With approximately 700,000 to 800,000 elevators in use in the United States (2005 estimate) and roughly 100,000 new installations or extensive retrofits each year, elevators play a vital role in the lives of most individuals.  Whether going in and out of your home, traveling to and from work, or on vacation, it is likely that you have recently ridden in an elevator. 

For most people elevator safety is an afterthought, and for good reason.

The safety record of elevators throughout the world is exemplary despite transporting millions of passengers every day.  It has been said that elevators are the safest form of transportation in the world.

That safety record is attributable to many players – manufacturers, elevator mechanics and technicians, inspectors and building owners all play critical roles.  Equally critical is the Elevator Safety Code – the “rules of the road” for elevator design and installation in the United States and Canada.  The current version of the Elevator Safety Code is ASME A17.1/CSA B44-2007.

The demand for elevators to travel higher, be faster, quieter, more efficient and more accessible must be met with new designs and cutting-edge technology.  But, as technology advances, the potential for elevator system improvements are severely limited by the prescriptive language of the Elevator Safety Code ASME A17.1/CSA B44. 

ASME A17.1/CSA B44 requires specific design criteria to be used when installing new elevators. These prescriptive specifications are based on past technology, materials and procedures that have proven to be very safe. But, under prior versions of ASME A17.1/CSA B44 there was no uniform process to allow new technological advances to be applied to elevator designs that would result in the same level of safety as the existing code allows. 

The adoption of a Performance Based Code for Elevator Safety (PBC) will allow elevator manufacturers to utilize the latest technology, much of which is already being used abroad, to increase elevator system performance and meet today’s demands, while meeting or exceeding the already high safety requirements in the Elevator Safety Code.