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.
