SHANGHAI, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Busy elevators have become an office headache in Shanghai, China's largest metropolis and home to about 4,000 high rises, twice the figure in New York City.

    Vertical traffic jams are now hot topics among white-collar workers in Shanghai's skyscrapers.

    Their talks range from calls for improved elevator etiquette tomore thoughtful elevator use.

    "You could count on the scene being spectacular about 9 a.m. every morning. People are lining up in long queues waiting to get themselves into one of the elevators," said Rock Wu, a company worker, in describing the heavy traffic in his 24-story office building, Sanwei Mansion, on downtown Aomen Road.

    Wu's company was on the 17th floor and he said he usually had to wait more than 10 minutes in the line during rush hours before catching one of the two elevators in the building.

    Wu said many of the company staff had to give up bonus for early arrival on work because of the elevator problem.

    Bad elevator traffic sometimes has led to late appointments forimportant meetings, as some office workers said.

    Property management should play a more active role in directingthe commuters as well as completing more technical work to better manage the facilities, Wednesday's Shanghai Daily quoted a city official as saying.

    They could consider sending a worker inside each of the elevators during rush hours to ensure every lift is well used as well as maintaining a good order inside the facility, said Zeng Zheyi, director of the Property Management Department under Shanghai Housing and Land Administrative Bureau.

    That's the practice at a number of downtown business buildings,such as the Metro City Office Tower, the newspaper said.

    During rush hours every morning and afternoon, a property management worker would stand by the control board of the elevatorand announce the floor number, informing the crowd to get ready for their desired floor.

    "The building management could also install a microphone in theelevator for monitoring-room workers to deliver similar services on radio for the passengers," Zeng said.

    "Besides, a common way to raise efficiency of the elevators is to allocate them to cater to different zones of stories," he added. Enditem