The World’s Speediest Elevator is Faster Than Usain Bolt

I don’t get nervous on elevators, but the idea of shooting up through the center of a building at 67-feet-per-second fills me with more than a tiny bit of trepidation. Amazingly, that’s exactly how fast the new elevator is at China’s Shanghai Tower. As to why they needed such a fast elevator? Part of it could be that the skyscraper is the second tallest building in the world, but my guess is that they did it so they could brag about having the fastest elevator in the world. To give you an idea as to how fast that is, 67-feet-per-second is right around 40 MPH. In other terms, if you started at the second level basement and wanted to go to 119th floor, it would take you 53 seconds.

By comparison, the elevator at One World Trade Center moves at 33-feet-per-second and the Burj Khalifa moves at 32-feet-per-second. While seemingly slow when set head to head with Shanghi Tower, none of those are speeds to scoff at. Still, if you are expecting things to get much faster, don’t hold your breath. Experts say that they don’t think the air pressure in an elevator would allow acceleration much beyond 79-feet-per-second.

Source: Inhabitat