ON THE MOVE

KONE REVEALS NEW ELEVATOR DATA THAT TELLS THE STORY OF THE MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE IN CITIES GLOBALLY

KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, has analysed data from its global elevator portfolio to tell the story of the flow of people in cities around the world over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The data collected covers the period from before the first lockdowns confined most populations to their homes, to the present day, and provides an original data set for illustrating the return of people to workplaces, educational institutions, hotels and within residential buildings.

Equipment designed and manufactured by KONE moves over one billion people every day in its customers’ buildings.

Office elevator use in London dropped 80% at the height of the pandemic

The data shows that in the top 10 European cities where KONE has comprehensive elevator data showing the movement of people, the average number of office elevator journeys plummeted by 80% between February and April 2020. In London, the average number of starts per elevator in September 2019, before the pandemic, was around 13,000 in office buildings. By April 2020, the average number of journeys per elevator had fallen to around 2,500.

In Amsterdam, the average number of starts per elevator in office buildings in September 2019 was around 16,500. By April 2020, the monthly average number of journeys had fallen to under 3,500 per elevator.