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Comment by frankjr | Hacker News Reader

I used to use one almost every day when I was studying at CVUT FEL. Sure it looks cool but riding it is not all that great. If you are alone, it's relatively fine. But when multiple people want to get in or out it becomes quite a hassle because you need to move before the lift fully reaches the floor, otherwise there's not enough time for the others. Also, do you know what happens if you touch the inside of the lift's shaft? The whole freaking thing immediately stops. Guess how I know.

If you're curious about what it actually looks like when you loop around, have a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey5b3qm3-EI

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Ski lifts & air trams solved this problem by uncoupling the passenger unit from the cable at the entry / exit stations - the chairs therefore "loiter" around the passenger area for longer. I think another commenter mentioned a similar system, too.

Sadly, impractical in this case. The ski lifts work because there are (usually) only two (but occassionally 3) terminals. In contrast, the point of a paternoster is that every floor is a terminal.

If it hadn’t been surpassed by regular elevators you could easily design one that would “drop” a car at a floor and then the next hook would pick it up.

Or just stop turning for a bit. Not worth it likely.

Not at all, IMO.

I did a little bit of reasoning after reading this thread (I fucking love paternosters), and thought that any measure you could take to improve the safety or efficiency would likely have a detrimental effect. For example, if you did decouple the carriages at the floors, then there would be a period of accelleration where embarkment would be much more dangerous. People would still attempt to jump onto the carriages during this phase, because we can't avoid people being people. I know for sure I'd take that risk.

I think the way they're run now (slow and steady) is ideal, and investing heavily in sensors so they can stop and restart quickly elevates this. Overengineered solutions about coupling and (god help us) doors will probably solve a couple of minor issues and create a few new major ones.

See also Tom Scott's paternoster video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgJBD1wf-YQ

I used to take the very same paternoster daily, too! The trick is to jump half a metre up or down to give the other person plenty of time to comfortably enter or leave.

There is also one at the main česká pošta by Brno hlavní nádraží. I was excited to try it but I had the same feeling - it's not a place for more than one person. And I am glad I read your sentence about touching the lift shaft before I did it myself because I would have 100% done the same thing.

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