Cutting in line (also known as line/queue jumping, butting, barging, budging, bunking, skipping, breaking, ditching, shorting, pushing in, or cutsies [1] ) is the act of entering a queue or line at any position other than the end. The act is frowned upon in most human cultures and stands in stark contrast to the normal policy of first come, first served that governs most queue areas.
A negative and very assertive response from the rear of the line is expected when someone has cut in line up ahead under any circumstances in virtually all cultures. According to one study, a person cutting in line has a 54% chance that others in the line will object. With two people cutting in line, there is a 91.3% chance that someone will object. The proportion of people objecting from anywhere behind the cutter is 73.3%, with the person immediately behind the point of intrusion objecting most frequently. [2]
Nevertheless, physical altercation resulting from cutting is rare. [3] It was reported that an 18-year-old National Serviceman in Malaysia was bludgeoned to death after he attempted to jump the queue at a food counter. [4] Another incident occurred in New York City at The Halal Guys food cart, resulting in the death of the man who cut in line. The man who killed him was charged with murder in the second degree. [5]
Legislators in the US state of Washington passed a bill that makes cutting in line to catch a ferry illegal. Cutters can be fined $101 and forced to return to the end of the line. [6]
In 2022, Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield drew criticism from social media and the press for bypassing the public queue for the lying-in-state of Elizabeth II, when filming for a television segment in London's Westminster Hall.
Cutting is present on roadways, especially restricted access highways, where traffic queues build up at merge locations. Drivers who bypass waiting until the last possible moment before merging are sometimes considered to be "cutters," and are frequent instigators of road rage. This behavior is not usually illegal in the US, unless the driver crosses a solid white line or uses dangerous merging techniques. [7]
In contrast, not using the merging lane until the last moment is required by law in Germany, Austria[ citation needed ] and Belgium; [8] legal use of the lane is when two lanes merge into one and with traffic speed slowed down. Where construction zones close a lane, parts of Canada and the U.S. encourage the "zipper" method of merging, which was introduced in 2002 by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The zipper method can reduce congestion up to 40%, while also giving drivers plenty of adjustment time for the merge and reducing the speed differential between the open lane and the lane with the upcoming closure. [9]
In some instances cutting in line is sanctioned by the authority overseeing the queue. For example amusement park operators such as Six Flags (Flash Pass and Fast Lane), and Walt Disney (FastPass) have virtual queue programs whereby a limited number of patrons cut the line for an attraction by arriving at a pre-designated time (sometimes, but not always, associated with a payment for the privilege). Common penalties for cutting the line without this privilege range from being forced to the back of the line to removal from the premises. [10]
At airports, it is customary – for the sake of efficiency – to allow pregnant women, adults accompanying small children, the elderly and the physically disabled to board an airplane first, regardless of their seat, class or assignment. However, the priority afforded wheelchair-using passengers has reportedly given rise to a practice in the United States, whereby some passengers who do not normally use a wheelchair request one, to pass through security checks quickly and to be among the first to board an aircraft. At the conclusion of the flight, these passengers walk off the aircraft, instead of waiting for a wheelchair and thus being among the last to disembark. The neologism "miracle flight" has been coined to describe this behavior, as passengers apparently needing a wheelchair before boarding the aircraft are "miraculously" able to walk afterwards. [11]
In the United States, Clear Secure allows its subscribers to skip to the front of TSA lines for a fee. This has garnered criticism, including in California, where a 2024 bill aims to prevent this line-cutting mechanism. The bill would allow Clear to operate separate security lines, but would no longer allow its subscribers to cut the general security lines. [12]
After the September 11 attacks, there was an immediate call to action regarding the state of aviation security measures as the hijackers involved in 9/11 were able to successfully pass through security and take command of the plane. The existing security measures flagged more than half of the 19 hijackers in 9/11; however, they were cleared to board the plane because their bags were not found to contain any explosives. In the months and years following September 11, 2001, security at many airports worldwide were reformed to deter similar terrorist plots.
Queue areas are places in which people queue for goods or services. Such a group of people is known as a queue or line, and the people are said to be waiting or standing in a queue or in line, respectively. Occasionally, both the British and American terms are combined to form the term "queue line".
A blind spot in a vehicle or vehicle blind spot is an area around the vehicle that cannot be directly seen by the driver while at the controls, under existing circumstances. In transport, driver visibility is the maximum distance at which the driver of a vehicle can see and identify prominent objects around the vehicle. Visibility is primarily determined by weather conditions and by a vehicle's design. The parts of a vehicle that influence visibility include the windshield, the dashboard and the pillars. Good driver visibility is essential to safe road traffic.
Disney Parks have utilized virtual queue systems since the introduction of the FastPass System in 1999. These systems allow theme park visitors to wait in a virtual queue for an attraction, reducing the time spent in line. Depending on the system, access to virtual queues may come with park admission or may be an additional charge. Currently available virtual queue systems are Disney Genie at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort, and Disney Premier Access at Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, and Shanghai Disney Resort. Previous systems include FastPass, FastPass+, and MaxPass.
A jet bridge is an enclosed connector which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, and in some instances from a port to a boat or ship, allowing passengers to board and disembark without heading outside and being exposed to harsh weather. Depending on building design, sill heights, fueling positions, and operational requirements, a jet bridge may be fixed or movable, swinging radially, or extending in length. The jetway was invented by Frank Der Yuen.
Vacuum forming is a simplified version of thermoforming, where a sheet of plastic in various forms of High Impact Polystyrene Sheet (HIPS) for low impact products, or ABS for bathroom shower trays, and HDPE for exterior vehicle parts, plus various other types of vacuum formable materials) is heated to a forming temperature, stretched onto a single-surface mould, and forced against the mould by a vacuum. This process can be used to form plastic into permanent objects such as turnpike signs and protective covers. Normally draft angles are present in the design of the mould to ease removal of the formed plastic part from the mould.
Slugging, also known as casual carpooling and flexible carpooling, is the practice of forming ad hoc, informal carpools for purposes of commuting, essentially a variation of hitchhiking. A driver picks up these non-paying passengers at key locations, as having these additional passengers means that the driver can qualify to use an HOV lane or not be subject to road pricing. Slugging is common mostly in the U.S., specifically in major cities such as the Washington metropolitan area, San Francisco, Houston.
An island platform is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are sometimes used between the opposite-direction tracks on twin-track route stations as they are cheaper and occupy less area than other arrangements. They are also useful within larger stations, where local and express services for the same direction of travel can be accessed from opposite sides of the same platform instead of side platforms on either side of the tracks, simplifying and speeding transfers between the two tracks.
Overtaking or passing is the act of one vehicle going past another slower moving vehicle, travelling in the same direction, on a road. The lane used for overtaking another vehicle is often a passing lane farther from the road shoulder, which is to the left in places that drive on the right and to the right in places that drive on the left.
The London Underground S7 and S8 Stock, commonly referred to as S Stock, is a type of passenger train running on the London Underground's subsurface lines since 2010. Manufactured by Bombardier Transportation's Derby Litchurch Lane Works, the S Stock was ordered to replace the A60, A62, C69, C77 and D78 stock on the Metropolitan, District, Hammersmith & City, and Circle lines, which all dated from the 1960s and 1970s.
Virtual queue is a concept used in both inbound call centers and other businesses to improve wait times for users. Call centers use an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) to distribute incoming calls to specific resources (agents) in the center. ACDs hold queued calls in First In, First Out order until agents become available. Virtual queue systems allow callers to receive callbacks instead of waiting in an ACD queue.
A queue jump is a type of roadway geometry used to provide preference to buses at intersections, often found in bus rapid transit systems. It consists of an additional travel lane on the approach to a signalised intersection. This lane is often restricted to transit vehicles only. A queue jump lane is usually accompanied by a signal which provides a phase specifically for vehicles within the queue jump. Vehicles in the queue jump lane get a "head-start" over other queued vehicles and can therefore merge into the regular travel lanes immediately beyond the signal. The intent of the lane is to allow the higher-capacity vehicles to cut to the front of the queue, reducing the delay caused by the signal and improving the operational efficiency of the transit system.
Boarding is the entry of passengers onto a vehicle, usually in public transportation. Boarding starts with entering the vehicle and ends with the seating of each passenger and closing the doors. The term is used in road, rail, water and air transport.
Airport check-in is the process whereby an airline approves airplane passengers to board an airplane for a flight. Airlines typically use service counters found at airports for this process, and the check-in is normally handled by an airline itself or a handling agent working on behalf of an airline. Passengers usually hand over any baggage that they do not wish or are not allowed to carry in the aircraft's cabin and receive a boarding pass before they can proceed to board their aircraft.
Wheel offense is an offensive strategy in basketball, developed in the late 1950s by Garland F. Pinholster at the Oglethorpe University. It is a kind of continuity offense in which players move around in a circular pattern to create good scoring opportunities. The wheel offense is a popular offensive play, frequently used by teams from middle school to college levels because it can effectively work against any defense, including zone defense and man-to-man defense.
Fast Lane is an optional, pay-per-person line queue system offered on select rides at legacy Cedar Fair amusement parks, now Six Flags amusement parks. The system provides shorter lines, and guests who want access must pay a fee in addition to general park admission. They are given a wristband for identification, and an unspecified, limited number are sold each day to control wait times. First piloted in 2011 at Kings Island, the system was rolled out to the rest of the Cedar Fair chain in 2012. An upgrade called Fast Lane Plus featuring additional rides is available at some parks.
In traffic engineering, a merge is the point where two streams of traffic travelling in the same direction from multiple roads or in multiple lanes on the same road are required to merge into a single lane.
In broadcast television, cord-cutting refers to the pattern of viewers, referred to as cord-cutters, cancelling their subscriptions to multichannel television services available over cable or satellite, dropping pay television channels or reducing the number of hours of subscription TV viewed in response to competition from rival media available over the Internet. This content is either free or significantly cheaper than the same content provided via cable.
Terminology related to road transport—the transport of passengers or goods on paved routes between places—is diverse, with variation between dialects of English. There may also be regional differences within a single country, and some terms differ based on the side of the road traffic drives on. This glossary is an alphabetical listing of road transport terms.
Yellow lines are road markings used in various territories.