The City Council did a disservice to New Yorkers by releasing a report deliberately designed to portray an essential and ordinary part of our lives as unsafe.
Elevators are by far the safest means of mechanical transportation in New York City.
This report was completed more than a year ago, and printed weeks ago. If the Council truly had discovered a threat to public safety, they would have made their findings available immediately. The typical elevator makes 500 trips per day, at speeds generally ranging from 4 to 14 miles per hour. That's more than 27 million rides daily for the 54,000 elevators under DOB's jurisdiction. Elevators are machines that must be properly operated and maintained.