The number of passenger elevators in a structure is the number of elevators usually available for regular passenger traffic between floors, not including any elevators which are listed as freight elevators (even though a freight elevator may be available to passengers). Paternosters and vehicle elevators are not considered passenger elevators.

A freight elevator can carry passengers while remaining a freight elevator. Passenger access alone does not make it part of the passenger-elevator count, whose definition expressly excludes freight elevators. Vehicle elevators have their own vehicle-carrying purpose.

What is counted is cabs, not shafts and not stops. Two cabs in one shaft are two elevators, and an elevator serving forty floors is one.