Proper Queue Design
by Steve Franks
Nov 20, 2002 What are queue line tv's for?Do they keep people in a long line happy like entertainers did in rct1 or are they just there for looks? Neoseeker Forums » PC Games » RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. In RCT1, if you convert a queue line with guests already queuing on them into a normal path, queuing guests will continue to stay in line until the line moves. Then they will walk all the way up the queue line (as like normal paths) and reach the entrance, only to turn back and resume walking normally.
Now that happy peeps have queued up for one of your rides, the very last thing you will want is to have that happiness level drop while they are waiting in line. Bearing this in mind, your first consideration when building a ride and positioning the station platform is how long should a queue be? Basically, this will be determined by the type of ride to be placed.
Flat Rides
Most Flat Rides (known as 'spin and pukes' in Carnival lingo) work well with a queue of 5 or more tiles. The two strategy guides suggest 5 to 10 tiles, but 7 tiles feels just right for most ride/station arrangements. With this in mind, proper placement of a Flat Ride is important as you will need to consider where to place the ride's entrance/exit booths. It is recommended to place a Flat Ride at least 1 tile away from the park pathway, and to locate the entrance on the back corner of the ride. The exit booth should be placed at the front of the ride and adjacent to the entrance queue. Having adjacent entrance/exit paths encourages repeat ridership, allowing them to immediately re-enter a ride for a second go round. This is very profitable planning!
Illustration #1 shows the Carousel with both booths on the same side. This is a good average queue.
Illustration #1
Illustration #2 is an example of a long queue. The Dodge 'em car's entrance and exit booths are not on the same side, but the exit is still placed adjacent to the entrance queue. Peeps won't have to worry about finding the entrance if they want a second go round.
Illustration #2
The Ferris Wheel
The one notable exception to this 5 to 10 rule is the Ferris Wheel. This Flat Ride is peculiar in the way it loads and unloads passengers. Two peeps will enter and sit in the first gondola. The Wheel will then spin twice (the default ride length) and stop to load the next gondola. It will continue this cycle until all the gondolas are full. The unloading procedure has the same 2 turns/1 gondola cycle. This creates very long waiting times in even the shortest of queues. Try to position the Ferris Wheel so as to keep queues limited to just 4 or 5 tiles. A long queue will quickly kill off your Ferris Wheel's popularity and profitability.
Illustration #3 shows one method of setting the entrance booth and forming the queue.
Illustration #3
Illustration #4 shows an alternative method. Keep the Ferris Wheel queue very short.
Illustration #4
Thrill Rides
This same entrance/exit booth placement can be employed with most Thrill Rides as well. Again, it is best to build the ride at least 1 blank tile away from the park pathway. The recommended queue length is between 5 to 15 tiles. Personally, I find 7 to 10 tiles works best in an average park. Occasionally monitoring a queue's waiting time will help you in determining the optimum length. You can do this by selecting the 'people' tab on the ride window. A good rule of thumb is to never allow more than a 9 minute wait in the queue, otherwise peep happiness levels will begin to suffer.
Illustration #5 shows an example of a short queue.
Illustration #5
Illustration #6 shows an example of a long queue. The efficient handling of queues will allow you to really pack in a lot of rides in a small area.
Illustration #6
High Capacity Rides
High capacity rides, like Transport Rides, can swallow up a lot of peeps per train load, so 10 to 20 tiles is best depending upon the type of transport. For example, a long monorail can accept up to 60 peeps at a crack! On the other hand, the Chair Lift handles only 24 passengers, so a queue closer to 10 rather than 20 may be advisable. It will also depend upon the length of the ride and speed of the chairs. Periodically monitoring each ride's queue time will allow you to optimize the queue's length. Always design your Transport Ride station placement so that you can extend or trim your queue as the ride demand changes over time.
Illustration #7 shows one method of handling long queues for high capacity transport rides like the steam train and monorail.
Illustration #7
Illustration #8 shows an alternative method. Notice that the entrance booths are midway between the passenger cars of both trains for quick, efficient loading.
Illustration #8
Roller Coasters
Roller coasters are another ride that is high capacity in that the trains are long or many, and the ride time is rather short. A queue of 12 to 20 tiles is recommended. It is especially important to place the exit path as near to the entrance queue as possible. Roller coasters are your park's biggest and best money makers. Repeat ridership should be encouraged with proper entrance queue and exit path placement. Personally, nothing makes me happier than to see a peep get off my latest and greatest coaster, jump for joy, and then immediately queue up for a second and third go round.
Illustration #9 of a Roller Coaster shows a 20 tile queue. One must became very creative to pack in a such a long queue. Try to keep the queues compact but 'airy'. Notice the different levels of the parallel sections. Empty spaces in between also allow for trees to bump up happiness levels. It is especially important with Roller Coasters to try to keep the exit and entrance queue adjacent.
Illustration #9
Waiting Time for a Queue
Now that happy peeps have queued up for one of your rides, the very last thing you will want is to have that happiness level drop while they are waiting in line. Bearing this in mind, your first consideration when building a ride and positioning the station platform is how long should a queue be? Basically, this will be determined by the type of ride to be placed.
One thing you need to do is determine (with the ride's pop up window) what the average waiting time is for a peep in the queue. If a queue is over 50 peeps long, or the waiting time is over 9 minutes, you should perhaps consider shortening the queue, adding more cars to your trains, adjusting the waiting times and spacing of the trains to increase their efficiency, or assigning an Entertainer to Patrol the queue. Remember, the longer peeps wait in line, the greater the likelihood of their happiness levels dropping. You DO NOT want unhappy peeps. They inspire vandalism and lose you revenues.
Flush Loading
A real world concept that works well in RollerCoaster Tycoon is the principle of Flush Loading. This term is well known in the mass transit biz. It is a concept whereby station platforms are efficiently designed so that passengers can board trains from the left and detrain to the right, or vice versa. This means placing the entrance and exit booths on opposite sides of the platform. The second principle of Flush Loading is placing the entrance as close to the middle of the waiting train as possible. In RollerCoaster Tycoon, best placement for the entrance booth is generally on the 2nd or 3rd platform tile for roller coasters, and the 3rd to 5th platform tile for mass transit from the front of the ride. This allows peeps entering the platform to approach the waiting train mid train. The distance for a peep to walk to the lead car or rear car will then be the same. This simple principle can drastically shorten the loading times for waiting trains by 4 minutes. For this reason, never place the entrance booth at the far end of the platform! That looooong walk to the front will cut into your per hour profits by delaying the trains while they load. The exit booth, on the other hand, can be placed anywhere along the length of the platform (and preferably on the opposite side) since the distance detrained peeps must walk will not affect the waiting time of the trains.
Illustration #10 shows the high capacity loading method called Flush Loading. It is important to place the entrance booth mid-train. This minimizes the train's waiting time in the station.
Illustration #10
Illustration #11 shows an alternative method of placing the exit booth. Placement of the exit booth along the opposite side of the platform is not critical as detrained peeps do not delay the trains.
Illustration #11
What if the Queue is Full?
A constantly full queue can be a real temptation for tinkering. But, even if you do see a full line, don't overdo it and make it longer. Peeps will wait in line a long time as their happiness drops, and if the ride is not so great (I am thinking Log Flume here), they will have been worse off for going on the ride. Keep wait times under 9 minutes if you can. Even less for long rides like Chair Lifts and Excursion Trains (5 minutes and more). If waits get above 15 minutes peeps will become fed up and leave the line. These peeps are ripe for committing vandalism, or leaving your park in a huff.
Boring Queues
One thing to avoid is a boring queue. Don't just wrap the queue around itself. Try to create open spaces for placing trees, fountains, themed objects, etc.. This will help to maintain, or even bump up happiness levels. Another way of creating interesting queues is to have them passing over or through the ride itself. (Refer back to illustrations #7 and #8). This is a double bonus as it not only maintains the happiness level of waiting peeps, but the ride in question also gets a bump up in its Excitement numbers as peeps ride under the queue. This is especially valuable with roller coasters.
Illustration 12 shows an example of a boring queue.
Illustration #12
Illustration 13 is the same queue but with a more 'airy' design, and all spruced up. Which queue would you want to stand in?
Illustration #13
No Queues At All
There are times when you don't even to need to build a queue. Simply place the entrance right on the main path. This is only permissible with certain types of rides (never do it with a roller coaster, for example). The best candidates for non-queues are Space Rings, Maze, Car Ride, Boat Hire, and the Slide. If you build these on a crowded enough path, then they will always be full with a queue. Peeps are never actually waiting for the ride, and therefore, never becoming unhappy with a long wait.
It should be noted that a ride with no queue still has a queue of 1 peep, except that now the peep is waiting on the main path. Personally, I prefer to always maintain a queue of at least a few tiles so that I can visually monitor the ride demand.
Entertainers
Entertainers really earn their bread and butter when they are put on Patrol Routes with the specific purpose of 'working the line'. It is always a good idea to hire an Entertainer for each roller coaster and limit his Patrol Route only to the ride's queue. Keeping peeps amused while waiting in line will give their happiness levels a slight boost.
Plan Ahead Before You Build
Good and thoughtful planning of ride placement, and the placement of your entrances/exits can dramatically increase the efficiency of ride operations, thereby increasing the number of riders per hour. More riders per hour = more profits per hour. Finally, thoughtful design of your queues and exit paths will go a long way in maintaining the happiness levels of peeps from one ride to the next. And, when all is said and done, raising and maintaining peep's happiness levels goes to the very heart of the engine that drives the game of RollerCoaster Tycoon. Unhappy peeps go home!
Just The Numbers
Here is a quick break down:
- Transport Rides - 5 to 15 tiles (depending upon the type of transport)
- Gentle Rides - 5 to 10 tiles
- Roller Coasters - 10 to 20 tiles
- Thrill Rides - 5 to 15 tiles
- Ferris Wheel - 3 to 4 tiles
- Boat Hire - 3 to 5 tiles
- Log Flume - 6 to 9 tiles
Queue areas are places in which people queue (first-come, first-served) for goods or services. Such a group of people is known as a queue (British usage) or line (American usage), and the people are said to be waiting or standing in a queue or in line, respectively. (In the New York City area, the phrase on line is often used in place of in line.)[1] Occasionally, both the British and American terms are combined to form the term 'queue line'.[2][3]
Examples include checking out groceries or other goods that have been collected in a self serviceshop, in a shop without self-service, at an ATM, at a ticket desk, a city bus, or in a taxi stand.
Queueing[4] is a phenomenon in a number of fields, and has been extensively analysed in the study of queueing theory. In economics, queueing is seen as one way to rationscarce goods and services.
Types[edit]
Physical[edit]
History[edit]
The first written description of people standing in line is found in an 1837 book, The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle.[5] Carlyle described what he thought was a strange sight: people standing in an orderly line to buy bread from bakers around Paris.[5]
Typical applications[edit]
Queues can be found in railway stations to book tickets, at bus stops for boarding and at temples as well.[6][7][8]
Queues are generally found at transportation terminals where security screenings are conducted.
Large stores and supermarkets may have dozens of separate queues, but this can cause frustration, as different lines tend to be handled at different speeds; some people are served quickly, while others may wait for longer periods of time. Sometimes two people who are together split up and each waits in a different line; once it is determined which line is faster, the one in the slower line joins the other. Another arrangement is for everyone to wait in a single line[citation needed]; a person leaves the line each time a service point opens up. This is a common setup in banks and post offices.
Organized queue areas are commonly found at amusement parks. The rides have a fixed number of guests that can be served at any given time, so there has to be some control over additional guests who are waiting. This led to the development of formalized queue areas—areas in which the lines of people waiting to board the rides are organized by railings, and may be given shelter from the elements with a roof over their heads, inside a climate-controlled building or with fans and misting devices. In some amusement parks – Disney Parks being a prime example – queue areas can be elaborately decorated, with holding areas fostering anticipation, thus shortening the perceived wait for people in the queue by giving them something interesting to look at as they wait, or the perception that they have arrived at the threshold of the attraction.
Design[edit]
Rollercoaster Tycoon Queue Line Music
When designing queues, planners attempt to make the wait as pleasant and as simple as possible. They employ several strategies to achieve this, including:
- Expanding the capacity of the queue, thus allowing more patrons to have a place. This can be achieved by:
- Increasing the length of the queue by making the queue longer
- Increasing the size of the lanes within the queue
- Increasing the length of the queue by designing the line in a 'zig-zag' shape that holds a large number of guests in a smaller area. This is used often at amusement parks. Notable rides have a large area of this kind of line to hold as many people as possible in line. Portions of the line can be sectioned off and bypassed by guests if the queue is not crowded.
- 'In-line' entertainment can be added. This is popular at amusement parks like Walt Disney World, which uses TV screens and other visuals to keep people in the queue area occupied.
- Secondary queue areas for patrons with special tickets, like the FASTPASS system used at Disney parks, or the Q-bot as used in Legoland Windsor.
Psychology[edit]
People experience 'occupied' time as shorter than 'unoccupied' time, and generally overestimate the amount of time waited by around 36%.[9]
The technique of giving people an activity to distract them from a wait has been used to reduce complaints of delays at:[9]
- Baggage claim in the Houston, Texas airport, by moving the arrival gates further away so passengers spend more time walking than standing around waiting
- Elevators, by adding mirrors so people can groom themselves or watch other people
- Retail checkout, by placing small items for purchase so customers can continue shopping while waiting
Other techniques to reduce queueing anxiety include:[9]
- Hiding the length of a line by wrapping it around a corner.
- Having only one line, so there is no anxiety about which line to choose and a greater sense of fairness. Even though the average wait over time is the same, customers tend to notice lines that are moving faster than they are compared to other lines moving more slowly.
- Putting up signs that deliberately overestimate the wait time, to always exceed customer expectations.
Cutting in line, also known as queue-jumping, can generate a strong negative response, depending on the local cultural norms.
Virtual[edit]
Physical queueing is sometimes replaced by virtual queueing. In a waiting room there may be a system whereby the queuer asks and remembers where his place is in the queue, or reports to a desk and signs in, or takes a ticket with a number from a machine. These queues typically are found at doctors' offices, hospitals, town halls, social security offices, labor exchanges, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the immigration departments, free internet access in the state or council libraries, banks or post offices and call centres. Especially in the United Kingdom, tickets are taken to form a virtual queue at delicatessens and children's shoe shops. In some countries such as Sweden, virtual queues are also common in shops and railway stations. A display sometimes shows the number that was last called for service.
Restaurants have come to employ virtual queueing techniques with the availability of application-specific pagers, which alert those waiting that they should report to the host to be seated. Another option used at restaurants is to assign customers a confirmed return time, basically a reservation issued on arrival.
Virtual queueing apps are available that allow the customers to view the virtual queue status of a business and they can take virtual queue numbers remotely. The app can be used to get updates of the virtual queue status that the customer is in.
Alternate activities[edit]
A substitute or alternative activity may be provided for people to participate in while waiting to be called, which reduces the perceived waiting time and the probability that the customer will abort their visit. For example, a busy restaurant might seat waiting customers a bar. An outdoor attraction with long virtual queues might have a side marquee selling merchandise or food. The alternate activity may provide the organisation with an opportunity to generate additional revenue from the waiting customers.[10]
Mobile[edit]
All of the above methods, however, suffer from the same drawback: the person arrives at the location only to find out that they need to wait. Recently, queues at DMVs,[11] colleges, restaurants,[12] healthcare institutions,[13] government offices[12] and elsewhere have begun to be replaced by mobile queues or queue-ahead, whereby the person queuing uses his/her phone, the internet, a kiosk or another method to enter a virtual queue, optionally prior to arrival, is free to roam during the wait, and then gets paged at his/her mobile phone when his/her turn approaches. This has the advantage of allowing users to find out the wait forecast and get in the queue before arriving, roaming freely and then timing their arrival to the availability of service. This has been shown to extend the patience of those into the queue and reduce no-shows.[12]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^LearnersDictionary.com
- ^Watson, Jim. 'Better layouts for queue lines'. jamesrobertwatson.com. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
- ^Chris Sawyer Productions (2002-10-15). RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (U.S. release). Microsoft Windows. Infogrames. Scene: Footpaths window (normal gameplay). When the cursor hovers over the queue line options for a few seconds in the 'Footpaths' window, a pop-up that says 'Queue line paths' appears.
- ^Also spelled queuing. askoxford.com. Retrieved 2009-4-29.
- ^ abKeiles, Jamie Lauren (1 January 2018). 'Why We Wait in Lines'. Racked. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
- ^'Queues get longer at railway station'. The Hindu. Mangalore. 3 May 2012. Retrieved Mar 2, 2015.
- ^'Many bus stops in Mumbai not in 'BEST' shape'. Daily News and Analysis. Mumbai. 28 May 2011. Retrieved Mar 2, 2015.
- ^'Shirdi: Now, pay extra for VIP 'aartis' at Sai Baba temple'. NDTV. Shirdi. 17 November 2013. Retrieved Mar 2, 2015.
- ^ abcAlex Stone (Aug 18, 2012). 'Why Waiting Is Torture'.
- ^Supalocal, 'Master the art of substitution', April 12, 2011, accessed July 11, 2011.
- ^DMV’s New Line Management System is Available OnlineArchived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ abc'Exit waiting in line, enter QLess'. Vator.tv. 2010-01-14. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
- ^'Could your practice's waiting area become obsolete? : Noteworthy – A Family Practice Management blog'. Blogs.aafp.org. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
- Maister, D.H. (1988). Managing Services: Marketing, Operations and Human Resources. Prentice-Hall.
- Mercer, David. Redefining marketing in the multi-channel age. Wiley.
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Queues. |
- For insight into the British habit of queueing, see standinaqueue