"i'd prefer to be able to ride all the way to ultralights as choice without a mandatory stop at the café. "
THANK YOU Bill, for making my point. Purt near EVERYONE who gets on at the Tower IS of your preference. Which makes for exactly 40 'happy riders' from the Tower ALL THE WAY to the Ultralight flightline….. and immediately makes multiples of that 40 P.O'd would-be passengers who that tram passed by because it was full.
Mandatory mid and end-point tram emptying (for now) is about the only 'kinda fair' way to try and serve as many unique people as possible who ALL want to not have to walk for a little while. I also support trying to save at least one empty row on the tram when we leave a station to provide that ride opportunity to folks at our first stop. Remember that trams were created way back when simply only to serve the elderly and infirm who NEED to ride. Mobility scooters eliminate that need, at least for those who can afford them.
IF a bazzillionaire donated a blank check to EAA to build an autonomous monorail loop with 10 trains of twenty cars each that ran 24/7 during AirVenture….and it WOULD take a mighty BIG check….. there would STILL be hundreds who got upset because the train was full and they had to wait or walk. Some 80,000+ came through the gates daily. 80,000! Trams or buses can only hold 40 at a time.
***edited to correct my math. Per the recent EAA e-mail 640,000 people came through the gates. Presuming that meant over the 7 days? That would be 91,428 people per day. If it meant over 9 days? That's still 71,000 bodies per day.