It seems like there should be a way to build these in a safe way. For example, angling the ceiling of the compartment as well as where the ceiling of the building meets the compartment should offer quite a lot more safety:<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/CJbf1oq.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/CJbf1oq.png</a><p>You could also imagine 'sprung' walls between the compartments that prevent limbs/feet from getting squashed.<p>As for accessibility for disabled persons, I see no reason why a paternoster can't be switched to 'elevator mode'. You can hit a button on the wall that will stop the system when the next compartment reaches your floor, get inside with your wheelchair/baby carriage/grandpa, and push a button inside the compartment before the floor you want to get off at to do the same.
There really aren't many of them here in Germany. Funnily, the only one I ever used was in the UK, in Attenborough Tower at the University of Leicester. Never seen one in Germany, but here's a (probably incomplete) list of known paternosters worldwide: <a href="http://www.flemming-hamburg.de/patlist.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.flemming-hamburg.de/patlist.htm</a>
The article misses important points about the reason for the outcry on the proposed law. Many people here are fed up with the overregulating nanny state with more and more unnecessary rules imposed by inept control freaks like Andrea Nahles. She also seems to have difficulties with judging the impact of her ideas.
There are now way too many similar the her in today's politics (throughout most of the political parties in Germany).
I used one in the Arts Tower of Sheffield University where I studied. It was fun, but felt slow. There were also 2 (3?) conventional elevators that seemed like the best bet when doing more than 5 floors.<p>It's still functional.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_Tower" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_Tower</a>
Search for 'klamrisk' to find a rather... infamous warning sign showing what not to do in one of these. That sign also turned into somewhat of a minor meme amongst the demoscene community several years ago (it even turned into a game: <a href="http://www.linusakesson.net/games/klamrisk/index.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.linusakesson.net/games/klamrisk/index.php</a> ).
I've seen it mentioned here and there that one isn't supposed to ride it all the way around (that is, on the horizontal sections), but the reason escapes me. If you stay inside the cabin, what exactly can go wrong? (serious question) Getting stuck doesn't seem logical, why would the probability of the paternoster stopping increase when there is a (modest) load on the horizontal sections?
The real WTF here is "Nahles claimed she had failed to read the small print in the new law restricting the use of paternosters, saying had she done so she would not have signed off on it."<p>A minister with a huge office, lots of aids and access to a scientific and legal research group considers that an adequate statement? Until now I thought the main qualification for German politicians would be to never have held a normal job in real life and involvement in a party's youth organization since the age of 14 at least - I guess I have to add "substandard reading comprehension" to that list.
I was lucky to work in a building equipped with a Paternoster in Munich, Germany. We had a fancy startup office, but the Paternoster was the feature I liked most!
The article is full of this German reliability, efficient character mumbo jumbo, yet every administrative process takes forever here.<p>Maybe they should build more of those.