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We have four paternosters in our office here in cologne and I'm using them every day. It's really cool, because you have mostly no wait time to get into it. Two of them are out of order at the moment. I heard, that fixing one would cost about 900k €.
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I tried one back when the UK still had them. They are fun - so fun I went up and down a few times. (It was late, and the building was almost empty.) They feel reliable. You hop on, you go up/down, you hop off. You don't wait to see if the button you pushed actually did something, you don't try to find a place in a small herd of anxious people with decreased personal space, none of whom are talking, you don't get clau…
There still seems to be one at Sheffield University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_Tower
What I found most amusing is that you pass through a floor with full view of the people waiting, and so there's plenty of opportunity for awkward eye contact.
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Urban planners use this as a method to slow (or calm) traffic, specifically by narrowing lanes with protected bike lanes or diagonal parking on both sides of a street.
Both-side diagonal parking is an abomination. All it takes to block a road are two guys with long VW Sprinter vans and a regular dumpster truck can't maneuver through the hole. Witnessed this once, the honking in front of my window went for ten minutes and I had to call the cops - total time needed over half an hour.
1. > “Modern lifts are so idiot-proof you could use them in your sleep,” says Mr. Pfaff. “In fact, they are disenfranchising. Paternosters make you free to hurt yourself if you don’t pay attention.” For those thinking it is odd to want to have some potential pain in your life, keep in mind that Germany is the birthplace of the PainStation [1]. Wanting your elevator to be gunning for you then makes more sense. 2. In c…
And it utterly fails anyone in a wheelchair, pushing a pram, lugging a heavy suitcase etc.
So, if you are just a person running between departments, you can hop on. If you have luggage, kids, wheelchair, crutches or you are moving stuff between floors, you can use the traditional elevator as always.
Parking garages use something similar, but to my eye more dangerous, to get the staff quickly to different floors. I have no idea what they are called.
[1] https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_tab...
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While that does look incredibly unsafe (and would get vandalised/abused a lot of left unattended) it also looks quite fun to use and I can see why people like them.
I tried one back when the UK still had them. They are fun - so fun I went up and down a few times. (It was late, and the building was almost empty.) They feel reliable. You hop on, you go up/down, you hop off. You don't wait to see if the button you pushed actually did something, you don't try to find a place in a small herd of anxious people with decreased personal space, none of whom are talking, you don't get clau…
I think paternosters are really, really cool. I'd love to ride one. However, I must wonder whether they can be used by the elderly or disabled. How do you board one with a wheelchair? Or do they just run alongside modern elevators in buildings where handicapped accessibility is a requirement?
Using it looks to require a skill set similar to that for riding an escalator. There's potential for mishap with either device. I wonder how safe the paternoster would be if it had modern safety devices, like a switch to shut it down if someone gets stuck in the parts? But one problem is that then everyone is stuck inside. You can just walk on an escalator when it's off.
Thinking about them, can't they be made safish with a dectors for stuck limbs ? (Basically a big button the width of the elevator on top of the elevtor and on top of the ceiling.)