Ride time..

How is a rides' time calculated from when you get into the car or when it starts moving?

During normal circumstances, I think it's generally defined as the time elapsed from restraint down to restrain up - excluding any emergency stopping or unintended blocking probably.

time starts when the train is sent from the station and time stops when the train comes back into the station and rests at its home position . not restraint down to restraint up.

[jayman]

gerts had a point though, you're officially " on the ride " from when the restraint is locked until it comes off.

i think Rjs means formal recording. loading is the equivalent of estop in NL you know if it wasnt for auto dispatch. from ride dispatch to ride 's return.

I thought he would be talking about recording time of a NoLimits roller coaster, in which restraint-down to restraint-up would be 1 to 2 seconds different from train-depart to train-return... either way, those two methods won't give you very different results.

Not like anyone is going to be lingering over what the official ride-time is anyway.

[hyyyper]

It depends on what the purpose of the ride time is.

Some use top-of-lift to brake-section, others use dispatch-to-dispatch time, depending on what kind of use it has or what you are trying to calculate.

For my recs I use top of lift-brake to gauge accuracy because you rarely find any P.O.V's that don't begin halfway up the lift. For original designs when I list stats I go from start of movement to end of movement. I had never heard anyone gauge it from lock and load to its reciprocal because in my book that is more sitting than riding.

[Mikey]

For what I do:

System Ride Time is calculated from initial dispatch to where automatic block advancing ends. This the point where an operator must acknowledge the advancement of a train and not the logic controls performing a zoning function.

Functional Ride Time is calculated as a full cycle. This includes the three basic functions of holding, loading and unloading. The loading and unloading uses the time standard for the seating arrangement of the trains. In most cases we shoot for 45 seconds to be in "Ready for Dispatch" state.

I would say that for a park's advertising purposes they would try to make it as long as they could without straying into "stretching the truth" territory. Which would probably be from restraint down to restraint up.