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Many older residents are able to stay in their homes even when they develop mobility challenges. For those of us who can no longer do that, retirement communities are available. In places like Florida, these tend to be low-rise buildings or single-story apartment homes. In older cities like Pittsburgh, many are high-rise apartments.

High-rise apartments for elderly and mobility-­challenged people in Pennsylvania are facing a significant problem, though. Passenger elevators continue to break down, sometimes trapping those inside, and often isolating those on upper floors. This is happening to the retirement apartment complex in which I live, but it is not the only one.

Building code regulations that address passenger elevators in Pennsylvania do so in terms of the numbers of people allowable, and the total weight that can be carried. (I am not trained as a building official, but, before I retired, I was a city planner and worked with building officials.) Searching through Pennsylvania’s codes on passenger elevators, I could not find any calculation that included the weight of power wheelchairs (approximately 600 pounds) or motorized scooters (approximately 900 pounds) when calculating the allowable number of people in an elevator.

However, the International Building Code was updated in 2017 to include use by passengers of heavy mobility assets, such as a power wheelchairs. That change to Pennsylvania’s code may prevent the increasing number of elevator breakdowns.

I know the Pennsylvania Legislature has many important issues to take up in future, but I hope they will also consider this concern as soon as possible.

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