I went to SFOT last night and the first ride I headed for was Texas Giant. When I made it into the station I saw that they were testing out a new way to load the ride.
When a train came into the station, it didn't stop. It just slowed down to maybe about 1 mph or so. As each car crossed a certain line in the station, the lapbars would open and people would get off the ride. As this was happening, people were getting into the seats through only one open gate (somewhere between row 8 and 10) which was controlled by a ride host, whose job was to get people into these seats as they became available. Keep in mind that the train is moving the whole time. There were mesh zipper pouches bolted to the seatbacks in front of each row to place small items like cell phones and wallets, and near the end of the station, there were ride hosts on each side of the train checking each row of restraints as the train slowly creeped past.
There was no choice of seats whatsoever. You got whatever row opened up for you. This also seems very unsafe because the train always moves (albeit slow, but still) and the gate the guests passed through to board was never actually closed. It was just guarded by a ride host with a stick to measure rider height. Amusement parks also argue that you shouldn't bring loose articles on the ride with you because of safety reasons but now you're practically forced to. This sounds like a stupid system to me and it seemed that it hardly moved faster than the original.
Has anyone seen this before? Am I simply missing the obvious genius in this plan? Is this a good idea in your opinion? I'd like to hear your thoughts.