Passengers Walk a Mile to Exit ATL
Ryan Boyd February 17, 2016
When delayed flights arrived after the airport’s operating hours, hundreds of passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport (ATL) were forced to walk a mile to the airport exit, dragging along luggage and exhausted children. Brutal East Coast winter weather appears to be the culprit for the flight delays, and the backup caused by weather conditions led to passengers traveling through Hartsfield-Jackson Airport after 2 a.m. Passenger Dave Cohen estimates nearly 500 others were making their way to the exit.
A spokesman for the airport said that the Plane Train transports roughly a quarter-million people every day during normal business hours, from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m., and that it’s the responsibility of the airlines to contact the train operator and ask for extended service in the case of inclement weather.
To read more about this story, go to NBC Atlanta.
[Photo: ATL People Mover, Wikipedia]
Perhaps this was a small gesture on the part of ATL airport to help solve America's obesity epidemic.
Walking a mile was a terrible thing for hundreds of passengers? Most of the world has no problem walking that far, even if it would be preferable to take the person transporter, so this is all rather supporting of some stereotypes about Americans, I'm afraid. Yes, I know some people have mobility challenges because of illness or disability but most people can still walk that far.
Unless you're transiting via some small airport like LGB or something like that, I'm willing to wager the average airline passenger traverses at least a mile every time they're in an airport, from the time they walk in the door, shuffle through check in lines, walk to security, shuffle through lines, then walk about the concourses to get to their gates. A mile really isn't that long. Think about this: have you ever been at DTW in the A terminal? It's more-or-less half the length of runway 4R/22L, which is about two miles long. Or if you've ever been at ATL and walked from A1 to the midpoint to get to the train, then gotten off at B and walked all the way to the south or north ends of B concourse, you've walked a fair distance.
Just another finger pointing exercise in the world of travel.