Bank Bench
A simulation and benchmarking tool that lets facility engineers A/B-test elevator dispatch algorithms (LOOK, RSR, destination dispatch) against their own building's traffic profile before committing to an upgrade.
facility engineers and property managers planning an elevator modernization
- Drag-and-drop building layout editor with floor, car, and lobby configurations
- Traffic profile presets for office, residential, and hospital patterns plus custom imports
- Side-by-side wait-time and journey-time histograms for each algorithm
- Exportable spec sheet vendors will accept in an RFP
The HN-viral article makes the counterintuitive case that fancy destination dispatch is often worse than simple LOOK; engineers now have a stronger reason to question vendor upsells.
Multiple established traffic analysis tools (Elevate, AdSimulo, Liftaro, Simulations4All) confirm a real buyer pool, but facility engineers planning a one-off modernization is a narrow niche within the $20B+ modernization market.Elevate Traffic Analysis & Simulation — Peters Research ↗Liftaro — Elevator Analytics & Design Tools ↗
Space is already well-served by Peters Research Elevate (the entrenched commercial standard), AdSimulo, Liftaro, Lift-Traffic.com, free Simulations4All, and browser-based Elevat0r.com — far from a wide-open market.Elevat0r — Dynamic Elevator System Simulator ↗AdSimulo | Lift Traffic Analysis & Simulation Application ↗Free Elevator Traffic Analysis Calculator | Simulations4All ↗
Peters Research has sustained a paid product for years selling to consultants, proving willingness to pay; however, free tools (Simulations4All, Elevat0r) and competing SaaS (AdSimulo, Liftaro) compress pricing for the narrower 'A/B test before upgrade' use case.Elevate Traffic Analysis & Simulation — Peters Research ↗Free Elevator Traffic Analysis Calculator | Simulations4All ↗
Elevator modernization is a long-cycle, growing industry projected at 5–7% CAGR to $20–39B by 2030, and skepticism of vendor destination-dispatch upsells (per the HN article) gives the tool durable relevance.Elevator Modernization Market Size, Growth Analysis 2026 ↗Destination dispatch - Wikipedia ↗
Open-source simulators (SimElevatorTraffic, Elevat0r) plus well-documented algorithms (LOOK, RSR, destination dispatch) make a web-based A/B benchmarking tool buildable, though accurate ingestion of real building traffic profiles adds complexity.GitHub - charles-works/SimElevatorTraffic: Professional elevator traffic simulation ↗Simple Elevator Simulator - Interactive Algorithm Visualization ↗