Trapped Between Floors
What I Learned After Getting Stuck in an Elevator
PART 1: THE LUNCH-BREAK BETWEEN FLOORS
Some people begin to panic when they realize the elevator they are in is STUCK; they begin to run short of breath, believing the air is running thin, while others immediately take charge as their survival instincts kick in. Me? I enjoyed my lunch-break in peace, my life in the hands of the large suspension rope and counterweight that held me between floors…
A few Fridays ago I got stuck in an elevator at work.
My first feeling (after thinking “it’s not stuck, it’s just being weird for a second”) was not worried or afraid, but thankful. I was thankful that I didn’t have to pee and that I had my lunch gripped firmly my hand. I had just come back from grabbing Chick-fil-A and couldn’t wait to eat it.
So I didn’t.
After calling the number on the elevator wall with my cell phone, I sat down, legs crossed, back against the elevator wall, and ate my waffle fries and nuggets—dipped them in ketchup too. If I was going to wait 30 minutes to be rescued, I was going to eat my lunch before it got cold (the way God intended).
Then it happened:
A booming voice from the void on the other side of my mid-air oasis: “CAN YOU HEAR ME IN THERE SIR OR MA’AM!?”
I chuckled and replied back. Honestly, I felt embarrassed that the San Antonio Fire Department had to take time out of their days to come ‘rescue me’ from my (honestly calm and quiet) breakdown…
Luckily, the firefighters were also cool calm and collected, and were also acquiescent of the whole ordeal—but what really stuck with me was what one of them said before leaving, “yeah, we get about 5 calls a day of people stuck in elevators”.
FIVE A DAY?
I’m no elevator expert, but to a simpleton who has had my fair share of up and downs, that seemed high?
Photo: 1: A sign my office conveniently installed the day after I was stuck.
PART 2: A DEEP DIVE DOWN A RABBIT HOLE
If five poor San Antonians are stuck in MY city per day in an elevator, how many other people will be stuck in other cities?
Here is what I discovered:
The boring:
There are over 900,000 elevators in the U.S. per the National Elevator Industry.
There’s a National Elevator Industry.
According to ACEEE (American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy), elevator-related heat (which must be cooled by the buildings HVAC or Air Conditioning system) in large buildings may add anywhere between 20 and 40% to the building’s AC load.
The interesting:
Mirrors in elevators were added to help reduce anxiety by making a small, scary space feel much larger.
Elevator music (beginning in the 1920’s) was also created to reduce people’s nerves.
Elevator etiquette studies have been going on for decades—finding consistent “bubble spacing” and eye-contact avoidance (staring straight ahead in silence) across cultures.
In many modern elevators (most by my experience), the CLOSE DOOR button doesn’t actually do anything; it’s once again just there to please people… making them feel in control.
Elevators are the most-used mode of transport, carrying over 1 billion people daily worldwide (18 times more than airplanes!).
The personally relevant:
China has the most elevators in the world (estimates vary between 6 and 10 million), while the U.S. has almost 1 million.
The cities with the most are:
Shanghai, China: 300,000+
New York City, USA: 60,000+
THE ESTIMATES:
For New York City (60,000) that’s 240,000 breakdowns per year, with 40,000 people trapped inside per year, which is roughly 110 calls to the fire department/elevator police per day (roughly).
Elevators breakdown about 4 times per year per elevator on average.
Of those breakdowns about 1 in 6 involve someone trapped inside.
Average rescue time is about 1 hour (half an hour in my case)
Across roughly 17 million elevators globally, that’s 11.6 million hours spent stuck in an elevator per year, or 31,000 people trapped in an elevator, worldwide, PER DAY.
That’s 1,300 people every hour,
22 people every minute,
1 person every 3 seconds, somewhere in the world, trapped in a broken elevator.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
*all data suggests these are likely underestimates due to the fact that most elevators are carrying MULTIPLE people, as well as underreported or unreported incidents.
