would pay for the supply, be it parts or labour. That there isn't supply suggests strongly to me that the demand won't pay enough for the supply to exist.

      This might be like bridges. At least in North America, and especially the US, there are hundreds of bridges that were funded and built which are now unsafe due to age. Only... nobody's willing to budget to fix or replace them. Everyone just says "this is already a hundred years old... this can last five more until I'm not in office, so I don't have to raise taxes." These private buildings are likely similar. If it ain't completely broke, why raise prices to maintain it?

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        Could be a good time to train as an elevator technician, seems like there's going to be a demand for this type of work.

        I suspect there's a subcontext behind the situation: nobody wants to pay for it.

        There's apparently demand. Supply would exist if the demand would pay for the supply, be it parts or labour. That there isn't supply suggests strongly to me that the demand won't pay enough for the supply to exist.

        Or Americans will have to start using the stairs.

        • Re:jobs for folk (Score:5, Insightful)

          by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @09:44AM (#65069631)

          Or Americans will have to start using the stairs.

          Not everyone CAN use stairs. There are plenty of people in wheelchairs or old enough that just walking is barely possible.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          Ever work on the 37th floor of a building? Before elevators became cheap and reliable almost no buildings were taller than six floors, and everything above the third floor was a lot less expensive. Ever carry a week's worth of groceries up to the sixth floor? Our modern cities require elevators.

      • Could be a good time to train as an elevator technician, seems like there's going to be a demand for this type of work.

        I suspect there's a subcontext behind the situation: nobody wants to pay for it.

        There's apparently demand. Supply would exist if the demand would pay for the supply, be it parts or labour.

        Not really. What I've seen with people under 40 is that in America, no one wants to do any kind of manual labor for a living, even if the money is good. Everyone wants to sit at a desk in air conditioned comfort, even if the paycheck is lower. COVID intensified this trend. Younger folks know they could make more money in plumbing, welding, mechanical repair, etc. They just don't want to do it.

    • The Social Elevator is blocked since so many years that it does not work any more.

    • And also an opportunity for local tool fabs, for the cost of a few jigs you could be doing a bang up business manufacturing custom elevator doors.

  • Sigh. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ledow ( 319597 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @05:39AM (#65069161) Homepage

    Who'd have thunk that a large static, expensive, integrated thing with moving parts might require repairs, maintenance, spare parts, etc.

    And who'd have thunk that it might be a good idea to secure those specifications to those parts so you can get them made anywhere if you needed to.

    Oh, no, whatever will we do? Buy a new one, every 20 years? Or suffer the consequences?

    • Re:Sigh. (Score:5, Informative)

      by jonwil ( 467024 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @05:48AM (#65069175)

      I don't know what its like in the US but here in Australia companies like Schindler and Kone and Otis regularly modernize old elevators, often without needing to replace the entire elevator.

      As someone who has seen old elevators, it just doesn't make sense to try and fix something that's 40-50 or more years old running on relay logic. Newer elevators are almost certainly going to be more energy efficient, probably deliver a better quality ride for the users and be easier for people with various disabilities (e.g. blind people) to use.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        The reason why a lot of old elevators get kept is because they fit the style of the building they're in.

        • Except in very rare cases, the "style" of the elevator is basically what thin veneer or foil is applied to its doors and interior and how its buttons look.

          • Except in very rare cases, the "style" of the elevator is basically what thin veneer or foil is applied to its doors and interior and how its buttons look.

            Well, we have freight elevators, people elevators, and all manner of hybrid lifts. Many are pretty custom built.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by flink ( 18449 )

            They keep the car, they just swap out the control board, brakes, and lift system. Nobody using the elevator can tell that it's been retrofitted except maybe the neon lamps behind the buttons have been replaced by LEDs.

      • I don't know what its like in the US but here in Australia companies like Schindler and Kone and Otis regularly modernize old elevators, often without needing to replace the entire elevator.

        As someone who has seen old elevators, it just doesn't make sense to try and fix something that's 40-50 or more years old running on relay logic. Newer elevators are almost certainly going to be more energy efficient, probably deliver a better quality ride for the users and be easier for people with various disabilities (e.g. blind people) to use.

        I think this is just a clickbait story. I don't know about other places, but there is a pretty strict inspection process for elevators, and if they fail inspection, they are tagged off and repaired ASAP. If there is any freight, it goes nowhere until the elevator is repaired. Right here in the USA. I've never seen one disabled more than a day.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        I don't know what its like in the US but here in Australia companies like Schindler and Kone and Otis regularly modernize old elevators, often without needing to replace the entire elevator.

        As someone who has seen old elevators, it just doesn't make sense to try and fix something that's 40-50 or more years old running on relay logic. Newer elevators are almost certainly going to be more energy efficient, probably deliver a better quality ride for the users and be easier for people with various disabilities (e.g. blind people) to use.

        I think that Americas problem is two fold.

        1. They've so many lifts (elevator), many of them in places where most countries wouldn't bother putting them as it's just 1 or 2 flights of stairs.
        2. No one wants to pay Otis or Schindler to maintain or service them. As long as it keeps working long enough to become someone else's problem, the ultimate expression of a disposable, consumerist society.

        If you look at buying a flat here in the UK, the difference between buying in a building that has a lift and o

      • Re:Sigh. (Score:5, Informative)

        by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @10:37AM (#65069827)

        In the USA you get buildings owned by out of state corps and slum lords. There isn't much the state or city can do besides call the owner or send them bills that will never get paid. Here's a prime example. https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsb... [cbsnews.com]

    • Your post is hyperbole. This is not a problem of concept, we've had elevators now for over 100 years and no problems servicing, upgrading, or maintaining them. It's a recent supply chain issue only.

      Buy a new one, every 20 years?

      No every 30 years. That's literally the expected life expectancy of a well maintained elevator. Most core components needs to be completely replaced in that period, the only thing that remains are the visible mechanical components. You may think you're standing in a 60 year old elevator, and it may look like it w

      • Yeah maybe shipping all our manufacturing offshore wasn't the greatest idea.

      • Your post is hyperbole. This is not a problem of concept, we've had elevators now for over 100 years and no problems servicing, upgrading, or maintaining them. It's a recent supply chain issue only.

        Buy a new one, every 20 years?

        No every 30 years. That's literally the expected life expectancy of a well maintained elevator. Most core components needs to be completely replaced in that period, the only thing that remains are the visible mechanical components. You may think you're standing in a 60 year old elevator, and it may look like it was built 60 years ago, but I guarantee the electronics and most of the active mechanical components are less than 30 years old.

        And the elevators are inspected regularly, and better believe if a problem is found, it gets shut down until fixed. The inspectors take their jobs deadly seriously.

        I've noticed in newer ones that there are replaceable panels to update the "looks", and for the multi-purpose ones in the places I worked over the years, there are tarps to hang over hooks when hauling big objects, to keep them clean and "pretty"

      • I'd rather ride in an elevator with decades old relay logic compared to some modern microcontroller board purchased from AliExpress.

  • Au (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by fluffernutter ( 1411889 )
    Just ask AI what to do about this and if it is the real thing it will solve the problem

  • You mean Happy Vertical People Transporters, right? Equipped with Genuine People's Personality, correct?

    It is clear why the maintenance failed - it did not include a psychologist!

  • It was worth following the article just for the following, completely idiotic, quote:

    "Everyone is born needing an elevator, and if they're lucky they die needing one too," says Stephen Smith, executive director of the Center for Building in North America, who has studied America's elevator issues.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Entrope ( 68843 )

      What makes it idiotic? How many flights of stairs do you think an infant or a 110-year-old can climb?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        probably 1 and possibly 2 two if they are mobile enough to walk around at all but maybe not quickly.

  • Huge money in critical infrastructure. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @06:38AM (#65069243)

    It's problems like these that these days make me regularly consider a career-switch from senior webdev to mechanical maintenance or trade work. There is a huge and growing backlog of issues in the real world that require crafty skill, brains and the readiness to get your hands dirty that pay well and are often waaaay less obnoxious and more straigh-forward occupations than building yet another half-assed digital product for people who expect magic, don't know what they want but know exactly what it may cost and when it needs to be finished.

    Even "simple" jobs like interior construction, painting, electricity, plumbing etc. seem to have some real potential these days. In the last 15 years I've on and off toyed with the idea of getting some welding experience and certification. It also would be a nice shift away from the desk. I eventually might just get into something like that, and if only for kicks and fun.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Gavino ( 560149 )
      I know a guy who did that but his go-to was "surface mining". Apparently there's a lot of minerals lying around on the surface. 600 mile flight to the mine sight. Drive a excavator scraping up the goods. Two weeks on constant work, two weeks off. And the same pay as someone working full time. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Although in those two weeks, it's in pretty harsh and cold conditions but yeah - that's character building!
    • you are talking about a 'trade'. good decent honest work none of this virtual binary bits getting pushed around bullshit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by flink ( 18449 )

      Half my family works/worked in trades. Mostly carpentry, masonry, and pipe fitting. The pay is decent and you get good benefits if you can get into a union or go into business for yourself, but your body is destroyed by the time you are in your mid forties just from wear and tear, and hopefully you haven't suffered any kind of life changing accident. If you are lucky by then you can move up to some kind of supervisory role and take it easy a little bit, but I've got an uncle in his 70s who's still laying

  • Bridges and freeways too (Score:3)

    by Gavino ( 560149 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @06:58AM (#65069289)
    I've read the same thing about the USA's "crumbling bridges" and "crumbling highway infrastructure". I guess America is good at building stuff, but then not maintaining it. It's a problem that's a lot bigger than elevators it seems. Probably water, sewerage, gas and the electricity grid too. I guess that's what happens in an extremely capitalistic society like the USA. The big money men go in and make the $$ from the big construction contracts, and governments spend big on grandiose infrastructure to win votes, but then the poor taxpayer has no money to maintain it all, when it falls on them to do so. And then the govt go into massive debt whilst the infrastructure - lifts, roads, rail, utilities -etc all crumble.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Americans maintaining their Navy ships during WW2 to such a high standard that their ships were known to take utterly insane levels of damage and be able to limp home to be repaired is legendary.

      So no, if anything Americans are better than most at maintenance. Real question seems to be "can they agree on who should pay for the maintenance of these specific things?"

    • Maintenance is not sexy. That's the problem.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      A lot of it has to with population and revenue shifts. Stuff gets built in places like Detroit and Yougstown to support a massive auto industry. When a bunch of the industry leaves and the population with it, both the money and young bodies needed to maintain it all are gone. You still need the roads, bridges, schools, etc but you might only need half as many lanes, and a quarter of the class rooms. Trouble is you can't really maintain just half a bridge, similarly you can't abandon half a building. You

      • Demographic shifts are a large part of it. There are rural areas where bridges are just being abandoned, as they made sense when the countryside was full of farms but now with three families left they just dont. Which is hard, because those remaining people may have land just over the now defunct bridge that went from being a minute away to being 30 minutes away. It also can make trips to the nearest town far longer. But how can you justify a ten million dollar bridge for ten people, when they can go 20 min

    • Re:Bridges and freeways too (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @09:06AM (#65069539)

      Maintaining infrastructure costs money and when you have a group that equates taxation to theft then you have a bit of a dilemma. Are we supposed to sell the bridge to a private company and let them charge tolls while still deferring maintenance?

  • Reagan was right (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gtall ( 79522 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @07:00AM (#65069293)

    Reagan was correct when he said government was the problem. Then he went about showing in what way it was the problem by refusing to fund or support sensible government functions.

    Lack of regulation was one of the contributing factors to the Great Recession, and that blame resides with the SEC. Bush Jr. installed a potted plant as head of the SEC and the result meant that Wall Street knew it could get away with all sorts of dubious practices. And Bush's reason for little regulation was because the Great Reagan had decreed that lack of regulation was somehow good for America.

    And now Wall Street has been busy buying up residential properties and boxing them up as securities. Then then get rented out an exorbitant prices, and they are also off the market for would be home owners. Wall Street can easily outbid the regular folks and pay all cash. It will require legislation to fix. The odds of that happening with the R's controlling Congress are nil.

    • People who are too selfish to see how people just like them have caused problems in history have doomed us all to repeat it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      Reagan caused the problem, it was a self-fulling claim.

    • Re:Reagan was right (Score:5, Informative)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @08:13AM (#65069427) Journal

      "There you go again" trying to rewrite history. First off those liar loans and the real-estate bubble started blowing long before bush took office. If you want to blame someone you should probably look at Alan Greenspan, pretty critically.

      Second Glassâ"Steagall was repealed by Bill Clinton and that was probably the biggest regulatory brake on the behaviors and financial structuring that ultimately allowed 2007-8 crisis to happen.

      Now, Bush did nothing to change any of this, and Congressional GOP leadership certainty enabled Clinton, not only in deregulation but in his aggressive housing equity programs that further undermined the integrity of the underlying paper in terms of both borrower quality and excessive appreciation (bubble).

      In short the financial crisis wasn't a 'Republican problem' it was a very bipartisan problem, Democrats are to blame when it gets down to why its still a problem. HARP for example is a big reasons why the dead wood still hasn't been cleared and housing still isnt actually affordable...

      • Re:Reagan was right (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Bruinwar ( 1034968 ) <bruinwar @ h o t m a i l . c om> on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @09:19AM (#65069557)

        Phil "nation of whiners" Gramm would take the lead of the assholes who "Enabled Clinton". That asshole was pushing to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act for years.

        Bush W did more than nothing. Bush signed the American Dream Downpayment Act and proposed other legislation, including the Zero-Downpayment Initiative, a Single Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit, and more funding for the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP). The speech I remember is when he said he wanted "90% home ownership by 2021". He was not only driving the boat, he was driving it like a drunk.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DarkOx ( 621550 )

          That is true, Bush absolutely doubled down on push home ownership beyond common sense approach. It is a fair criticism for sure. My calling that 'nothing' probably wasn't a fair characterization.

          This was late 90s politics in a nut shell though, both parties were trying very hard to sell a warmed over version of the 50s American dream of a house and two cars in every garage. Post cold war exuberance.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Saffaya ( 702234 )

      "that blame resides with the SEC. Bush Jr. installed a potted plant as head of the SEC and the result meant that Wall Street knew it could get away with all sorts of dubious practices."

      It seems you believe that the SEC is supposed to regulate Wall Street.
      Let me push further your understanding of the situation.

      The SEC applies the regulations that were designed by ... Wall Street itself.
      That is, the financial sector is SELF-REGULATED.
      In other words, Wall Street decides what is legal for Wall Street to do.

      Yes,

    • It will require legislation to fix. The odds of that happening with the R's controlling Congress are nil.

      Sure, but the odds of it happening when the Ds were in control were also nil, and lo, it didn't happen. They are another party of big business and ultracapitalism. It's true that all of the congresspeople who care about other people who are not independents are Democrats, but that's not going to move the needle. Yes, the Democrats are better on human rights, but they do not address the biggest issues facing us because those issues are profitable. Everything is half-assed and then they compromise with the Rs

    • Yup. Put a ball and chain on someone's ankle then get mad at them for not being able to run.

  • private property (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @07:37AM (#65069359)

    "America's aging elevators" are not America's, they are private property. The few of them that are public property could easily be fixed, the ones that aren't are the owner's problem. It's not a natural disaster, there doesn't need to be aid nor any government involvement. Elevator companies know the nature of their product, we do not need to invent a solution to a problem for which there have been solutions longer than we have been alive.

    "A patchwork of state regulations and union rules make it laborious for building owners and contractors to comply with current standards, according to Smith."
    This is what it's really about, changing regulations to be more favorable to billionaires. And why bring it up now? Why not bring it up during the Biden administration? And what federal agency will SCOTUS recognize as providing sufficient expertise? Is Mike Johnson better at regulation than the states?

    • Florida passed, about ten years ago, elevator regulations. Every single condominium association screamed that their elevators were fine and that the regulation was just a giveaway to elevator companies forcing building owners to spend money. I was looking for citations but it's hard to find them because we had another set of elevator regulations go into effect last January (Jan 2024) which generated another round of complaining such that it's hard to find the old whining.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by flink ( 18449 )

      "America's aging elevators" are not America's, they are private property. The few of them that are public property could easily be fixed, the ones that aren't are the owner's problem. It's not a natural disaster, there doesn't need to be aid nor any government involvement.

      "I'm sure glad this is the owner's problem regarding their private property," I'll think, as I plummet to my doom in the failing elevator in the office I have to go to every day. "Thank god the government didn't get involved" will be my final thought. I'll die knowing that there is never any intersection between private ownership and public good.

  • I worked at a place where they built a brand new building to accommodate folks. A total of three stories. Two elevators were in the middle of the building. As soon as the building was completed we started receiving emails telling us one, or both, of the elevators were out. Sometimes just part of a day, sometimes over a week. This went on for over a year.

    I didn't directly work at the building, but did have to visit from time to time. Each time I went I had to check to see if the elevators were working if

  • And replace the WINDOWS XP boxes that run some systems with what?

  • I'm not confident that more government is the answer. Rockets are regulated, and SpaceX is complaining about getting timely permits. Bridges are regulated, and there's more in disrepair than ever. Roads are regulated, and I can't go a mile in California (~7th largest world economy) without seeing potholes and overdue maintenance.

  • Its more than a availability problem (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Revek ( 133289 ) on Tuesday January 07, 2025 @10:02AM (#65069695)
    Our Org built a new building. The elevator which was installed in 2019 broke in 2021. The elevator company blamed our power. They hooked up a power monitor and after six months couldn't find any problem with our power. Turns out they sold us a near end of life hydraulic elevator. Its the reason they won the bid. Despite the other bids being traditional more expensive cable elevators. The part that had gone bad was no longer being manufactured and when we got a look at the main control board we discovered the boards were stamped 2001. These shysters sold us a elevator they knew was end of life. It had probably been sitting for over a decade before they unloaded it on us. We had to have a new elevator installed and that took over two years due to availability issues. The new company isn't the cheapest but at least they don't lie to us.

  • What is with all of the supply chain issues? Covid was far too long ago to keep blaming it for this. If there are so many elevators needing repair then the demand should drive production to increase. Do they not want out money anymore?

    Seeing all the construction around me I was just thinking "How are they keeping up with all of the elevators in these new apartment complexes in addition to the existing ones? I know my state is cheap as hell when it comes to covering things like inspectors."

  • Forget self driving cars, what we really need is self walking shoes so people can take the stairs.

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