A method schedules cars of an elevator system in a building. The method begins execution whenever a newly arrived passenger presses an up or down button to generate a call for service. For each car, determine a first waiting time for all existing passengers if the car is assigned to service the call, based on future states of the elevator system. For each car, determine a second waiting time of future passengers if the car is assigned to service the call, based on a landing pattern of the cars. For each car, combine the first and second waiting times to produce an adjusted waiting time, The method ends by assigning a particular car having a lowest adjusted waiting time to service the call and minimize an average waiting time of all passengers.