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How to Space Your Posts

Terry Ross crowd control tips spacing posts

A crowd control post with the longer belt is better, right? That's a common idea among people who buy and sell crowd control equipment, but is it true?
The answer is: sometimes and sometimes not. In this video will look at situations where you can use your posts far apart, and other times when you need to use them closer together. Check out our top selling retractable belt barriers on offer through our online shop.

A Little History

The original Tensabarrier came with a 7 1/2 foot belt. And even today, a Tensabarrier comes standard with a 7 1/2 foot belt. In a  traditional post-and-rope system, the posts are spaced 6 feet apart, and a 7 1/2 foot belt is just right for spacing your posts 6 feet apart.

Eventually, a post with a 13 foot belt was developed, allowing you to buy fewer posts, and use them farther apart. This saved you money, even though the post was more expensive. And today you can even buy a post with a 16 foot belt.

It comes down to this: if you don’t expect people to be crowded up close to your barrier, you can probably space your post about 10 or 12 feet apart. But, if you do have a lot of people up close to your barrier, you’re probably better off spacing your posts about 6 feet apart. This gives you barrier more of a physical presence, and helps your customers maintain awareness of it when they're in a crowd and waiting in line.

Crowd control companies don't usually say this, but a retractable belt barrier really isn't much of a barrier. It can't prevent people from going anywhere they want to go. It's good for guiding people who are willing to be guided, assuming they can see the barrier and remember that it's there.

Many of the posts  we sell at Crowd Control Depot come standard with an 11 foot belt. This gives you a lot of flexibility. You can space them as close as you want, or stretch them out up to about 10 feet.

What Do You Think?

These are my ideas based on many years of selling crowd  control posts, but you may have a lot of experience actually using crowd control posts. So, what do you think? Do you agree with what I'm saying? Either way, I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments below.

To see more videos about how to use crowd control equipment to guide and protect people, subscribe to our channel.

In our next video, I'll talk about how to protect cars, and other valuable objects, on display.

 

 



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  • Richard Prigg on

    Hi Terry
    Great video! One aspect you might have included in the section about how a belt barrier can only guide people rather than ‘control’ them is the multi belt stanchion. There is no doubt that a twin belt stanchion stops people ducking under the belt and keeps children in line providing better control over the queue. We do the 16’ QueuePro as a twin belt. We also feel that the new triple belt provides even more control. To date the triple belts have all been sold for safety applications going around dangerous equipment in factories etc. but I feel pretty sure that in a queuing application where the customer is considering using panels rather than belts to keep the lanes separated a triple belt stanchion would do the same job at a much lower cost.

    We’re looking forward to the galleries and exhibits video!

    Richard
    Queue Solutions LLC


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