Used in movie theaters, banks and other service areas to provide assistance to those patrons who may be unfamiliar with the concept of forming a line.
Is there a generic reference to this thing that is often neither velvet, nor a rope?
Cordon?
They’re called stanchion ropes (the stanchion being the metal pole part) so there’s not much getting around the “rope” part. I suppose you could call them stanchion barriers or something.
Thanks, but how unsatisfying. These things are pervasive and ought to have a layman’s term associated with them.
I like cordon better, but that sound more like a barrier than a guide and google returns only pictures of cheese-filled chicken breasts.
I think the generic name is “velvet rope.”
Barriers is what they are, really; barring people from certain directions of movement is how they function as guides. Sometimes cordoning off exclusive areas is all they’re doing. Stanchion ropes are a specific type of “crowd control barrier” (a French barrier or “bike rack” is another, for rowdier, outdoor applications).
“Velvet rope” my ass. 
Most of the ones I see – in banks and places like that typically – are “naugahyde ropes”.
I might expect to see velvet ropes – real velvet ropes – in an expensive theater lobby perhaps. Out in the pedestrian world, it’s naugahyde.
Those poor naugas.
I can only hope they were skynned humanely.
I probably see them more often as actual braided plastic ropes than the velvet (or faux velvet) covering. Probably because the softer stuff would get grimy and nasty in the bank line with everyone’s hands on it.
Edit: Or the retractable belts.
My upscale coats are made from virgin naugahyde
:eek:
Thanks for noticing.
I measure my breathing with my Nasograph,
It’s nice, but oh my, how it hurts when I laugh.
My chair is upholstered in real Naugahyde;
When they killed that nauga, I sat down and cried.
(He moved to Chicaga when that nauga died!)
[indent][indent]-- Allan Sherman, Chim Chim Cheree[/indent][/indent]
Ahem! REAL people wear FAKE naugahyde!
When I worked at the Science Center, we always called them stanchions.
The stanchion is what, um, stands, holding the fuzzy rope off the floor.
You’ll find them all at StanchionWorld.com
Which sounds like a joke cf: Spatula City, but isn’t.
Generic name for a velvet rope?
Handjob