Rollercoasters and Other Rides: Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?

[Anonymous]

I can handle things that are fast, but not things that go high, upside down, or on a sideways slant. It drives my boyfriend crazy, because he absolutely loves this stuff. Every so often I go on one to remind myself of why I don’t do it: I get off of it a white-knuckled nervous wreck and I spend the next hour shaking like a leaf, cowering from all loud noises and startling stimuli.

This can also include tiny roller coasters, or even anything that just goes up and down.

How do other people feel about them?

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[Patte Rosebank]

I can’t stand them. It’s the feeling of being trapped on something where I can’t control the movement (particularly the sudden, violent, plunging movement), can’t control the feeling of my stomach dropping, can’t make it stop so I can get off it. The last time I went on a merry-go-round (after not having been on one since I was a little kid—and I’d loved it back then), I had a panic attack. I actually had to wrap myself tightly around the horse & the pole, and close my eyes.

I know I’m claustrophobic, but I don’t know what it’s called when it also extends into situations I can’t escape from.

I can’t even handle the sudden, rapid, flashing camera movement & rapid cutting that permeates most movies, TV shows, and videos these days. It just gets me so keyed up that I can’t watch it for more than a few seconds. Needless to say, 99% of the movies I see are on TCM—where story, script, and acting are more important than CGI and wild camera movement & cutting.

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[Anonymous]

I love roller coaster rides; there is at least one vertical ride I am currious about it looks sort of like a “sling shot.”

K

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[Anonymous]

I have always hated roller coasters, for that matter I have never liked most any carnival or amusement park ride, I also have always had a fear of heights. I am starting to ride some of the rides with my children because we can enjoy them together, teacups, trains, the milder rides for dad, They love when I go with them, and the fun they get out of it makes it easy for me to put my discomfort aside & enjoy the time with them. I still will not get on the roller coaster with them though.

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[shutterbug55]

Roller coasters are one of the things in my life that I LOVE!! I think there should be a sainthood granted to the guy that invented them.

They make me feel totally out of control. Which is a good thing in this case and there are no consequences. Which at some level is relaxing. Does that make sense?

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[Patte Rosebank]

Unfortunately, though the risk is quite low, there can be very real consequences if something goes wrong.

Despite safety standards for rides, there will always be a risk, especially when you consider that humans are involved in building, maintaining, and operating those rides. When you do something as repetitive as maintaining or operating a ride, you will eventually start to run on auto-pilot, so you’ll miss things. And, sometimes, the human-error of the riders themselves can cause an accident.

How do I know all this? Because one branch of my family has been in the carny business for several generations, and one of my aunts (not in the “carny” branch of the family) worked in the head office of a company that imports & constructs rides. She was so alarmed by the lax enforcement of safety standards that she wouldn’t let my cousins go on rides any more.

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