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Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

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Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#101

Post by JoeAltmaier »

zeteo wrote: post #20

Looking at the paper, it seems the passengers were the same and boarded five times in a row, with the last two methods proving the fastest. The major experimental flaw seems to be that the passengers themselves might learn to become more efficient after concentrating on a normally rare task, and repeating it several times in a row. Also, since some of them were paid extras, they might just be getting impatient by the…

Agreed. In my experience, big chunks of time are spent waiting for one person struggling with their gear, backing the line up clear out the door. The experiment subjects probably didn't role-play that scenario.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#102

Post by kd0amg »

city41 wrote: post #43
zeteo wrote: post #20

Looking at the paper, it seems the passengers were the same and boarded five times in a row, with the last two methods proving the fastest. The major experimental flaw seems to be that the passengers themselves might learn to become more efficient after concentrating on a normally rare task, and repeating it several times in a row. Also, since some of them were paid extras, they might just be getting impatient by the…

There are other practical considerations too. I can't even imagine trying to organize the passengers in the airport such that they board in the alternating row, outside-in configuration. And there's the pretty much insolvable problem of when they start boarding the plane, many people just get on and couldn't care less that their row/section hasn't been called yet.

I can't even imagine trying to organize the passengers in the airport such that they board in the alternating row, outside-in configuration.

I remember doing something similar with my high school marching band (back-to-front instead of window-to-aisle), but that's a pretty tenuous proof of concept.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#103

Post by Magnin »

davvid wrote: post #53
colonelxc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the main problem with this method is that it is socially unacceptable to split up families and groups while they wait to board and are boarding. I think a slightly less efficient approach would be to somewhat batch up rows. So instead of having all of the people in the window aisle on one side of the plane enter, how about have 1 row of people (typically 3) on one side of the plane. Instead of doing every row at…

Another simple solution would be to board from back-to-front. Right now it's front-to-back: the business-class passengers (at the front of the plane) board first. Economy class boards last and each passenger has to walk through the congestion. Getting business-class travellers to give up their sense of entitlement and board last could be a little tricky, though. I'm sure there's a psychological marketing trick that c…

They don't want to do that. Marching you past the 1st class passengers already sitting with their drinks is advertising!

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#104

Post by raldi »

city41 wrote: post #43
zeteo wrote: post #20

Looking at the paper, it seems the passengers were the same and boarded five times in a row, with the last two methods proving the fastest. The major experimental flaw seems to be that the passengers themselves might learn to become more efficient after concentrating on a normally rare task, and repeating it several times in a row. Also, since some of them were paid extras, they might just be getting impatient by the…

There are other practical considerations too. I can't even imagine trying to organize the passengers in the airport such that they board in the alternating row, outside-in configuration. And there's the pretty much insolvable problem of when they start boarding the plane, many people just get on and couldn't care less that their row/section hasn't been called yet.

Southwest seems to have solved it.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#105

Post by [deleted] »

notahacker wrote: post #95
ColinWright wrote: post #93

This has been going on for over 2 1/2 years now. At that time we had this item submitted: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=419360 It looks like it's the same physicist, and the same algorithm. Further more, HN had pretty much exactly the same discussion. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. There's another submission from over a month ago here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2790023 In that it's describe…

Given that he's been studying it for a while, it's received news coverage and airlines have been very keen to find ways of saving money over the past 3.5 years, it probably doesn't work nearly as well in practice... Faster method of boarding still: don't assign seats within classes.

[deleted]

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#106

Post by ori_b »

vacri wrote: post #58
aurelianito wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first part is easy, color code the ticket (e.g. first red, then blue, etc). The second issue is trickier, but it happens now anyway. I would say that they already know how to handle it.

Colour coding the ticket is not trivial - current monochrome printing is easy with thermals. Ever run a colour printer in an office? It's a nightmare to manage just in an of itself. Then there's a lot of investement in creating a system that works across all models of planes. It's doable, but it's not trivial. Then on top of that is the issue that despite all this, a lot of people ignore what's on the tickets anyway…

> Colour coding the ticket is not trivial

Letter code them. "Group A", "Group B", ...

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#107

Post by johanbev »

Nate75Sanders wrote: post #11

While we're on the subject of statistics, airplanes, and mathematically-but-not-socially-correct ways to do things, I really wish they'd have seats on the plane spaced according to a height distribution of passengers.

That would be splendid. I'd even pay more if i can get room for my legs, but much more importantly have the opportunity to actually lean back in the seat and not break my neck... In otherword have a neckrest that's not designed for 150cm tall people.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#108

Post by kanamekun »

rquantz wrote: post #73
mwsherman wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t even need color coding, just call it “Group A” etc, as they do now.

Also, what percentage of the populations color blind? You'd have people boarding for red when green was called, etc. Letters give us 26 possible boarding stages. Even without keeping accessibility is mind, you'd only be able to reliably use, what, %w{red blue green yellow orange}? Purple is out -- too ambiguous. So yeah, no color codes. Have I beaten it to death enough?

Regarding color blindness, you can also print the name of the color on the ticket. Or increase contrast:

"What can be done to avoid confusion? Most sources on usability and interface design suggest avoid relying on color coding exclusively. Always provide an additional cue; don't rely on color alone. For example, the standard default web browser of a link is underlined blue lettering. Interestingly, this particular color coding would stand up quite well, even without the additional cue of the underline, since blue is the universally recognizable color.

A second way to counteract color deficiency confusions is to make sure that colors have a high degree of contrast with each other."

http://www.stcsig.org/usability/newsletter/9910-color-blindn...

There are a lot of guidelines and protocols for managing user color blindness in interfaces... it's generally not a sufficient reason to completely avoid the use of color in all cases.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#109

Post by dmethvin »

raldi wrote: post #104
city41 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other practical considerations too. I can't even imagine trying to organize the passengers in the airport such that they board in the alternating row, outside-in configuration. And there's the pretty much insolvable problem of when they start boarding the plane, many people just get on and couldn't care less that their row/section hasn't been called yet.

Southwest seems to have solved it.

There is a crazy-like-a-fox madness to Southwest's boarding. It's more than just the use of A-B-C sections.

If you pay for a business class ticket that gets you up into the front of the A line. Those people are usually frequent travelers who don't mess around in the aisle. The roomy exit rows are highly coveted for long flights, so experienced flyers are going halfway down the plane which again prevents people from bottlenecking in the first few rows.

Infrequent flyers are likely to pass on the $10 fee for auto-checkin and end up at the end in the C boarding, so they aren't holding up anyone in the aisle. By that time the rest of the plane is settled, so the flight attendants can assist them in getting them into a seat with their luggage stowed.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#110

Post by kemayo »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #51
kemayo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm prepared to admit that I am not motivated by this. To me it sounds far more pleasant to sit there outside reading while everyone else has to queue up, then walk in just before take-off to get into my comfortable first class seat, without being jostled by the entire rest of the plane's passenger complement slowly trudging past me and impinging on my personal space. Perhaps I'm weird.

You don't have to board immediately when they call first class. You can wait until everybody else has boarded.

That's true... but if I board later then I generally have to wait in the line up to the plane, unless I'm really cutting it close.
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