Queues, crowding and capacity: what to measure

A queue at a checkout, a rush at a gate and a hall that fills at rush hour look like different problems, but they raise the same question: where does pressure build, and does the space have room for it? The sections below cover how that is measured and what to do with the answer, and link to the pages that cover individual settings.

How are queues, crowds and capacity measured?

A queue is read as queue length and the time people spend waiting at a service point, a crowd as occupancy and flow per zone, and capacity as occupancy held against a limit you set. Sensors give exact counts at a defined point, and Wi-Fi gives presence across the space around it.

At a gate or a door, where the count must be exact, a 3D sensor or an AI camera counts each person in and out and keeps a running total. At a security lane, LiDAR gives exact counts as well. Across a larger space, Wi-Fi shows how many people are present and how that number builds and clears through the day. Where people wait, dwell that keeps rising means a queue is forming.

Bumbee Labs is the company behind the only footfall method in Europe approved by a data protection authority.

How can you see a queue or a crowd building up?

Baselines by hour, day and season show when a place usually fills, so staff are in position for the regular peak. For an unexpected peak, the Crowd Alert add-on warns staff in near real time when a zone goes over a level you have set.

Baselines come from the same measurement run over weeks, so each place is compared with its own normal. Reading crowds at pinch points explains how a bottleneck forms and where to look for it.

Where do queues and crowding show up first?

Pressure builds at the points where many people need the same thing at the same time: a checkout, a gate, a lift, a concourse or a security lane. The same pattern shows up from one setting to the next, and most of the settings below have a page of their own.

• Checkouts: grocery stores read dwell at the checkouts hour by hour, so lane openings follow the rhythm of the day.
• Collection desks and cutting services: builders’ merchants see when a queue forms at each service point.
• Fitting rooms and prescription counters: dwell that keeps climbing marks a queue, and in a fitting room that queue can cost a sale.
• Security lanes: an airport reads queue length, waiting time and throughput lane by lane, and compares one lane with the next.
• Gates, concourses and toilets: arenas read an event as three waves: the entry, the interval and the exit. The measurement runs at Hovet Arena in Stockholm.
• Rides and lifts: amusement parks and ski resorts see which attractions and lifts fill up and where guests wait.
• Station halls and platforms: zone measurement shows where travellers gather and how a peak builds towards the platform.

Can guests be shown the queue status?

Yes. In Åre, the SkiStar 360 app and screens at selected lifts give guests a queue status in three levels. It is SkiStar’s service, built on AI and anonymised Wi-Fi counting from Bumbee Labs. Bumbee Labs can also supply the display itself. Other venues receive the figures by API into their own systems and decide there what guests see.

What can the data say about a capacity limit, and what stays with you?

Occupancy shows how full a space is against a limit you have set, and counts per gate and hour give your safety organisation measured figures to work from. The limit, the plans around it and every decision to act stay with you.

With a figure and a limit side by side, staff can see how close a space is to that limit and where room remains. The occupancy insight explains how occupancy is counted.

How do we start measuring queues and crowding?

Most places begin with the Wi-Fi they already run and add sensors only where the count must be exact, such as a gate or a lane. A first step can be as small as one checkpoint. Book a demo and we will go through it for your place.