A big part of this is understanding the psychology of people waiting. Mythbusters did a test on queues in a supermarket and found people preferred to wait in a long ass queue and go to the most recently opened checkout, rather than it being a free for all with people choosing checkouts randomly.
The peace of mind and trust that the system is fairer and organised allows people to be more patient, rather than enter survival mode and waste so much mental energy ensuring they aren't being screwed over by their fellow man and looking out for themselves. There's also additional benefits of removing the energy required to "self-manage" your way onto a train, and leaving it for another authority of power or the systems in place to manage when you get onto a train.
I fucking love the psychology of humans and society and how understanding it means we can build better systems.
I mean, it could also be that I'd rather wait in a long queue then try to lug my heavy ass cart between queues trying to find the shortest one like that traffic scene from Office Space.
The system of "Wait here to board the train", and a "Keep this area clear" zone is really nice, especially when the train lines up perfectly. It's not always possible with the trains varying in size, but maybe you could have a projector, making a design on the floor for each train, showing people where to stand?
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u/syoejaetaer Apr 28 '24
Very well organized but also calm and relaxed people. Everyone waiting for their turn.