Queue area

History

The first written description of people standing in line is found in an 1837 book, The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle.^[5] Carlyle described what he thought was a strange sight: people standing in an orderly line to buy bread from bakers around Paris.^[5]

Typical applications

Queues can be found in railway stations to book tickets, at bus stops for boarding and at temples.^[6][7][8]

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;^[9] 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.^{[citation needed][10]} 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%.^[11]

The technique of giving people an activity to distract them from a wait has been used to reduce complaints of delays at:^[11]

• 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:^[11]

• Hiding the length of a line by wrapping it around a corner.
• Having only one line, so there is no anxiety about which line to choose and a greater sense of fairness. Even though the average wait over time is the same, customers tend to notice lines that are moving faster than they are compared to other lines moving more slowly.
• Putting up signs that deliberately overestimate the wait time, to always exceed customer expectations.

Cutting in line, also known as queue-jumping, can generate a strong negative response, depending on the local cultural norms.

Alternate activities

A substitute or alternative activity may be provided for people to participate in while waiting to be called, which reduces the perceived waiting time and the probability that the customer will abort their visit. For example, a busy restaurant might seat waiting customers a bar. An outdoor attraction with long virtual queues might have a side marquee selling merchandise or food. The alternate activity may provide the organisation with an opportunity to generate additional revenue from the waiting customers.^[12]