I’m generally an easy going guy, but this got me to questioning things.
Went to Philly airport to pick up my sister. I was 15 minutes early so figured I would just park before I hit the terminal and wait for a message that she had baggage and was ready. Philly had a nice parking lot, the cell call lot or something they called it. Big lot, you pull in there and wait. They closed the lot. For whatever reason, no longer an option.
I am a quarter mile or so from the terminal and see, ohh... 60 or 70 cars, that I could see anyway, pulled over on the shoulder. Hey, looks good to me! I pull behind them to wait. More cars parked behind me as I waited. Now and again a bunch of cars would pull out and head to the terminal, as flights arrived. Those of us there would move up to fill in the larger voids. It looked to be a pretty good system. She messaged they were running late and had not arrived yet.
Now. This is a ‘ramp’ kind of area before the airport. 3 lanes wide but only the center “lane” is derivable. The left and right are just… emergency or something, but not for traffic. So, it wasn’t like any of us were impeding folks who were going straight to the terminal or anything.
There was another ramp to the terminal that we were going to “Y” into up ahead. There were a lot of cars parked on the shoulder also, doing the same thing we were. Not a ton of traffic on that road either. Yeah, there would be vehicles, but it is 25 MPH or something and not a steady flow. I’d call it light traffic area.
Been there a bit and see a city cop car pull up behind folks on the other shoulder. Lights flashing and he would hit the siren in short blasts. As cars left, he would pull up to the next ones and repeat. He chased 40 or so cars from there. He pulls a U and heads towards us, going wrong way, lights on. Slow mind ya, crawling. Well, cars ahead of me pull out and go to the terminal. I see what is up so pull out and head down the road…
I see all the cars pulling over again, doing the same thing, but just around the corner from where we were. Hey, I pulled in behind them. Along comes the cop, lights on, siren bumping, chasing us all off.
So.. Now we have 60, 70 or more cars that were pulled over AND the traffic double parked at the terminals AND the folks who are just arriving… All bottled up on a 3 lane road in the terminal. One lane is parked, folks loading/unloading and many of them just parked. Middle lane is folks double parked, loading/unloading because folks are parked in the first lane. Third lane is all us new arrivals blocking it, trying to let folks from the other two lanes in/out as needed. It was the basic cluster-you-know-what.
I get past the first terminal, took a while of stop and go, and parked between there and the next gate. Sure enough, the cop pulls up behind me, lights on. I had watched him chasing folks away in the first terminal area. So, I get out and walk back to his car. He gets out and asks if there is a problem. I said, “Yes”. I asked where is the proper place to wait, while we await incoming flights now that the cell call lot is closed. His answer – “Just keep driving around in the loop.” I kid you not. Drive through the terminals, adding more traffic, go out the other end and take the big loop to go back through them again, until your friends flight arrives. THAT, was the official solution.
So, I told him I am not trying to be a smart ass or anything, he seemed nice enough. But what was wrong with us waiting BEFORE we got to the terminal It seemed like a pretty good solution to not having a lot to wait in. By him chasing us off, we were blocking traffic in the terminal, adding to the already much congested area. He simply stated it was his job to make sure no one parked on the shoulder around the airport, and to keep traffic moving. He offered nothing more and I did not press it further. I got in my car and stuck to the second lane, with folks all double parked and let everyone in/out ahead of me that I could. Cop right behind me, lights flashing and hitting the siren occasionally. Took 10 or so minutes to get through terminal A, and by the time I got to terminal C, it had been 30 minutes and I got the message she was ready at gate D, I knew which gate she was coming in. I wheeled into the third lane, back into the first at the terminal, picked her up and gone! I could see the cops lights, back where I was, waiting behind someone else, trying to get folks moving.