Living in the Baltimore DC area, my home airport is Baltimore Washington International. We know the procedure well for picking up people. Wait in the cell phone lot until your passenger has landed, disembarked, and retrieved their luggage. Then it’s a quick drive to the terminal to pick them up. Fair warning to anyone who tries to wait at the terminal. Since 9/11, airport security has been adamant about the no standing or waiting rule. Passenger not there? Security is on you. So unless you want to drive in circles, you wait in the cell lot.
When we needed to pick up my daughter at Newark International Airport for my nephew’s wedding, we obediently waited in the cell lot until she called, then made a quick drive to the terminal…and waited. Cars sat parked two deep everywhere. There were even cars parked on the loop road leading to the terminal. Traffic just didn’t move. It took twenty minutes to move thirty feet to the curb. It was total gridlock. All of it because cars waited at the terminal curb for people to land instead of the cell lot or parking lot. Airport personnel did nothing to help.
Hello… Newark airport… would it kill you to get security to move people along? I realize that a bunch of flights had just landed, and lot of cars swarmed the terminal at once, but this was more than a sudden influx of vehicles. It was an example of simple inefficiency in utilizing resources.
Newark has many lanes for through traffic and several for pickups. All they need is one or two security people enforcing the no standing zone. If your pickup isn’t there, keep driving. Something as simple as that would keep traffic moving and alleviate the huge traffic jam. Time to wake up Newark.
alkaplan 