The Cutting Edge: COMPUTING / TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION : Theme Parks Keep Turning It Up a Notch
Colossus. Viper. Psyclone. Batman the Ride.
The names of the big, high-tech thrill rides at Six Flags Magic Mountain roll effortlessly off the tongues of countless Southland 12-year-olds--and that goes a long way toward explaining why Time Warner was able to name a premium price this week in announcing plans to sell a majority interest in its Six Flags theme park chain.
For Six Flags, once an also-ran behind Walt Disney Co., is now a central player in a $6-billion-a-year, worldwide theme park arms race over more complex, higher-speed, higher-tech amusements. A single new attraction can increase attendance at a park by millions, making the difference between a so-so or a banner year.
But with these attractions come costs--not only of building the rides, but of maintaining the computer-controlled equipment and ensuring that the attractions operate safely.
“The public wants more thrills, illusion and virtual reality. In an attempt to give all of that, the sophistication of the rides . . . has been pushed each and every year a little further and a little further,” said Steve Coulter, a theme park safety consultant in Delaware, Ohio. These new rides “are not outside the safety envelope . . . (but) the safety envelope may be narrower.”
Clearly, the parks have found that more thrilling rides are the best way to lure visitors. Six Flags Magic Mountain, for instance, has been on a thrill-ride building spree for the past few years that has added a major new attraction every single year. Its popularity, particularly with Southern Californians, grew to the point where it drew the ire of Disney two years ago with ads characterizing Magic Mountain as an exciting alternative to its sleepy rival.
Proof of its success came Monday when the investment group Boston Ventures indicated it is willing to pay $200 million to Time Warner and assume $800 million in debt for the 10 parks in the Six Flags chain.
A new attraction can boost attendance by 10%--and if a park goes too long without building a major new ride, attendance quickly starts to erode.
“It’s an unwritten rule that every two years you need a very major attraction,” said Jim Benedick, vice president of the Tustin consulting firm Management Resources. “If you want to get your patrons back, you have to make these infusions.”
Boasting rights can be quick to change hands amid the red-hot competition to stand out in the theme park industry with a must-see attraction.
But as hair-raising roller coasters and attractions such as the new Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland grow more energetic, designers are forced to come up with more sophisticated safety systems to match.
In the case of coasters, for instance, new braking systems have spring backups in case the primary air or hydraulic systems fail. They are necessary because the advent of polyurethane and nylon-covered aluminum wheels and tracks that are curved and connected in long strips make coasters faster than ever.
And then there are the computers. The Free Fall ride at Magic Mountain--an attraction that takes passengers on a 10-story drop--has more than 200 computer-monitored sensors controlling everything from brakes to valves.
The park’s Viper roller coaster has twin redundant computers, using the same backup system found on spacecraft, that constantly monitor the ride. A shutdown is triggered when either computer reports data different from the other. A series of brake blocks at points along the track bring the train cars to an immediate halt.
“The sophistication is increasing so much that some of the bugs have to be worked out while they are operating,” said Dennis Speigel, a theme park consultant based in Cincinnati.
When something goes wrong on a big ride and riders are injured or killed, it is sure to make headlines. Just last summer, 16 people were hurt when two trains collided on an old roller coaster at an amusement park near Denver.
Although the federal government does not track the type or rides on which accidents occur, statistics indicate that the rides are generally safe.
About 5,000 people were treated in emergency rooms for injuries suffered at theme parks in 1993, the most recent year for which records are available from the U.S. Product Safety Commission. Of those, only 1.3% were admitted. Based on patronage of 270 million at the nation’s theme and amusement parks, the injury rate would be 0.0000187%. Only one patron died that year.
In California, accidents at theme parks are investigated by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, but the agency is not authorized to safety-check new rides. California, despite having some of the nation’s most famous and prominent theme parks, is one of only 11 states that do not require such checks, the product safety commission reports.
Occasional moves to legislate more ride inspections, sometimes promoted by a highly publicized accident, have been consistently shot down. Rides are inspected only if an employee is injured in an accident or if someone files a complaint.
Although maintenance is critical, the easiest way to keep a ride safe is through strict design standards and rigorous testing, experts say.
Designers face a vexing problem of trying to thrill the many without endangering the few. They put measurement devices in roller-coaster cars to try to quantify the forces that pull against riders.
One nationally recognized human guinea pig is Richard H. Brown, chief of orthopedic research at a Cleveland hospital who moonlights riding new coasters and other attractions in order to advise their owners on how to iron out glitches.
Using sources such as motion tests conducted on potential astronauts or in car crash testing, Brown said, a designer can figure out how to keep from hurting people.
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Amusing Moments in History
Some milestones of fun: 1550-1700: Pleasure gardens, permanent entertainment areas, open in Europe. 1583: First amusement park opens near Copenhagen. 1650: Ice slide, forerunner of roller coasters, opens in St. Petersburg, Russia. 1884: First roller coaster opens at New York’s Coney Island. 1893: George Ferris builds first Ferris wheel, for Chicago World’s Fair. 1894: First park built around mechanical amusements opens in Chicago. 1926: Tilt-a-Whirl debuts. 1955: Walt Disney opens Disneyland, the first true theme park. 1963: Log flume rides open at Six Flags Over Texas and at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. 1987: Disneyland opens first large-scale simulator attraction, Star Tours, coordinating seat movement with a motion picture. 1994: World’s tallest, fastest roller coaster opens at Buffalo Bill’s Resort and Casino in Stateline, Nev. The 225-foot-high coaster has been clocked at 94 m.p.h. 1995: Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure combines motion simulators with a moving platform.
* Source: Jim Futrell, historian, National Amusement Park Historical Assn.
Researched by CHRIS WOODYARD / Los Angeles Times
