high speed lifts

[Andy H.]

High-speed quads move at least 4 or 5 times as many people per hour as the old slow double chairs do. They'll gobble up a full lift maze in a few minutes whereas the old lifts would have 45 minute lift lines.

[rhm]

it is all about the rate that people get picked up and dropped off. say you have two quad lifts running side by side. one is a high speed detachable one is a low speed. the chairs on a low speed lift come around 1 chair every 6 seconds. the chairs on a high speed lift come around 1 chair every 6 seconds also. you don't have time to load if the chairs are any closer than that. if you don't believe me just count the seconds between chairs next time you are in line. if four people unload on the low speed lift every 6 seconds and four people unload on the high speed lift every 6 seconds then they must be carrying the same number of people up the hill. the only difference is that the ride is shorter on the high speed lift. if you want to use the extreme case that was poster earlier, then how about we make it really extreme. "scotty" beam me to the top of the hill. this make the lift ride time zero. if four people get beamed to the top every 6 seconds and then the low speed lift drops four people off every 6 seconds, then you are moving the same number of people up the hill on either lift. it isn't about how fast the lift goes. the only way to move more people is to load and unload them faster, not send them up the hill faster.

[BPskiextreme]

I am a liftie.... it puts more Texans on the Mountain

[brendodendo]

I'll use meters in this case because they are easier to talk about rather than feet, yard and miles.

Lets assume the there are 2 lifts side by side and both carry 4 people and are 1 kilometer long.
Lift 1 AKA: slow poke is a an old school 420volt continuous lift and
Lift 2 AKA: Fast and Furrious is a new school detachable 420volt analogous lift

Both lifts have 200 chairs (100 on up side, 100 on down side) thats a total of 400 people riding uphill on the lift max. Spaced at approx 10 meters each chair (thats 33 feet aprox or about 6 seconds appart)

Lift 1 runs at a constant speed of 75 meters a minute or 13.3 minutes to top
Lift 2 runs at a constant of 125 meters a minute or 8 minutes to top.

therfore lift 1 deposits 400 people at the top every 13.3 minutes or 1804.5 people every hour
lift 2 deposits 400 people at the to every 8 minutes or 3000 people evrey hour.

So yes a high speed lift does get you up on the hill faster, because it runs faster. Costing about the same for enery on both lifts it decreases costs associated with lift opperation and the end result is more people on the hill.

High speed is great, but low speed is good for tralking with bros, wife, etc in an environment that is free. It also lets you snmoke one with your hommie while his little brother the cheba hawk is behind you on the next chair.

[BillyD]

Rhm hit the nail on the head. Brendodendo your calcs are wrong in that fixed grips have more chairs. Both pick people up at 6 second intervals. High speeds get you up the hill faster after you get on the lift, but have the same uphill capacity. Less waiting in line and more chair time on the fixed grip. I have seen this discussed at length before. The only way to get more people up the hill is more seats. Double versus quad or six pack.

[KSC]

rhm, I think I see your point.

Say cars are driving down a 1000m stretch of road and you have to maintain a 1 second distance between cars.

In one lane all cars are going 100m/s, then the gap between each car would be 100m.
In another lane, all cars are going 10m/s, then the gap between each car would need to be 10m.

So at 100 m/s you can fit 10 cars on the stretch of road at any given time
At 10m/s you can fit 100 cars on the stretch of road at any given time.

If I'm the first car to enter the queue in:
case 1 (100m/s) I will finish in 10 seconds
case 2 (10m/s) I will finish in 100 seconds

But after this 100 second period, presumably a guy sitting at the finish line will see a car in the 100m/s lane and a 10m/s lane cross the line every second. The guy sitting at the start line will see a person going onto the road every second. Clearly the person in the the 100m/s will get to the finish line much faster than a person in the 10m/s lane.

So really the slowness of the 10m/s lane comes into play loading and unloading the queue.

In other words, suppose we allow cars on this 1000m stretch of road for 1000 seconds. In the first 100 seconds 0 cars have finished in the slow lane, but 10 cars have finished in the fast lane. For the next 800 seconds, a car in each lane finishes every second. But if want all cars off the road at the end of the 1000 seconds (the accurate ski analogy), you must stop allowing cars into the slow lane at the 900 second mark, but you can continue to allow cars into the fast lane until the 990 second mark .

How about that? That's all I've got time for at the moment, but I'm thinking the whole slower speed in the loading/unloading zone may play a factor as well.

[rhm]

ksc i like your analogy of the road. this is exactly like the lift. as you can actually see a high speed moves a few more people at the beginning of its cycle and at the end of its cycle, but while both are running they move the same number of people up the hill in a given period of time.

[boatnbike]

It was my understanding there would be no math on this forum.

[Andy H.]

This thread is amazing....

Please, please, oh my God, please, read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairlift

[BillyD]

I know, kind of a useless thread, but I can't help myself to point out that your link, Andy, contradicts your original statement. As the wikapedia link says a high speed quad moves twice as many people an hour over an old fixed grip double. Not 4 to 5 as many. Its all about seating capacity. Here's another discussion to bore everyone that might still be interested. http://www.alpinezone.com/forums/692...p-3-print.html

Anyone have any TR's or pics of the snow in their area?