Letter to the Editor
Airport parking
Published Sunday, June 29, 2008
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Stumble It!June 23, 2008
To the editor:
I get it that Fairbanks needs tour companies and tourists. I get it that we need their dollars and their presence.
What I don’t get is why the tour companies have unlimited access to Fairbanks International Airport parking when the handicapped parking spaces are still located in front of a now-disappearring terminal and basically worthless.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, handicap parking spaces are to be located at the closest access to a building, not forgotten in an area of a parking lot that no longer serves any purpose or anyone.
I get it that the tour companies need to make it easy for their patrons to find their employees so that they can be whisked away for another fun day in the Interior. After nine hours spent in airports and on planes with screaming children and road-weary travelers, I do understand that tour companies need easy access to their guests.
What I don’t get is why these employees must block the access between the escalator and the baggage carousel. After a day spent crammed into a small seat with little or no amenities, all I wanted was my bags and to escape. Having to run the gauntlet of zealous “placard people” at the bottom of the escalator standing in the middle of the baggage area blocking free access to the carousel was the last straw.
Believe me, I got it.
Community Discussion
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i picked up my child 3 days ago and it was quite the experience... in the loading area a cab driver using a yellow cab was arguing with a man picking up his wife in the loading zone... then the tourists get in line where ever they wanted and so this was just not ok.. i was in line for 20 minutes in the security check point when one walked in front of me.... then baggage claim they just walk in front and get there bags not noticing my 11 year old child there.... then they looked at me like i was wrong to have my child there....tourists need to know there place they are guests in our state i guess manners dont come with them... let them walk across the parking lot and load them onto busses like they load cattle.. the disabled need to be respected more and parking should be the least of there worries especially at the airport...... ONCE AGAIN THE ALMIGHTY TOURIST AND THE DOLLAR COME FIRST
its only till september people. calm down.
Lest we forget just who those tourists are. These aren't exactly the young and the healthy. I was at Princess lodge a few weeks ago one of them was being carted away in an ambulance. How many of these wayward travelers return home to their respective airports, loading their luggage into a buick parked in.... A handicapped spot!!! 5 out of 10??? 8 out of 10???
Maybe the simple solution is more handicapped parking. Eventually the other half of the airport will be open again once the desctruction/construction cycle completes. As far as the tourists in the way, I kind of miss they days not so long ago when they roped off a section for the tour companies to collect baggage on behalf of the passengers. For the rest of us it was convenient, I'm not sure about the passengers, but I wouldn't mind having someone find my bags for me and load them to my hotel room when I travel.
Come on folks, where is the Alaska spirit? Put a big smile on your face and a hardy WELCOME, before you play "Soapy Smith" act on the tourist. The spank'n new airport is a mighty spiffy place if you can remember back to the days when they used to dump the baggage in a heap and we all used to root through them.
Just a comment, but I do know for a fact that the tour companies can & will only park where the airport tells them to. Those areas are assigned by the airport & yes, one reason is because there is a large percentage of physically disabled passengers. The cabs & other people quite frequently crowd into the assigned spots yet if the coaches are an inch over their boundary they are dressed down by the airport police. Also the luggage was handled much better in past years, but the change is a TSA driven one.
While it may be very frustrating for you, odds are it is for the driver as well. They aren't intentionally trying to tick you off. They just want to do their job, get paid & go home to get some sleep.
daisies - you wrote "in the loading area a cab driver using a yellow cab was arguing with a man picking up his wife in the loading zone... "
I'm a cab driver. It's not a fun job. We work 12 hour shifts, we pay lease for the cab and gas before we get to take anything home, some nights that means we work 12 hours for $50. There is a special spot in the loading zone... it's clearly marked TAXI HOT SPOT. We have a staging area well prior to the loading zone where we wait until the driver in the TAXI HOT SPOT is loading. We pay an annual fee for this privilege.
Drivers picking up private passengers are not supposed to park and wait right in front of the terminal. They are supposed to cruise around the return circle or park in short term parking. When they park and wait neither the tour operators or we Taxi drivers can do our jobs well.
Did you know that taxi drivers pick up blood for the hospital and deliver it to the lab? Yes, emergency shipments sometimes come in on the planes. We pick up lab shipments that come in from the villages and deliver them to the hospital for processing. We take lost luggage to people all over the borough as well. In addition, we provide a valuable transportation service to people who don't have someone to meet them at the airport. There is no bus service out there, and those people have no other way home but us.
Rude inconsiderate people like you are the bane of my existence out there. You make it almost impossible for me to do my job, even though I struggle to do it competently, courteously, and pleasantly, even when you flip me off, block access to the CLEARLY marked Taxi Hot Spot, or park in the Taxi only staging area.
I am one of the first persons that tourists and returning locals see when they get off the plane. I try to greet everyone with a smile. But when you park your SUV, Subaru, or Pick up where you aren't supposed to, simply for the sake of convenience, sometimes it's hard.
Oh.. By the way... I drive a yellow cab, and I have asked drivers to move...
daisies.......your whining attitude is not typical of the Alaskan spirit!
Clio..... I will try my best to never ride in a yellow cab anymore. You are a very hostile and bitter person. By the way do you get paid for delivering that blood?
i see i have touched some peoples nerve button.... do you as a cab driver find it your right to scream at a person when they are in your loading zone..... and as far as you being a cab driver do you take people the long way home or do you try to be honest and not swendle your customers........ i am not bitter i am honest about what i feel and see in alaska..... i have a friend who drives and his name is chee and he is a very fine taxi driver... he is fair and many times does not charge if he knows some one does not have the money ... and he picks up blood and delivers it so dont talk down to me or want pitty for all your exspenses you have to pay to drive your cab..if you dont like it dont drive..or better yet go screw a customer over to get back your fees or just go drop off an intoxicated customer at safeway and keep the money the bar gives you to get them home safely... i ran a bar i know the game...
Airport police have a decent amount of spare time and I'm sure this thread will show up in someones inbox.
And in my opinion, if you park where your not supposed to be, and know your not supposed to be, you deserve to be yelled at. Handicapped or cabbie space, doesn't matter. Don't be so ridiculously lazy.
Taxi driver are too selfish all parking spot I think so i dont ride a taxi NO more !!!! I already have my truck. i let my friend to drive my truck to pick me up. taxi want us drive around and waste my fuel and money.. it is too stupid ......................... when I walking out of terminal. 3 Taxi drivers asked me to ride in his cab I said NO ! thats why I get mad. I am laugh at taxi driver who work 12 hours for $50.... I think taxi driver should quit his job and find good money than taxi .....
Clio
So are you one of those cab drivers that only use the handicap parking spaces at grocery stores to wait on a fare? Or do you simply park at the curb and blcok traffic for several minutes while you square up with your fare or load up groceries? Is it ok for you to block traffic while you wait for someone to complete their shopping.
Dude, you drive a taxi, dont take yourself or life so seriously
Daisies, you probably should not let your daughter hang out right in front of the baggage carousel - it genuinely is not safe. I'll assume that you're not one of the people who lets their kids play on the moving carousel (what is wrong with those people?) but even so you've got a bunch of harried travelers who just got off a plane and may be in a hurry throwing large objects around a crowded space. I'm pretty sure you can't make people act any different from how they're going to act so best to keep your daughter safe and out of the way.
Gonna have rude people where ever you go, fact of life. Fairbanks airport is indeed an interesting one, but one of many. Most airports I have been through have a taxi/bus loading area AWAY from the general traveler who is picked up by family/friends. I have never experienced a bus who has cut me off, but I have experienced many, many taxi drivers who have and look at me as if I am in the wrong. On occassion I have had to use these cabs and it has added a few gray hairs to say the least. Clio - if you are one of the first people they see and having 'attitude issues', I encourage them to wait for the next 'ride'.
hckywtchr you and seven51 sound like morons.
Clio gave an honest assessment and you two start spouting off at the mouth like a two year old drooling over the desert... go away.
Being a cab driver is a tough job and the very few times I have used them I have received good service at a fair price.
The price of change.... Wait till we have the boom that so many people are hoping for. It will be a disaster. Just like the last one there is no way in hell we have the infrastructure to handle it. It will be gridlock all the way baby. Enjoy the calm before the storm cause believe me this is nothing.
I think every single time I have ever been to the airport there has been an Airport Officer in the immediate area. If people are parking in the special cab spot, it seems like it would be much more efficient for the cab driver to go talk to the officer rather then getting in a screaming match with someone. It's pretty easy to tell who wins those, the guy who is already parked there.
As for handicapped parking, my hope is that more will be added as things get reorganized.
it's almost too bad that there couldn't be a separate drop off/pick up point for tour buses so they don't have to park in front of the main terminal. When I was at the airport recently to pick someone up there was a bus literally in the middle of everything and it was making the area almost impossible to maneuver.
Remember when you could just drive in and park at the airport FREE!
Aw the good ole days..........................................sigh
I <heart> ...
people who complain in the newspaper after an unpleasant day of flying (it happens to the best of us)
tourists (guests with money to spend)
"placard people" (entry-level hard workers)
screaming babies on airplanes (been there, done that)
TSA (who spend ALL DAY EVERY DAY in that place)
and even the occasionally surly Alaska Airlines flight attendant who doesn't put a slice of lime in the (still complementary!) club soda.
They are working on the signage at the Airport concourse. It is really frustrating.
When the Demo is all done the busses won't be there. The fence up is hindering the progress.
I bet the cabs don't get much money in fares, I don't know, what I DO know is that they pay $100 a year for that spot, EACH CAB, and are ticketed and trespassed if they do one little thing wrong.
Let's all bear the burden of new technology for a little while. Everyone is going to be a little saucy.
seven51 you wrote "Clio..... I will try my best to never ride in a yellow cab anymore. You are a very hostile and bitter person. "
In what way was I hostile or bitter? I was trying to share the other side of the coin... There are other cab companies to choose from and you are free to use them.
daisies you wrote "do you as a cab driver find it your right to scream at a person when they are in your loading zone....."
I have never screamed or yelled at anyone, in the loading zone or not. I have simply and courteously asked them to move.
daisies also wrote " and as far as you being a cab driver do you take people the long way home or do you try to be honest and not swendle your customers........ i am not bitter i am honest about what i feel and see in alaska..... i have a friend who drives and his name is chee and he is a very fine taxi driver... he is fair and many times does not charge if he knows some one does not have the money ..."
You have no idea who I am or what I do at all, and those are some pretty serious allegations. I never take the long way unless I'm directed to do so by my passenger. If there is a choice of ways, I offer them those choices and follow their directions. I'm not out to swindle anyone, I just have to pay my rent, utilities, and fuel just like everyone else. And in order to do so with honesty and integrity, that means I work sometimes 72 hours a week instead of the 40 most people work.
Even if they choose a longer way, I'm obligated by law to follow the directions they give me as long as they have the money to pay for the fare. I'm really sorry that cab-driving has such a bad reputation in this town, but I'm not one of those who contributed to it.
daisies also wrote " {Chee} and he picks up blood and delivers it so dont talk down to me or want pitty for all your exspenses you have to pay to drive your cab..if you dont like it dont drive..or better yet go screw a customer over to get back your fees or just go drop off an intoxicated customer at safeway and keep the money the bar gives you to get them home safely... i ran a bar i know the game..."
Wow... I had no idea cab drivers did such terrible things to customers. Perhaps since you know chee, I also know chee, you can credit a few of us with the same kind of integrity you ascribe to Chee.
I wasn't talking down to you, nor do I want your pity. I want you to realize there is more than one side to every story, and more than one kind of cab driver on the road. Chee is a good example and so are others.
If you ever see a driver that works for Eagle or Yellow Cab creating the kind of scene you described, the owner of Eagle Yellow will happily take your call personally, hear your concern, and address the issue with the driver in question. All you need is the cab number from the side of the vehicle.
Allen Marshall, best cab driver I've ever known in Fairbanks. And I've taken a ton of cabs over the years. A true gentleman, and an expert at his job.
Of course, he did use to own the company (Yellow).
Fairbanks is one of the easiest, most convenient airports that I've ever been to. There is some chaos out front, but the only way to avoid that would be not to have a road in front of the terminal at all. Just deal with it and be glad that you don't live in Boston.
Two experiences with Fairbanks taxi drivers:
One tried to UNDERcharge me because he was taking me to the emergency room and could tell that I was upset.
One corrected my friend, who accidentally tried to send us the long way around. The cab driver took the shorter, cheaper way.
Of course some cab drivers are jerks, too. So what?
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