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Roller Coaster Rankings


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The pic attached is a sample of one I made.

 

Using technical data from rcdb.com and other similar sources, I made a ranking system using Microsoft Excel that gives a sort of objective total score for a roller coaster and rank them all based on that total score. I also take those scores and combine them based on the parks in which they are located and rank the parks as a whole. I can explain in further detail how the scores are calculated if asked, but basically it comes from bell curves from six separate sets of technical data, which are opening date, track height, track length, top speed, number of inversions, and ride comfort (the ride comfort is based directly off of the speed stat and the type of roller coaster).

 

The primary goal with doing this is to create a legitimate roller coaster ranking system that is 100% objective with no influence from polls, opinions, or anything else subjective.

 

Let me know what you think, but please don't tear my head off if you think it sucks.

1117699428_RollerCoasterRankingsbyLocation(SortedbyAverageScore).thumb.PNG.f704037410e6534c3de06ade943f7a17.PNG

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It looks like you have a good start. My only complaint is how high SFMM is ranked.

 

Because this ranking system is based on tech specs, roller coasters with higher, more impressive tech specs tend to get more favorable scores. In the case of SFMM, a big factor for why it gets ranked so high has a lot to do with being the park with the most total roller coaster inversions in the world. No other park even comes close.

 

I should also note to everyone, just for the record, that my rankings for parks are based solely on their roller coaster line-ups and no other criteria such as friendly staff, cleanliness, value for the money, etc.

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The primary goal with doing this is to create a legitimate roller coaster ranking system that is 100% objective with no influence from polls, opinions, or anything else subjective.

 

But if you choose the criteria to be used (such as technical data from rcdb), you have already made a subjective decision.

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The primary goal with doing this is to create a legitimate roller coaster ranking system that is 100% objective with no influence from polls, opinions, or anything else subjective.

 

this is one of the most bafflingly absurd and misguided ideas I've ever heard in my entire life.

 

I don't even know where to begin. you want "no influence from polls or opinions or anything subjective" in determining a roller coaster ranking system. the concept is logically bankrupt. all you are doing is discarding the opinions of all others in favor of your own subjective opinion, as the author of whatever methodology you concoct. which is fine! but don't make the mistake of thinking it's any more objective than any other individual's opinion.

 

any methodology, no matter how rigorous or number-based, is still just an algorithm you chose to apply, that you made up. it is exactly as subjective as someone who ranks a coaster number 1 because it's in their home park. you can do all the math you want and compile and calculate as many stats as you want -- but your end result still amounts to a single person's subjective opinion (yours), no more or less valid than anyone else's, both from a scientific and a logical standpoint.

 

Mitch Hawker's poll doesn't seek to discover the "objectively best roller coaster" it merely attempts to measure, more accurately than any other poll, which coasters are the most popular.

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Here's another sample from my spreadsheet. It lists the top 50 wood roller coasters in the world (on my spreadsheet, all of the wood roller coasters in the world known to be currently operating are included).

 

I should also take this opportunity to correct some things I stated earlier to appease the critics. This ranking system is still subjective even though it is based on objective data.

55773102_RollerCoasterRankings(Top50WoodRollerCoasters).thumb.PNG.98557390beee7afbe301bdc2abcb381e.PNG

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I was interested in the first list because it did give some reasonable numbers as to how appealing various parks seem to be, and I figured you would continue to find ways to improve upon it (factoring in airtime, flat ride choices, etc.) before it becomes a very accurate representation of how desirable an amusement park should be. But looking at that wooden roller coaster list, I am very confused as to what your spreadsheet sees when making its decisions. I mean, Boulder Dash doesn't make the list, but Wildcat does?

 

I still think you've got something interesting going on here and I'd love to see more of what you can do with Excel, but I think that last spreadsheet has a long way to go before it comes even close to accurate.

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I still think you've got something interesting going on here and I'd love to see more of what you can do with Excel, but I think that last spreadsheet has a long way to go before it comes even close to accurate.

 

Yes, I am still tinkering with how everything gets scored. Since I started this thing in May 2009, my main focus has thus far been adding roller coasters to the list with the most accurate data possible, some of which I had to go to great lengths to estimate their stats when none were available. It was a nightmare with some of the smaller roller coasters located in poor, foreign countries especially. Very recently I successfully passed a milestone where just over 50% of the operating parks with roller coasters (according to rcdb.com) are now included (860 total as of this writing). All together that includes over 2/3rds of the operating roller coasters in the world in fixed locations (2,285 total as of this writing).

 

On a side note, I can tell you the reason why Wildcat is ranked so high is because the age of the roller coaster (based on its opening date in the park where it is currently located) is factored into its score. I designed this criteria, when plotted on a graph, to be U-shaped where brand new roller coasters that opened recently get high marks and gradually decrease as time goes by until they reach the average age of a roller coaster on my spreadsheet (14 years) at which point it goes back up again. For example, Matterhorn Bobsleds has a high score because its the over sixty years old, but so does Outlaw Run because it opened this year.

 

On another side note, the reason Boulder Dash is ranked lower is because I have something factored into the score that accounts for ride "roughness" on traditional tech wood roller coasters. It gets the max score for comfort if its top speed is very low, but once the speed is ~20 mph (33.333333 kph), the comfort score goes down and becomes zero once it passes ~62 mph (100 kph). I do not apply this rule to wood coasters using newer technology such as special trains and track systems that make the ride smooth, such as the Intamin Prefabs, the GCIs with Millennium Flyers, and so forth. Those get the maximum score for comfort. Now, when I say "roughness," I mean ones that are consistently rough during the entire ride. Certain steel roller coasters can have certain spots where your head gets jammed to the side when they exit a corkscrew loop for example, but are smooth during the rest of the ride. Hence, I give all steel coasters the highest score for this criteria simply because there is no accurate way that I know of that can factor in roughness when it is only for very brief points of the ride and not the entire ride.

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Cedar Point:

 

This is a revised version of the one I posted the other day.

 

I made a significant change to the spreadsheet that deals with outliers in the six separate data sets. Now, instead of a roller coaster with a very large stat having an extremely high score in that category, there is now a maximum score that can be obtained and once a score reaches that point, it cannot go any higher. Because of this change, extremely tall roller coasters like Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster got knocked down a few notches.

 

I feel it looks a lot more legit now (Cedar Point, at least).

1695253013_CedarPoint(Revised).thumb.PNG.e5970bba344130d35eec7b6469ea3cad.PNG

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^^^Thank you for making the first reply not made by me with independent ranking thingies attached.

 

I'll post what my spreadsheet says about Darien Lake's roller coasters:

 

It appears to be mostly the same, except for the way Predator is placed. I deduct points automatically from wood roller coasters using traditional tech after they reach a certain speed, the logic being that faster old-style roller coasters equals a rougher ride. You could say I'm "racist" against old-style wood roller coasters because I don't like a rough ride. Old-style wood roller coasters are not entirely up a creek, though, because I add lots of points (again, through automated formulas) for roller coasters that are a certain number of years old or more and the points increase the further away that they get from the average age (currently 23 November 1999). So really, the only wood roller coasters that drop down the rankings are larger ones that are new(ish) construction and still use obsolete tech, such as Predator at Darien Lake.

 

BTW, I'm assuming you are basing your rankings by your personal experience, but let me know if there is any sort of numerical things or formulas that you used.

2066149626_DarienLake.thumb.PNG.86c3c01efb9aff21d398be299fbcc79a.PNG

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I just finished making two big changes to the spreadsheet.

 

Change #1: opening date score (historical value score):

Previously, the opening date I had been using for each roller coaster was the opening date in the park where it is currently located. The opening date I now use is the date it opened in its original location (the score for Wild One at SFA increased significantly due to this change as the difference between the time it opened originally and the time it opened at SFA is about 70 years). This effected every roller coaster on my spreadsheet known to have been relocated, which account for about 10% of the total number of roller coasters. I made this change to create better results in the 2nd change below.

 

Change #2: ride comfort score (how-likely-that-you-will-not-slip-a-disk-in-your-spinal-cord-due-to-the-roughness-of-the-ride score):

Previously, I gave a lower score to old tech wood roller coasters that were beyond a certain top speed and gave all of the other roller coasters the maximum score. I decided that that scoring method was not good enough, so I added a second component to the ride comfort score based on its original opening date, the idea being that roller coasters of any kind will get rougher as they age. Now, if a roller coaster is an old tech wood roller coaster, its ride comfort score is determined by how fast it goes and how old it is, while all the others are only judged by how old they are (the roller coaster with the lowest ride comfort score turned out to be the Coney Island Cyclone).

 

Attached is a revised snapshot of the spreadsheet of the top 50 wood roller coasters with only old tech ones shown. To clarify, an "old tech" wood roller coaster is one that does not use Intamin prefab track, Rocky Mountain Construction Topper Track, GCI Millennium Flyer trains, Gravity Group Timberliner trains, or has an unconventional configuration like a boblsled (Flying Turns) or a virginia reel (Tyrolean Tubtwist).

27158592_Top50WoodRollerCoasters(OldTechOnly).thumb.PNG.86c8716381b957d7910b251d98d83291.PNG

Edited by Jackdude101
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

You should create a new rule that any classic wood coaster now running a Morgan train is immediately deleted from the list. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that the Dragon Coaster and the KIDDY COASTER at Rye Playland was on your original wood coaster list but Phoenix wasn't... I see that it's on there now because of the historical value score but if that's the only reason Phoenix is appearing on a list of top wood coasters then you need to re-consider the way you're calculating this.

 

It's very cool, but it needs a lot of tweaking. I'm glad you fixed that problem with Kiddy coaster, but the fact that the Dragon Coaster is still on the list tells me there's a major problem. That's a glorified kiddy coaster.

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  • 2 weeks later...
It's very cool, but it needs a lot of tweaking.

 

Man, I tell you what, if I could get my hands on the max positive and negative G-force data for each and every roller coaster (or at least find a way to estimate it reliably), that would increase the accuracy on my sheet by at least 10,000% (it's a very scientific estimate). Sadly, not even rcdb.com has much of this type of data. Some have g force data listed, but way too many do not have it. Is it weird that I fantasize about visiting every roller coaster on Earth with an accelerometer on board so I can get the data myself?

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  • 9 months later...

Well, it's been nine months since I last posted in this topic, so here is the most up-to-date top 50 on my spreadsheet (I made a handful of tweaks under the hood as well).

 

Also, over the past month or two, I have been exploring the idea of enhancing these park rankings using numbers by ranking other types of rides. I now have spreadsheets for steam railroads (US and Canada only; main source: steamlocomotive.com) and classic carousels (US and Canada only; main source: carousels.org). I may expand those two to include UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, but probably no further than that, as the type of info I need is not covered that well for non-English-speaking places. Anyway, I also created a small, master spreadsheet that combines all three grand total scores from these types of rides and ranks all the US and Canada locations with their overall score. In a nutshell, the overall winner by a huge margin is Cedar Point, followed by Hersheypark and Knoebels (the original Disneyland is also in the top 10). I also created a spreadsheet for Ferris wheels worldwide over 40 meters (131.23 feet) tall, but I decided against including this in the master spreadsheet, as there are only 70 on that list and only 16 of those are in the US or Canada.

 

I will post any and all of these new data rankings I made if you are interested.

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Also, researching railroads and carousels has been interesting because it widened the scope of the types of locations ranked beyond simply amusement parks. Here is an example of what I mean: this is the master spreadsheet with only the locations shown that have railroads and carousels, but no roller coasters (#1: Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan). If I continued to only focus on roller coasters and other thrill rides, I would never have known that some of these places even existed.

Untitled.thumb.png.95c9be3cbd70b6ffa3730d1caffc37ec.png

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  • 3 weeks later...

Okay, I updated the railroad spreadsheet to include all the known railroads in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand (in addition to the US and Canada). Here is the top 10 from that:

 

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad Chama New Mexico USA USA & Canada

Rio Grande Scenic Railroad Alamosa Colorado USA USA & Canada

Queensland Rail Heritage Fleet North Ipswich Queensland Australia Oceania

Bluebell Railway Sheffield Park England UK Europe

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Durango Colorado USA USA & Canada

SteamRanger Heritage Railway Mt. Barker South Australia Australia Oceania

North Yorkshire Moors Railway Pickering England UK Europe

Statfold Barn Railway Tamworth England UK Europe

Grand Canyon Railway Williams Arizona USA USA & Canada

Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad Garibaldi Oregon USA USA & Canada

 

Also, as expected, when all the scores are grouped by state/province, England is way the hell out in front; however, when grouped by country, the US is just ahead of the UK by a nose.

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Meanwhile, on the carousel spreadsheet, here is its top 10 (only the US and Canada are on this one, as info for carousels in other countries is scarce):

 

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Charles I.D. Looff Santa Cruz California USA

Knoebels Kremer's Carousel Works Elysburg Pennsylvania USA

Flying Horses C.W. Dare & Co. Oak Bluffs Massachusetts USA

Crescent Park Looff Carousel Charles I.D. Looff Riverside Rhode Island USA

Logansport Riverside Park Dentzel Carousel Co. Logansport Indiana USA

Conneaut Lake Park T.M. Harton Co. Conneaut Lake Pennsylvania USA

Spokane Riverfront Park Charles I.D. Looff Spokane Washington USA

Nassau County's Museum Row Artistic Caroussel Mfg. Co. Garden City New York USA

San Diego Balboa Park Herschell-Spillman Co. San Diego California USA

Castle Park USA Dentzel Carousel Co. Riverside California USA

 

Interestingly, on the 2014 Golden Ticket Awards issued a few days ago, the Knoebels Grand Carousel was #1 and the Sanata Cruz Looff Carousel was #2.

Edited by Jackdude101
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