nadroJ said:
I'd love to see the actual survey, I want to know what questions they asked. I wonder if, for instance, they asked 'do you think wooden roller coasters are unsafe?' or if they left i open ended and lots of people said, in their own words, that they felt wooden rollercoasters were unsafe.
Exactly!
I asked my mum what she thinks of wooden roller coasters, and she said "rickety". I would have
thought that's what most people would say if it were open ended, which doesn't tell anyone anything.
I suspect the survey was more like a list of potential ride types, and wood just came out least popular. And when they asked why, people said because they are old, boring and unsafe. Boring is a far more poignant point, I would have thought, especially since it's based in ignorance. Old and unsafe aren't, they are just born of the idea that wood is a crap material in general, for building anything. I've heard people exclaim "it's made of wood!" when talking about coasters in that way.
That's part of the reason wooden coasters don't get this crap in the USA, wood is still used as the primary construction of houses. People are familiar with it and know it's good, safe and such, they think nothing of it.
Driving around the USA and seeing houses like this, which look like
I could push them over, illustrates my point. I'm just as guilty as the rest of the British public.
