Blue Snow
Queue time prediction in ski lifts
Queue time prediction in ski lifts
A few details
La Molina, one of the closest Catalan Pyrenees ski resorts to Barcelona, can experience ski lifts queuing episodes during certain weekends. At the same time, this centenarian ski station is highly innovative, what led its direction to test the Blue Snow system in some of their ski lifts.
Thermal cameras have been deployed in different ski lifts of La Molina to measure their respective queue waiting time. Currently, these times are published in high luminosity screens at the top of the slopes, so that skiers can choose the ski track with minimum queue and, therefore, the ski resort can achieve queue lift equalization, reducing the waiting time for boarding into their ski lifts. As a result, the skiing experience of the users and their loyalty to the ski resort is improved.
As second benefit of the system, queue time information can adjust the ski lift speed to the actual transport needs. Regarding the following table after one ski season, important savings of energy consumption, a 28%, due to ski lifts can be achieved.
Blue Snow deployment | No people boarding. Safety speed | Waiting time = 0 s. Low speed | Normal boarding. Nominal speed | High boarding. Maximum speed |
---|---|---|---|---|
84 Working Days | 34% | 58% | 7% | 1% |
56 Weekend and holidays | 12% | 41% | 36% | 11% |