ROLY COASTERS:
MAPPING AMERICAN ROLLER COASTERS
Welcome to Roly Coasters!
Ever since the 19th century, roller coasters have been a staple of American entertainment.
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From good ol' woodies to steel behemoths, coasters come in all shapes and sizes. On this site, we investigate how coasters spread across the United States, through pictures and maps that help us visualize the ages of roller coaster history.
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If you wish to skip ahead or go back at any point, just select the time period you want up on the menu. If you want to see a map of every roller coaster, scroll down further. If you'd just like to explore, follow the Web App link to see an interactive map!
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So buckle up and hold tight, we're "Leaping the Dips" right into the beginnings of roller coasters!
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Total Rollercoasters by City (All Time)
This map shows the complete history of American Roller Coasters, including both existing and removed rides. We can clearly see the dominance of the Northeast U.S. here.
The city with the most coasters built in its history is Brooklyn, with 42 total coasters!
Total Wooden Coasters by City (All Time)
This map shows the totals of wooden coasters built in the U.S. Once again, we see a strong concentration in the Northeast, but they have been a bit more spread out. This could be because wooden coasters are often hard to maintain in more extreme weather conditions, especially closer to the equator, where humidity can cause severe warping of wood.
Here, there is a clear leader in total wooden coasters: Chicago. Totaling 37 wooden coasters in its history, Chicago's Riverview Park and White City operated mostly during the Golden Age.
Total Steel Coasters by City (All Time)
This map shows the totals of steel coasters built in the U.S. It is harder to see a clear leader in steel coasters, since the Northeastern coast has several cities that have about the same number of steel coasters.
If we recount the previous map, we can also see that wooden coasters tend to be more spread out in the northeast, whereas steel coasters are a bit more focused in that region and elsewhere. This once again reinforces the difficulty in maintaining wooden coasters. Of note is the fact that 5 of the top 7 cities are located relatively near the steel hub of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
About This Site
My name is Roly Garcia, and I am an aspiring attractions environment designer. This site was made as part of a final project for a class at Carnegie Mellon University: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems. Under the mentorship of Professor Randy Weinberg, I connected my two favorite realms (entertainment and geography) to bring this project to life. Little did I know that it was the first time this data had ever been mapped!
I began by scraping online data from Roller Coaster Database, the most complete record of roller coasters known today. I then wrote several algorithms in Python to translate the data I found online into a table format called Comma-Separated Values, or CSV. I then utilized the database system Postgres and the SQL querying language to translate these tables into several useful forms, including running totals of coasters and comparisons of steel and wooden coaster populations.
From there, I utilized the geocoding and mapping capabilities of ESRI's ArcGIS Pro to map my data and produce the maps you see across this site. I am currently developing a web app that will allow users to explore the data I was able to produce in a more interactive way!
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I thank RCDB for allowing the public the use of their data, the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University for teaching me the skills to produce this dataset, ESRI for providing the necessary tools to analyze the data spatially, and all of those who helped me with testing the capabilities of the site at first launch!