Elevators as Bandwidth

Elevators are the vertical bandwidth of a building. Capacity depends on car size, round-trip time, stops, and how many people arrive during a peak period. When throughput falls short of demand, the tradeoff appears as longer waits or crowding; adding cars also takes area from the core.

Batch capacity is different from a wait-time prediction

A deterministic five-minute window counts floor(300/cycle seconds) completed round trips per car, each carrying the chosen passenger count. It reports capacity and unserved demand. It does not forecast wait time, stops, destinations, stochastic arrivals or annual cost.

Destination dispatch can group passengers headed to the same floors, using each trip more efficiently. It may improve service without adding a car, but it does not erase travel time or peak demand. The decision connects circulation quality to core size and operating expectations.

Office and residential traffic patterns differ, so the bandwidth analogy points to the right question rather than supplying a universal elevator count.