Behind the elevator shortage in the country that gave birth to the skyscraper are exorbitant costs. A basic four-stop elevator costs about $158,000 in New York, compared to about $36,000 in Switzerland. A six-stop model will cost you more than three times as much in Pennsylvania as it would in Belgium. Maintenance, repairs and inspections also cost more in the United States.
The first thing to notice about our elevators is that, like many other things in the United States, they are huge. New elevators outside the United States are typically sized to accommodate a person in a large wheelchair and a person standing behind them. American elevators have doubled in size, driven by a multitude of regulations, each motivated by a slightly different concern: first accessibility, then accommodation for ambulance stretchers, then even larger stretchers.
