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Dumb park restrictions

TLARides

TLARides

Hyper Poster
So I was looking through some articles about Alton Towers and came across the park's sound restriction.

I know sound restrictions aren't dumb, and I always knew the park had a height and sound restriction, but the reasoning for the sound restriction was straight up stupid.

In 2002, a couple living 100 yards started a legal claim on the parks sound.

First off, why the :emoji_zipper_mouth: would you buy a house, 100 yards away from the most popular theme park in England? Why would you even consider building one there?

The restriction was placed in 2012 and the park had to pay fines for the noise generated and was forced to move or close several rides.

Can we all just take a moment to recognize the couples stupidity?

You guys are probably thinking "Big deal. That was 2012. Welcome to 2017." Well, I don't care if it's 2017 or not, this year's going to be crap anyways.

So enough of my complaining, it's your turn.
 
If it wasn't for "dumb park restrictions" we wouldn't be riding absolute corkers like Nemesis, Winjas and probably Taron. While it may seem restrictive it also sparks creativity having to build around restrictions.

The one I don't understand is the restriction Thorpe have about coasters being over a certain length (I believe this was outlined in the last LTDP). Height and noise are very reasonable restrictions to impose but I don't get how the length of a coaster can negatively affect a community or be a H&S issue.
 
TLARides said:
First off, why the :emoji_zipper_mouth: would you buy a house, 100 yards away from the most popular theme park in England? Why would you even consider building one there?
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Well... Alton Towers opened as a theme park in 1980. It is entirely possible, not to say overwhelmingly likely, that the Ropers estate has been around since way before then, same goes for the people who currently live there. They didn't move next to a theme park, the theme park opened next to their house.
 
If there is one thing that gets Alton-goons over-excited, its Ropergate.
But yes, they were there before the park was (not that that excuses their behaviour in any great way)
 
Benenen said:
The one I don't understand is the restriction Thorpe have about coasters being over a certain length (I believe this was outlined in the last LTDP). Height and noise are very reasonable restrictions to impose but I don't get how the length of a coaster can negatively affect a community or be a H&S issue.
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Pretty sure that's not a thing? Where'd you hear that?




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The Ropers, lest we forget, are involved in Churchill China.
And their particularly noisy factory in Stoke on Trent :p
 
^ But they don't live near the factory, do they?! ;)

Height and noise are just very normal procedures? But I don't think I've come across any that are completely bizarre.

I seem to remember one that any of the Alton coasters that approach canopy height of the trees, and therefore may be possible from outside the park, have to be rendered in dark colours to compensate. Hence why Galactica and Rita have dark green/black renders at their highest points.
 
While the Tornado - Intamin Invert - at Särkeniemmi - as a hight restriction of 2,00 meters the counterpart at Parque de Attraciones de Madrid as a ridiculous height restriction of 1,80 meters. They also have a height restriction for the Maurer X-Car at 2,00 meters - while the ones at Skyline Park and Linnanmaki allow 2,10 meters height.

So making long story short: Was not allowed to ride the Madrid Tornado due to stupid height restriction...
 
Cedar Fair rain restrictions.

Any rules regarding assigned seating.
 
SimonSays99 said:
While the Tornado - Intamin Invert - at Särkeniemmi - as a hight restriction of 2,00 meters the counterpart at Parque de Attraciones de Madrid as a ridiculous height restriction of 1,80 meters.
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Damn, that's strict. Just checking their website, it seems that they have moved the restriction up to 187cm, which is still really low for Central/Northern European standards. How tall are you?

I think I've heard some of the new Wanda parks in China have age restrictions with not allowing any riders on the bigger rides if they are over 50 or so...
 
TilenB said:
Damn, that's strict. Just checking their website, it seems that they have moved the restriction up to 187cm, which is still really low for Central/Northern European standards. How tall are you?

I think I've heard some of the new Wanda parks in China have age restrictions with not allowing any riders on the bigger rides if they are over 50 or so...
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Age restrictions are the dumbest thing ever. I mean, it's not like people above the age of 50 are going to get an instant heart attack by riding a coaster.
 
Hyde said:
Cedar Fair rain restrictions.

Any rules regarding assigned seating.
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Rain can actually cause damage to the coaster and cause brake downs.
Assigned seating though, that's just pure stupid. Just let me deside if I want to wait an extra ride or two just to sit in my favorite row...
 
InternationalCoasters said:
Rain can actually cause damage to the coaster and cause brake downs.
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TLARides said:
The rain rule is actually pretty smart. Why would you run a train on slippery track?
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Okay, just to clarify. Running a coaster in the rain actually has a pretty slim chance of causing any real damage.

The biggest risk of the rain itself is that the train will slightly over-speed through the brake runs (as the friction brakes lose some of their effectiveness) and cause the sensors to keep tripping. Magnetic brakes are completely unaffected, as are the friction wheels (well, technically they are affected, but the trains are often moving so slowly that it doesn't have any real effect). It would have very little effect on the train running on the track.

The biggest risk of running a coaster during a storm is a lightning strike. This won't actually cause any damage to the coaster (they're designed for it, just like buildings are), but it does put riders at risk of being on a coaster which may have a power failure and would require them to be evacuated. Rule of thumb in a thunder storm: stay away from very large conductors.

@Hyde will be able to confirm this for me, but Cedar Fair's policy takes this to the extreme. They will shut all rides if there's a storm detected within some distance of the park. Which makes sense really, as lightning can strike a few miles from the 'centre' of the storm, however Cedar Fair have set the distance at something quite huge like 20 miles? I think this is what Hyde is referring to.

A few years ago at Kings Island (2010 CF Live) I recall the rides getting shut down due to a looming storm. The storm was reasonably close, and sure enough there was a lightning strike on Diamondback during their test runs. Trains all then stuck on the lift hills and on the brake runs while they reset the whole thing. It was lucky there weren't any riders on board.
 
TLARides said:
The rain rule is actually pretty smart. Why would you run a train on slippery track?
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They concern is actually for rider comfort - getting smacked in the face by rain going 70+ MPH is not pleasant. There is no official regulation or guidance on wet/dry roller coaster operation. Really, as far as I'm aware, is a temperature warning on not operating below freezing due to proper lubrication in the wheel bearings, etc.

I have only ever heard of one documented case of a ride accident due to rain - Maverick's opening day at Cedar Point was an absolute down pour, and a rare moment when Cedar Point ran a number of roller coasters throughout the rain due to high volume attendance. Magnum slid through the first set of final brake run, bumping into the next train that was staged in the second set of brakes. Noone was injured gratefully, and the incident was moreso cited to an improper ride inspection by ride staff/mechanics than the rain.

Inverse to this however, I have been to Cedar Point a few times over the years during their Halloweekends event - the busiest time of the year for the park - when 100% rain was predicted throughout the evening. Rather than shut all the rides down, Cedar Point has, in these rare moments, opted to run the rides through the rain. And so, to my first point, I can confirm: Millennium Force is a bitch in the rain. Cedar Fair does remain pretty zealous with their rain rule however IMO, and can shut down operation far too quickly.

As Hixee pointed out, the biggest concern for adverse weather is lightning.

Hixee said:
@Hyde will be able to confirm this for me, but Cedar Fair's policy takes this to the extreme. They will shut all rides if there's a storm detected within some distance of the park. Which makes sense really, as lightning can strike a few miles from the 'centre' of the storm, however Cedar Fair have set the distance at something quite huge like 20 miles? I think this is what Hyde is referring to.

A few years ago at Kings Island (2010 CF Live) I recall the rides getting shut down due to a looming storm. The storm was reasonably close, and sure enough there was a lightning strike on Diamondback during their test runs. Trains all then stuck on the lift hills and on the brake runs while they reset the whole thing. It was lucky there weren't any riders on board.
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That is pretty correct - each park determines their own safe distance. For Cedar Point, it was roughly 20 miles, which was as far due west as Oak Harbor, Ohio - a fair guide for weather to expect. Since Cedar Point sits on a buffer between the Sandusky Bay and Lake Erie, weather patterns can be weird at times; rain storms sweeping along the coast, or storms staying in land.

The more important rule, in order to avoid lightning strike hazard, is to stop all ride operations at the first sight of lightning, and not resume until 30 minutes had past. If a new strike of lightning occurs, the 30 minute wait restarts.

A random side note that I found to be true at Cedar Point when returning to operation from a storm: when Power Tower begins testing, every other ride in the park will begin testing within the hour/good chance of everything going fully operational.
 
TLARides said:
The rain rule is actually pretty smart. Why would you run a train on slippery track?

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
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Well, it's not going to fly off the tracks, is it? I presume the rain rule only applies when it actually is raining. I mean, the track is still going to be slippery after it rains, isn't it? If all roller coasters were shut down because the tracks a bit slippery, I can only presume British Rail networks must be operating them.
 
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