What is required for such managing is a means to guarantee that no person will be infected by Covid as a result of being in that flow of people. If that is not guaranteed, there is the risk of death caused by the museum being open to the public during the pandemic. With the stakes being that high, no amount of risk is acceptable.

Simply reducing the risk by some unknown extent is easy, but not acceptable.

A small museum near me instituted a one-way route with floor markings for social distancing and limited admissions/occupancy. They also required masks to be worn at all times and had doors and windows open. They closed for the winter in the fall.

While not a museum, various shore resort towns here in Delaware have required masks to be worn on the open-air boardwalks and city sidewalks in the resort areas. People in Delaware generally follow the rules and the resorts managed to have a limited season.

When our local Transportation Museum was able to open again in September, we went for the usual one-way system around the exhibits and a requirement for all visitors to wear masks at all times they were in the building.
To save on continuous disinfecting of the interiors of exhibits, we stopped visitors entering into vehicles like buses, which, surprisingly we didn't get any complaints about. That is one of the popular features of our museum, compared with others who don't allow the public on them, so I was half-expecting some complaints at least!
Despite it being housed in a large former bus depot, restrictions were placed on the total numbers allowed in at any one time, whilst the on-site cafe was closed.
Visitor numbers didn't turn out too bad in the end, as people were desperate to get out to places, particularly with children. Thankfully we had good financial reserves which have softened the effect of last years restrictions.
We managed to stay open on restricted days/hours (Wed & Sun afternoons) until just before Christmas, but it's back to a total shutdown here in the UK for the forseeable future.
My guess is late April before things can start opening up again....(though I would love to be proved wrong!)

Here in Massachusetts we are approaching the end of the holiday restrictions and they are looking at (again) changing the end date for the restrictions. It is difficult for any organization,not just a museum, to do business when the goal post is constantly being moved. The present 25% rated capacity restriction intended to control flow and maintain spacing in some cases causes people to have to wait in line in the rain or snow outside businesses to get in.

But I think the bigger question is where people are going to find money for entertainment and leisure activities in a Covid world where many taxes are now being rapidly increased to try to compensate for loss of tax revenue from reduced business activity.

PC

Seashore Trolley Museum added social distancing, mask requirement and closed some of the buildings to the public that did not have adequate space for social distancing inside. They also ran a number of their open air cars, required riders to sit a predetermined distance away from the operator and instituted a one family per car rule.

The general public is pretty much understanding of the operational difficulties museums face, given the circumstances and realize that we must modify our normal operations to ensure safety of staff and visitors and that those considerations will dictate that some changes be made for practical reasons.

That said, we must recognize the severe impact the virus is having on the economy and realize that once the virus is under control, the next few years may require us to lower our expectations and plan accordingly. Many DC businesses and attractions are not expecting tourism to fully return to pre-COVID levels until 2022-2023 due to the draconian service cuts WMATA has announced for FY2021-2022: those include eliminating half of their bus routes and more importantly (for tourism), totally eliminating rail service on weekends. Yeah, things are really that bad in the transit agency world. Most transit agencies are going to be cutting services for the foreseeable future.

I'm not familiar with exactly what they're doing, but I know the B&O museum has been open and hosting visitors. I haven't been there though (the risk is not worth it).

Is there anyone from there on here?

I used a thread title suggested by the moderator who locked the previous Covid thread; and that suggestion was: “Ideas for managing flow through the museum Coach seating and Covid-19.”

But in reviewing that suggestion, I realize that it raises the question as to the reason for managing flow. Typically, the control of the flow of people is done to make the flow smoother, reduce choke points, and other measures to increase the efficiency and capacity of the flow.

However, in this case, the suggested thread title refers to managing the flow in relation to Covid-19. What is it about Covid-19 that requires managing the flow of people?

The only connection that I can think of is to provide enough distancing space within the flow-way to prevent the need for people to get closer than six feet from each other. This is the reason for the one-way arrows on the floor of store aisles. They are needed because the aisles are not wide enough for people traveling in opposite directions to meet and pass each other while in the normal position behind their carts.

In a railroad passenger car, this means that people must not pass each other in the aisle, and also must not move past seated passengers while passing through the aisle. It also means that seated passengers must not have people in the next seats ahead of and behind them. And all seated passengers must not leave their seats for any reason until the car can be emptied with all passengers exiting first from the seats nearest the exit, and continuing the exit process in that sequence. Or they could exit both ends of the car and continue in sequence toward the middle of the car.

My experience is that people ignore the 6-foot rule, and readily crowd together in stores wherever a choke point develops. So, I believe this rather intricate protocol for distancing in passenger cars would not be adhered to even with a detailed sign diagram and instructions posted in the car.

It would require the direct supervision and control imposed by an onboard safety officer. Maybe each passenger could be assigned a seat number, and at the proper time in the exit process, the safety officer would call the number and the exit designation for each passenger in sequence. How is this currently being handled in passenger trains?

I’ve seen photos of several railroads that have installed dividers in between seats.

Dollywood and the Greenfield Village did this, as well as Durango & Silverton in their knight sky car (perhaps other cars as well).

North Conway also made little boxes for passengers to sit in.

At Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City, we have marked the path through our display pavilion as one way, with stripes at 10' intervals.

We require masks and request social distance (and enforce those requirments)

We have used either open cars, or coaches with openable windows, blocking half the seats. We are not using our air conditioning or ceiling fans.

Now with more restrictions, train rides are limited to our rail bike program (railexplores.org) which has less than 50 seats, natural distancing (2 and 4 seats per bike, all in one party).

We invited our community's enforcement officers to review our plans before we reopened, and have since been given a verbal "gold star" for our practices, with some advertising support from our state Tourism office, "We are open, we are safe"

Our sister museums, in Carson City, in Ely (we own the depots and office buildings associated with the Nevada Northern) in our State History/Natural History museums, in the Historical Society in Reno, and at the Lost City Museum (Anasazi History) all are doing similar practices, some having to close, some adding timed admission.

Randy

One thing to think about, even if you still somehow believe that it's much ado about nothing is that you're audiences probably don't.

Simply doing the minimum or appearing not to take things seriously will be like waving a big red flag to potential visitors who might be on the fence.

So even if there is a bit of "security theater" to your efforts, think about it as a marketing expense as much as a health and safety thing.

From working in a hospital I can't really suggest much more than what has already been mentioned. Try and distance parties, enforce mask wearing, offer hand sanitizer and disinfect high touch surfaces. Its what we have been doing in the hospitals during the pandemic and I imagine the same practices will apply well to museum spaces.

I spent time there over the holidays (several days with a model club). I didn't see anything specific other than what you see at stores and spacing signs. They are blessed to have big spaces. They might have been limiting the number of people in at any one time. The restrooms were, perhaps the most uncomfortable/risky I experienced there, and only when you walked in and found a family with several kids.

They did host a number of non-conventional events through a series of vendor tables, including a alcohol vendor and a dance/singing school that provided dance routines on the turn table and live music. I talked to a number of parents who were happy to get the kiddies out... ANYWHERE.. since so many places were just closed.

Bob

Too much "security theater" or anything along those lines, and you scare people away.

That is what Sweden found out about their infamous experiment, i.e. isolating only the most vulnerable (mainly those in nursing homes) while letting the cards fall where they may with the rest of the population: people stopped going out to dinner, to movies etc. because they were afraid of getting sick, and Sweden's economy suffered worse effects than other similar countries with more severe lockdowns, while their population suffered more infections and death.

Do you have numbers to back that up?