Roller Coaster Freakonomics

I wrote an article featured in the latest issue of Theme Park Geekly where I attempted to analyize some roller coaster data in a unique way. I compared the speed of wooden and steel roller coasters versus their height and found that they were pretty much the same. Then, I looked at height versus length and noticed a very interesting trend. Joel, the Coaster Critic, was able to take my data and create a pretty cool interactive chart that you can play around with. Check it out for yourself!

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Cedar Point Ridership Chart 1996-2008

Have you ever wondered how many people have rode Millennium Force in one year? Cedar Point used to post on their website the number of riders each of their major rides had given every year for a couple of seasons. I believe they have unfortunately stopped posting this information but fortunately for us a few roller coaster enthusiasts have captured the data before it was taken down and put together an Excel spreadsheet chart for us to analyze.

 

One thing to note is the numbers for the train ride. I believe the peaks are when the park was utilizing two trains at one once instead of just one on those busiest of days. I am predicting Ocean Motion's ridership will increase this season due to its new placement at the front of the park. It's nice to see Top Thrill Dragster's performance has constantly been improving. I think the park's peak attendance was 3 million guests and has slowly been on the decline ever since.

 

What trends do you notice?

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What is the average age of a roller coaster?

The average life of all 121 roller coasters that I've ridden is 17 years. This means a ride is erected and thrills riders for 17 years before being demolished. The average age of all 121 roller coasters I've ridden is 22 years. This means most are over 22 years old (the oldest being Jack Rabbit at Kennywood which has been standing for 91 years. Second oldest was Big Dipper at Geauga Lake).

Why is this? There were quite a few coasters (10?) I rode at Geauga Lake which were then demolished (or moved but the way I count my track record is essentially the same thing. Basically, when a coaster I rode ceases to exist at the park where I rode it then I list it as closed which then effects the average life of a coaster stat. Make sense?).

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