Events such as the World Trade Center bombing have sparked a fresh look at how
best to evacuate buildings quickly and safely. The use of elevators for this purpose in North
America has been traditionally prohibited, but this is changing if methods and controls can be
designed to assure the safest and fastest means of egress. This paper describes the use of an
algorithm that has been designed by ThyssenKrupp Elevator Company for the express purpose
of evacuating mid to high rise buildings and demonstrates the reduced time of egress as
opposed to traditional means, using the stairs.
