I had someone pick me up at TPA last week and I was surprised how agressive and nasty the 'traffic police' were at the TPA arrivals level. They were much more agressive than what I see at most airports.

They had one 'officer' stationed every few feet and the second someone pulls to the the curb, they'd knock on your window and tell you to continue unless someone was rushing up to the vehicle to get in.

I saw an older lady stop, the traffic goon told her to keep moving. The older lady rolled down her window and I overheard her say she needed to stop for a second to look for her grandsons. The traffic goon the screamed "you better start driving now or I will issue you a ticket". The little old lady didn't understand, so she got out of her car to ask what the traffic lady what she was saying. Traffic goon then writes her a ticket and kept yelling at the little old lady to get back into the vehicle and move.

When folks get older they get slower. I have my doubts about whether this older lady should have been driving or not - but she was yelled at non stop and treated like a criminal. If someone is hard of hearing you don't yell louder, you slow your speech and repeat until they understand.

In the end the traffic goon just started to write this little old lady what appeared to be two tickets and screamed at her that she would keep writing tickets until she moved. I was standing right next to them so I overheard the entire thing. This older lady was hard of hearing, she was absolutely no threat, she didn't understand the traffic goon and ends up getting ticketed for it.

FWIW, the person picking me up also had a vehicle search entering TPA. A quick stop to search the trunk, etc.

The traffic 'police' at most airports are usually reasonable in the arrivals area. They keep traffic moving, but they're usually reasonable about letting people slow down to look around. The ones at TPA were just flat out jerks.

Perhaps I haven't spent enough time in the arrivals area at other airports as I usually rent a car, queue for a taxi, or go to a designated area for a hotel shuttle. The only place I get picked up on a regular basis in the USA is at SDF and often you can pull over and wait a few minutes before they tell you to move and circle.

I've been picked up at Australian Airports several times -- typically you have to circle there as well, but they're more similar to SDF where they'll let you wait a few before you're forced to move on.

In closing, I understand the reason to keep traffic moving, but at TPA they were just outright nasty. End of Rant ---