Insanely nerdy content ahead: best place to live - to ride
Wabash Cannonball said:
Oh and Barry, riding year around robs people of the joy of opening day. There is nothing quite like looking forward to your favorite parks opening for the season.
I'm not buying that argument. I WAY look forward to opening day at my favorite parks....cause all my favorite parks DO close for the season...LOL! :)
You still have Zoidberg.... You ALL have Zoidberg! (V) (;,,;) (V)
(Not that I'm anywhere near ski hills in Nashville...)
Touchdown said:
Washington DC isnt bad either15 min from SFA
1.5 hours from PKD
2 hours to BGE
2 hours from Hershey
3.5 hours from SFGAdv
3.5 hours from Dorney
Don't forget about Cedar Point! According to Mapquest, Sandusky is a 7 hour drive from DC. Woo Hoo!
Lord Gonchar...great job on the map!
*** Edited 5/31/2006 5:24:50 PM UTC by coasterlover325***
I'd rather be riding Roller Coasters....or baking.
Adventureland (5 to 15 minutes depending on what side of DSM you live)
Valleyfair (3-3.5 hrs)
Mall Of America (3.50 hrs)
Worlds Of Fun (2.5 hrs)
Arnolds Park (3.5 hrs)
The Dells (5 hours)
SFStL (6 hours)
SFGam (5-6 hours)
Skol Vikings
Let's shoot us some deer Joe Joe!!!!
RatherGoodBear said:
Now what someone (hint, hint) needs to do is combine the wood and steel maps and see what you get.
:)
Top 10 Steel and Top 10 wood on one map.
However, looking at all those circle makes my brain itch. So here's a tighter crop of the northeast if someone wants to do shading or figure out where the point of most overlap occurs.
Still using the unscientificly chosen 250 mile radius. (I figure that puts you somewhere between 3 and 5 hours away depending on roads, traffic, driving speed, etc - and that's about what I consider the limit for a 'day trip')
janfrederick, what you'd like to do with the maps is similar to what lighting designers do when lighting an area such as a parking lot or walkway. What they do is locate the fixtures, all of which have a given luminance and a pattern their light covers on the surface. Each fixture has a given value of foot-candles that varies with the type and disperses with distance. They can then create a grid that shows the illumination level at each block within the grid, and adjust location or brightness of fixture accordingly to ensure a minimum level anywhere within the grid, or that a maximum allowable level isn't exceeded either.
OK, how would this apply? Well, the coaster locations are fixed, so you would assign a "brightness" (magnitude) and a "dispersal pattern" (distance) to each of them. That way, not every coaster would be weighted the same way. Plus, you could pick whatever coasters you wanted to include. So yes, it could be done.
All you need now is to find a lighting designer who'd give a hoot-- or at least the software. Yeah, it's nerdy talk, but at least you were warned with the title of the thread. :)
palwine said:
Don't forget about Cedar Point! According to Mapquest, Sandusky is a 7 hour drive from DC. Woo Hoo!
That is way too long for a day trip, 14 hours in a car is just too long in one day even for CP. My maximum is 3.5 away, Ill do 7 but anything above that I have to stay the night somewhere.
2022 Trips: WDW, Sea World San Diego & Orlando, CP, KI, BGW, Bay Beach, Canobie Lake, Universal Orlando
What they do is locate the fixtures, all of which have a given luminance and a pattern their light covers on the surface. Each fixture has a given value of foot-candles that varies with the type and disperses with distance. They can then create a grid that shows the illumination level at each block within the grid, and adjust location or brightness of fixture accordingly to ensure a minimum level anywhere within the grid, or that a maximum allowable level isn't exceeded either.OK, how would this apply? Well, the coaster locations are fixed, so you would assign a "brightness" (magnitude) and a "dispersal pattern" (distance) to each of them. That way, not every coaster would be weighted the same way. Plus, you could pick whatever coasters you wanted to include. So yes, it could be done.
Yes! That's a great solution. It would be easy to do with the radial gradient tool in photoshop (once you plotted the circles) - I don't have the time right now, but maybe I'll mess with it later (if someone doesn't beat me to it) with just the coasters plotted so far.
If that's the case, I think you only need one peice of the information. I would go with the magnitude.
Brian Noble said:
You guys are completely forgetting the temporal dimension. There are only two places: central Florida, and southern California, because those are the two places you can ride all year.
Can add Vegas, and NorCal too since the classic SCBB and awesome Giant Dipper are open weekends year round. And SFMW will begin staying open through New Years starting this season.
I'm sure it could be tweaked to perfection with some experimenting with the radial gradient and different blending modes. However, I think this is getting closer to the idea some of you had in mind.
I just used the same old 250 mile radius and equal magnitude for all of the top 10 as a starting point to see what it looks like.
So say the center point (coaster) is assigned a value of 10 points. As the distance from the center increases, the point value is reduced (diffusion) down to 1 point. Given Gonch's example of a 250-mile radius, you can say every 25 miles further out results in a one-point reduction.
Where it gets fun is where the various circles start intersecting. As a simple example, take any two circles from the original map. Using my system, at that distance each circle would be worth 1 point. But where two circles intersect, the sum is 2 points.
The possibilities grow when you create 25-mile wide bands radiating from each coaster. Or if different coasters are given different values, say 20 instead of 10. The 250 mile radius is good though, since it was mentioned that's about the limit for a day trip.
Back to the lighting example, you could have a point in a parking lot that's 50 feet away from 3 different lights. But because it gets some effect from each light, it's almost as bright there as if you were standing directly under one light. That's why designers produce a grid, to allow for all the overlapping that goes on.
As the light pattern on the maps gets more refined, you'll start seeing some brighter areas that are a good distance from any of the parks highlighted.
For instance, living 1 hr. from 2 coasters is *much worse* than living on top of one and 2 hrs. from the other (allows for a quite ride on the way home from work).
If you were going to create a "topography" I'd use something like exponential drop off:
0-25: 100 points
26-50: 75 points
51-75 : 56 points
76-100 : 42 points
126-150 : 32 points
151-175 : 24 points
176-200 : 18 points
You could also multiply the starting value (100 points) by a constant based on the quality of the coaster (Voyage gets 200 points, Ozark Wildcat gets 100 points).
And if you really wanted to be super nerdy, you could use all the different cross sections of the poll that Mitch publishes (based on the different sensations preferred, years etc.) and create a whole slew of maps.
Hobbes: "What's the point of attaching a number to everything you do?"
Calvin: "If your numbers go up, it means you're having more fun."
We are about 3.5 to 4 hours from all SoCal parks, plus theres a few attractions here in town to keep you entertained between road trips.
...and such
Luckilly I was in a position (no dependents and such) to be able to decide where to move from a self-centered point of view, with my park hobby playing a major role in the selection process. My mantra at the time was "ANYWHERE but New Orleans", but if you're gonna move, you may as well go where you'll be happiest...
In January 2006 I ended up in central Florida - Kissimmee, to be precise. I can't say it's necessarily the best place for just "coasters" - especially woodies which are my favorite type since there aren't many there, BUT...
I am a HUGE Disney fan and consider myself just as much into theme parks as coasters. And from a theme park point of view, IMO the Orlando/central Florida area is pretty hard to beat. The sheer QUANTITY, QUALITY, and VARIETY of theme and water park options in the area is phenominal!
I'm about 10 minutes away from Walt Disney World (4 theme parks and 2 waterparks) 15 from Sea World, 20 from Universal, 40 from Cypress Gardens, and 60 from Busch Gardens. Oh, and about 5 minutes from Old Town ;)
Also, considering my hatred for the intense heat of summer, which is the only part of the year most parks have daily ops, the 365 days a year of operation at the central Florida parks was a MAJOR factor in favor of this area. Any time I have free time and get the urge to visit a park I can do so, and the quantity and variety of choices to pick from ensures that each park visit is a completely different adventure from the previous one. (Magic Kingdom is my solid favorite)
The winter climate is excellent and facilitates year round operation at many of the waterparks here, which I also love. My first visit to Blizzard Beach was January 22, and it was walk on city with no sunburn and no burned feet on hot pavement! Yet it was hot enough (low 70's) to feel very comfortable swimming and sliding. My best visit EVER to a waterpark other than special nightime events.
I do agree that an offseason is a good way to keep the hobby fresh, which is why I am currently in my self-imposed off-season during the 3 hot summer months! What a luxury it is to be able to choose to take an offseason break in the middle of summer and not feel I am missing anything, when everyone else is being burned to a crisp and sweating their brains out!
My approximately 9 month park and coaster season for 2006-07 will begin in early September, shortly after which I'll be saying "goodbye" to Myrtle Beach Pavillion and then making the rounds at several other parks outside of Florida during Halloween events (such as Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg) and Christmas events (Dollywood and Silver Dollar City, whose Christmas events begin in early November!) before returning to central Florida in mid-November to experience the Christmas events at the home parks and nearby Wild Adventures.
I've discovered the night-centric Halloween and Christmas (where applicable) events are my favorite time to visit the parks with more traditional shorter seasons because of the cooler-than-summer temps and greater availability of night rides.
By visiting the more thrill-oriented regional parks during my favorite window to visit them for my tastes (Halloween and Christmas seasons) and being able to hit the Florida parks the rest of the year except for my summer offseason (including visiting them during the cooler, less sunny months I LOVE like January and February when you can't ride hardly anywhere else) I feel like I've captured the best of both worlds. Plus, central Florida is a quick 8-9 hour drive away from visiting family and friends who stayed behind in New Orleans.
Southern California was also considered due to having multiple parks with year-round operation, including Disneyland, the original "Magic Kingdom". But since I don't like flying, it was ultimately deemed too far away from the larger concentration of eastern parks and too far away from regularly visiting family and friends in New Orleans (30 hours!). So I'll just take another long car trip out there someday to visit those parks.
And yes, the northeast and midwest areas with high concentrations of parks and woodies were considered from a wood and thrills point of view - but moving somewhere alone with a LONG offseason (up to 6 months or more at many parks!) and harsh winters just didn't seem as appealing as somewhere like Florida where the fun is ALWAYS available whenever I want it to be. I can take trips to the northern parks and be happy with that.
My second choice (if somwhat distant) "runner up" was actually the Dallas Metroplex, because I love SFOT (especially the Texas Giant) and it has a nice long 10 month operating season, manageable winters, close proximity to the other Texas parks, and like central Florida, has close proximity to visiting family in New Orleans. But while this area has a lot of enjoyable things to keep me occupied most of the year, it could not top central Florida. Losing Astroworld as one of the nearby destinations certainly didn't help, which of course sadly also eliminated the fine city of Houston from contention.
Other contenders were Atlanta and the Dollywood/Smokey Mountain/Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Sevierville/Knoxville area, but, like all the other contenders, they were ultimately less satisfying than central Florida in terms of length of season and number of highly repeatable things to do in the area, and I am satisfied enough with visiting these areas and their parks every year or two.
So central Florida won out. Being a wood fan, my co-favorite coasters in the area by a LARGE, solid margin are Gwazi Lion and Gwazi Tiger. I am also looking forward to the soon-to-be reborn Starliner at Cypress Gardens, and Cheetah at Wild Adventures is just a few hours away. Eventually I'll make it down to Dania Beach and check out their woodie, which if I'm not mistaken is basically a stand-alone ride at an FEC. Cypress Gardens' junior woodie Triple Hurricane, although one of my lowest rated woodies, still for my tastes outshines the vast majority of steel coasters I've ridden except for hypers and a few select others, and I like it better than all the steel in Florida, although in some moods Space Mountain and the final forward portion of Expedition Everest may challenge it.
My favorite steel coasters in the area are Space Mountain (especially the Omega track which has a much stronger pop of frontseat air on the uphill after the second spiral than the Alpha track), Expedition Everest, Shiekra, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Some things I really LOVE about the Disney parks is the unique mix of attractions that go along with their coasters - this is the dark ride and animatronic capital of the world, and they aren't ashamed to explore variations on the theme of "cute", which I enjoy. Most of my all-time favorite dark rides can be found here! And I LOVE their unique, classic animatronic shows as well, like Country Bear Jamboree. Also, the immersive theming of the Disney parks is IMPECCABLE and nothing gets installed if its "story" doesn't compliment the overall theming of its park and section.
And the emphasis on fireworks NIGHTLY and YEAR ROUND, even outside of the traditional summertime window, makes each and every visit a truly special and magical experience. The Spectromagic parade in the MK is year-round as well, and runs nightly during peak seasons and on at least some nights each week during slow seasons.
I am absolutely IN LOVE with central Florida and will be happier here than I could have EVER been in New Orleans even had the hurricane never happened. Moving to central Florida will probably be the greatest, most visionary decision of my life. Sometimes you just have to identify what you really want the most in life and aggressively grab it. Life is too short not to.
Frontrider
Lord Gonchar said:
Here's the top steel coasters map.Again, two coasters shared a circle (Montu & Sheikra) so I doubled the thickness of that circle.
The hot spot here is an area in PA defined as:
Right around Sunbury, PA
WOW! I'm only about 19 miles from Sunbury! Not to mention Knoebels is only 12 miles and Hershey is less then 1.5 hours! Add in Great Coaters Head Quarters and i'm in a pretty good stop! Too bad thre isn't much to do in the off season or any other time!
As a recently single guy, Florida might be the change we need!
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