Physical History queue in
Aalborg, Denmark The first written description of people standing in line is found in an 1837 book,
The French Revolution: A History by
Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle described what he thought was a strange sight: people standing in an orderly line to buy bread from bakers around Paris. 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; 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. Each ride can accommodate a fixed number of guests that can be served at any given time (which is referred to as the ride's operational capacity), 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 theme 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 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 width of the lanes within the queue • Increasing the length of the queue, sometimes 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 video 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 People experience "occupied" time as shorter than "unoccupied" time, and generally overestimate the amount of time waited by around 36%. •
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:
Mobile 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, colleges, restaurants, healthcare institutions, government offices and elsewhere have begun to be replaced by mobile queues or queue-ahead, whereby the person queuing uses their 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 their mobile phone when their 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 in the queue and reduce no-shows. ==See also==