Not a great way to run an airport

It’s bad enough that signage toward Boston Logan’s economy parking lot has never been ideal. It’s a lot worse now that they’ve killed off that lot, changed almost none of the original signage, and opened a new lot that’s actually more convenient, but there’s no way to know that until you give up looking for the old one, which is now a construction site.

There is a sign that says “Economy Lot,” but nothing else that looks like Logan signage. There is a big sign that says “SEE AGENT,” but it’s not clear that the sign is for people parking, since the road also serves a lot of industrial facilities. Blinding construction lights make it hard to tell that a small booth is in fact the agent. There somebody hands you a sheet of paper with instructions for following little temporary signs that just say “P.” The agent also says “It’s across from the gas station.” This would have been good information in the first place.

The lot itself was beyond full this morning (at 4:45am), with drivers inventing parking spaces where there are none marked. If you’re flying from Logan, consider avoiding the whole thing.

This has been a public service announcement from a citizen flyer.

[Later…] On the plane now. It’s delayed. “We have a problem with one of the little computers here…” Normally I’m on United, which is a large, predictable very average airline. This time I’m on US Airways, which changed its name from USAir after they realized that stood for Unfortunately Still Allegheny In Reality. Its slogan should be “That’ll cost ya.” Luggage, changing seats, little bits of food, all extra. Oxygen too, perhaps.

My connection to Reno is one hour after I land in Phoenix. So far we’re a half hour late departing, with no sign that we’re going to leave soon. On a flight this long they can make up some time, but … I dunno. We’ll see.

Switching aircrafts. Arg.

[One flight later…] Got to Phoenix too late. Booked on a later plane. Sitting in a lounge now, working. Could be worse. Next stops: Reno, then a car to Techonomy. Looking forward to it.



8 responses to “Not a great way to run an airport”

  1. If I lived in Boston, I’d be taking the T to the airport every time. Why pay the airport parking fees?

  2. The T doesn’t run at 4am. Otherwise I’d be on it. I love the T.

  3. Techonomy? A new philosophy of progress? Hardly.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_Movement
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth

    I watched a couple of their video adverts, and David, Peter, and Brent come across as complete bozos. To hold up Bill Gates as any sort of role model is to completely miss the fundamental causes of our collective problems. We had the technology to feed, house and educate everyone on the planet a hundred years ago. We don’t need any new technology. What we need is a cultural overhaul which will give priority to meeting the needs of people rather than propping up archaic ideologies and social institutions. Nothing I see on the Techonomy website indicates that they mean to do anything about that.

  4. Well, I’m here because I was invited, and because I’m doing business here. I hadn’t heard of it until a few weeks ago. Meanwhile I’ll withhold judgement and see how it goes.

  5. You should stop in Reno for an Awful Awful burger at the Little Nugget. Mmm…

  6. Argh. Karl, it takes more than technology to solve problems. You also need resources. The people who have traded their life for these resources are usually not willing to let someone else (you) trade them away. You can disagree with their decision, but it’s their decision. You can try to use force against them, but they’ll use force against you. You have to convince them to cooperate.

    Here in the United States, we have done pretty well with a mostly customer-regulated marketplace. Unfortunately, that’s not good enough for a sizeable minority, who call for government regulation of the marketplace. Equally unfortunately, that ends up making the pie smaller for everyone, including the people who were doing okay when the pie was big enough to be shared with them.

    The fastest way to get to the world that I want (where nearly all interactions between people are free of violence), which I think you want as well, is to shift away from government regulation and back to customer regulation.

  7. We’ve tried several times to post a comment but our response is not displaying. Can we email it to you for posting?

  8. That time it worked fine. Because I approved it, your next comment will go straight up here. Thanks for keeping up the effort, and sorry the earlier attempts didn’t work.

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