In former times, people piled into lifts randomly. We can’t afford that any more, partly for health reasons, partly because lifts get significantly delayed as passengers fight their way to the front on leaving.
Today’s invention is an elevator floor on which appear illuminated regions, as shown.
When the lift approaches a floor where people are waiting, it can tell if there are any spaces available. If there are, it will stop. As it does, the lift will ‘listen’ for each button press by entrants and direct people to stand in a circle with the number of their floor marked in it.
People who are about to leave at the next few floors will be shuffled forward to new circles.
This will not only maintain some social distancing, but also speed up the loading and unloading processes, by reducing the amount of barging and colliding.
When the lift has filled itself to the allowed capacity, and spaced the occupants out appropriately, the doors will close.
