Are steel roller coasters better than wooden?

Wooden coasters do offer one advantage over steel coasters, assuming you're looking for palm-sweating thrills: they sway a lot more. Tubular steel coasters allow more looping, higher and steeper hills, greater drops and rolls, and faster speeds. How did coasters come to be? Read more about their history.



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Steel roller coasters generally feel smoother to ride than their wooden counterparts. Because of their strength, they can be more complex and make faster turns and twists without injuring riders. There are many different types of steel coasters, such as flying, inverted, floorless and suspended.

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Additionally, steel coasters lose less energy to friction. Rather than rattle along the tracks like wooden ones do, the wheels on steel coasters are surrounded by the track itself, making for a smoother, faster ride.

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Steel coasters have a generally smoother ride than their wooden counterparts, and due to their strength, rides can have more complex and faster turns and twists without injuring riders.

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While there are some concerns about their safety, wooden roller coasters are generally considered to be just as safe as their steel counterparts. With proper maintenance and inspection, wooden roller coasters can provide years of fun and excitement for riders.

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Far more than steel, wooden coasters can get rougher over time, as rails and ledgers sag and bend under the weight of a 15,000-pound car bouncing around the track. A poorly maintained wooden coaster can become a rough, unpleasant ride.

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The larger the mass, the larger the momentum, and the more force you need to change it. Mass does not make a roller coaster go faster but it does make it harder to slow down.

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The construction of traditional wooden rollercoasters might not allow for the same high speeds as steel rollercoasters, but don't let that fool you. Wooden ones are just as exhilarating as their metallic cousins!

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The first tubular steel-tracked coaster was Disney's Matterhorn Bobsled Ride, built in 1959. Steel rides were quieter — but more importantly, they allowed designers to build twists, turns and other thrills not possible with wood coasters.

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In general, wooden coasters are nonlooping. They're also not as tall and not as fast, and they don't feature very steep hills or as long a track as steel ones do. Wooden coasters do offer one advantage over steel coasters, assuming you're looking for palm-sweating thrills: they sway a lot more.

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There's a grit, akin to making a meal from scratch yourself or driving a dirt road off the beaten path. If you want to feel like you've REALLY ridden a roller coaster, really had your bones rattled and your nerves tested, wooden coasters are where it's at.

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Rollercoaster loops are most often not perfect circles – instead, they are teardrop-like in shape. This is because it takes a greater amount of acceleration to get the train around a perfectly circular loop.

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People with high blood pressure and/or heart conditions are warned not to ride roller coasters because of the way they tax the cardiovascular system. The adrenaline rush that roller coasters give you causes a rapid spike in your heart rate and blood pressure.

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Not everyone finds the prospect of roller coasters enjoyable, to begin with — which could lead to the experience of stress not necessarily being positive for them. And just like people produce varying levels of endorphins and dopamine, the amount of cortisol generated can also differ from person to person.

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