At many parks, you go to, you might notice that there are turnstyles at the exit of the rides. Do these really help the park know which rides are popular, and which aren't?? I don't think they do. Listen to me before you jump all over me.
I give the example of Iron Wolf, and Raging Bull. For the most part, we know that Iron Wolf isn't the most popular roller coaster at Six Flags Great America. Well, if Iron Wolf has a small line the entire day, what would the turnstyle really say different than if it was opening day? Does the turnstyle really know how many people come into the entire line, or does it just count the people that ride it at a time.
Basically, Iron Wolf could barely be packed the entire day, and just ENOUGH people to fill up almost every single train. This might only be your 5 minute wait. On the other side, we might have Raging Bull with an hour wait, and the two que houses being open. Is the turnstyle really going to say that Raging Bull is the popular one, and Iron Wolf isn't??? It's going to have about the same numbers day in, and day out.
I'm not talking about stacking on either rides, or the fact that Iron Wolf has 2 trains, and Raging Bull sometimes has 3 trains.
Now, the only other reason why you would have a turnstyle is the reason that you want to know the capacity of the ride. If a ride is popular, does it really matter what capacity it has. I would rather have a ride in which people like at the park, than a ride that has a huge capacity, and no one likes.