DavidDTW
Oct 30, 06, 4:20 pm
from the Detroit Free Press today:
October 30, 2006
BY JEWEL GOPWANI
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Are you tired of roaming the roads around Metro Airport while waiting to pick up a loved one?
Starting today, you can park you car near the Smith Terminal and wait for a call from the traveler you’re picking up.
Airport management has set aside a lane — on the way to the arrivals door at the Smith Terminal — for people waiting to pick up travelers.
To use this lane, which can fit at least 30 cars, drivers must stay with their cars.
The practice is becoming more common across the country, often in separate lots, as airports try to make it easier to pick up passengers quickly without clogging the lanes in front of terminals.
“Airport management has always said that curb fronts are for active loading and unloading only, but many people drive up to the curb to wait for arriving passengers who are not ready at the curb,” said Lester Robinson, CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority, in a statement. “These lingering vehicles create traffic congestion and cause security concerns. Airport Police have no choice but to direct them away from the curb.”
Airport officials are looking into opening a similar area at the south end of the airport, closer to the McNamara Terminal, which Northwest Airlines uses, Robinson said.
Jan Mudrak, 67 of Warren, said the designated lane would make it easier to pick up relatives and friends at the airport, which she typically does twice a month.
“We usually try to get there a little early in case the plane got in early. So then we pull up by the terminal and just go slowly, very slowly, if we haven’t been called,” Mudrak said. “Or sometimes we will sit back far, where it’s safe, where you’re not going a ticket.”
If that doesn’t work, she’ll circle the airport’s roads, and “just go all the way around and hope that you’ve killed a little bit of time and you’ll get a call,” she said.
October 30, 2006
BY JEWEL GOPWANI
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Are you tired of roaming the roads around Metro Airport while waiting to pick up a loved one?
Starting today, you can park you car near the Smith Terminal and wait for a call from the traveler you’re picking up.
Airport management has set aside a lane — on the way to the arrivals door at the Smith Terminal — for people waiting to pick up travelers.
To use this lane, which can fit at least 30 cars, drivers must stay with their cars.
The practice is becoming more common across the country, often in separate lots, as airports try to make it easier to pick up passengers quickly without clogging the lanes in front of terminals.
“Airport management has always said that curb fronts are for active loading and unloading only, but many people drive up to the curb to wait for arriving passengers who are not ready at the curb,” said Lester Robinson, CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority, in a statement. “These lingering vehicles create traffic congestion and cause security concerns. Airport Police have no choice but to direct them away from the curb.”
Airport officials are looking into opening a similar area at the south end of the airport, closer to the McNamara Terminal, which Northwest Airlines uses, Robinson said.
Jan Mudrak, 67 of Warren, said the designated lane would make it easier to pick up relatives and friends at the airport, which she typically does twice a month.
“We usually try to get there a little early in case the plane got in early. So then we pull up by the terminal and just go slowly, very slowly, if we haven’t been called,” Mudrak said. “Or sometimes we will sit back far, where it’s safe, where you’re not going a ticket.”
If that doesn’t work, she’ll circle the airport’s roads, and “just go all the way around and hope that you’ve killed a little bit of time and you’ll get a call,” she said.