What is worse than waiting for an elevator and seeing it meander around on other floors, bringing other people to do things besides the thing you need to do? Wait no more. Each elevator shall be outfitted with a credit card swipe, with a vertical row of buttons from $1 to $10. If you do not want to wait for the elevator to get to you, swipe the overrider. $1 will be deducted from your credit card, and the elevator will stop what it is doing, come get you, bring you to your floor, then continue serving its other inhabitants.
However, one or more of the people inside might not want to be shanghaied by you. They might be upset. A little upset might be tolerable, but if they are upset more than $1 worth, they can take action. A cardswipe is inside the elevator and if one of the occupants swipes, she will be charged $2 and she can control the elevator. The lit row will ascend from 1 to 2 to show how much an override currently costs.
Outside the elevator, you note that your bid of $1 has been overridden. You can swipe again, be charged $3, and take back control. The lit row will reflect this - maybe the elevator occupants are $2 grumpy but not $4 grumpy, and they will ride along until the elevator switches back to free service mode.
Everyone benefits. The rich can use money to get their way, as is fitting in a capitalist society. The richer can use more money to thwart the merely rich. The poor get free service. Bonemeisters, please write a few short lines explaining why Karl Marx is your role model.-- bungston, Jul 31 2003 genius [bungston] are you going to do a version for stairs too ? please-- neilp, Jul 31 2003 like this! but its late and I may hate myself in the morning.-- po, Jul 31 2003 //Each elevator shall be outfitted with a credit card swipe...// No no no. Not all of them. One elevator needs to remain unencumbered by this newfangled technology. It should run on the old system, be particularly scabby and unpleasant and should be labelled the "Paupers Lift" so that everybody else has someone to sneer at.-- my face your, Jul 31 2003 capitalism schmapitalism-- grip, Jul 31 2003 If I'm outbid, do I get my money back?-- Freefall, Jul 31 2003 [Freefall] - No money back. But if you swipe again, the person who outbid you loses twice as much as you would have. Heh! Hopefully lucrative swipe wars will ensue between folks on different floors. At casinos / posh apartments etc you could have the bids in powers of 2 (2,4,8,16,32)
[myface] - Yes! Paupers lift a must. It would also be the freight elevator, with grimy carpeted walls.-- bungston, Jul 31 2003 I was going to suggest the powers of 2 things, too. You know how I am about the "miracle of exponentiation"!-- phundug, Jul 31 2003 surely not a pauper's lift, but one based on need, e.g. for disabled people, pregnant women, older people etc.-- neilp, Jul 31 2003 Those disabled people don't have disabled credit cards. They work just fine.-- bungston, Jul 31 2003 It needs to have an automatic bidding system like ebay, where you enter your max bid, but only get charged if someone else bids. That avoids the problem of osscilations during the bidding process.
When you get in, you always enter your bid, but only get charged if there is someone bidding against you. However if there is anyone else on the elevator that gets rerouted, you will pay at least $1. There might also need to be the concept of a "defensive bid" that doesn't stop the elevator from servicing others, but prevents someone from making the elevator skip you unless they bid higher. Defensive bids would cost half as much: for $5 you can prevent someone from making the elevator reverse course when it was only one floor from your destination.
Another option: some way to divide the money and distribute it to all the passengers who are diverted. Of course then in busy buildings at rush hour, the elevator is full of bums collecting money from everyone who now has to pay to have any hope of getting to their destination within half an hour.
I think I'll take the stairs.-- scad mientist, Jul 31 2003 Paupers have to use the dumbwaiter.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 31 2003 Paupers *are* the dumb waiter-- DeathNinja, Jul 31 2003 //Those disabled people don't have disabled credit cards. They work just fine.//
But non-disabled people have the choice to use the stairs if they don't want to wait or pay. Another case of disabled people having to pay for a service that non-disabled people get for free. By which I don't mean the lift journey, but a quick journey between floors.-- oneoffdave, Aug 01 2003 But at least you get free parking outside.-- angel, Aug 01 2003 [angel] Assuming someone with small children hasn't taken the space.-- oneoffdave, Aug 01 2003 random, halfbakery