Elevators

We approach the issue of high elevator costs and low availability in North America from a comparative perspective, drawing on experiences in Europe in particular to examine the issue through the lenses of affordability, access, accessibility, codes and standards, and labor. We present the first public comparison between costs in the United States and our high-income peers in Europe (both for installations and ongoing items like maintenance), as well as the most up-to-date comparison of global elevator stocks. We look at the cost drivers, in three main categories – cabin sizes, labor productivity, and technical codes and standards unrelated to cabin size. We look at a few different cases of how other countries approach various issues related to elevators, from how China retrofits elevators into occupied walk-up apartment buildings (common in Europe too, but almost unheard of project in the U.S. and Canada) to France’s recent tightening of building accessibility requirements to Poland’s efforts to improve technical and vocational education to meet the labor needs of the elevator industry in the wake of its accession to the European Union.

Finally, we present practical advice to policymakers in the U.S. and Canada who want to bring elevator costs down to earth. The report’s author is available to answer questions from reporters, industry professionals, policymakers, or anybody else at stephen@centerforbuilding.org.