Airport Business - 34

TOTALLY BOGGUS
AUTHOR Roddy Boggus

Concourse Chicken
I'VE NOTICED that passengers are totally screwing up our
nation's airports.
Huh?
Yes, wouldn't our airports be much
nicer, much more comfortable with less
passengers in them? While the answer
is yes, that is not very likely to happen
as more and more people take to the
skies. However, the lack of decorum
is palpable as pedestrian etiquette gives
way to Pedestrian Pachinko (PP), where
everyone is reduced to a silver ball trying
to avoid other people and obstacles along
their travel path.
Are there guidelines for those
walking through our nation's airports
that will help keep traffic f lowing
without resulting in pedestrian chicken?
And what about the nasty little golf carts
that continually invade our pedestrian
walk space with incessant beeping or
someone calling out "excuse the cart,
please"?
Perhaps there are no published rules
for pedestrian traffic in an airport, which
is why I've put pen to paper to create
guidelines for foot traffic in our airports.
Please keep in mind that these guidelines
are for U.S. airports only. We call these
rules WWII (Walking Without Incident
and/or Injury).
It is important to note, when visiting
an airport, you should have some idea
of which side of the road automobile
traffic drives on in that area. If you are

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RODDY BOGGUS

Roddy is the Buildings Service Group Leader for
the Aviation Practice at RS&H. A 30-year aviation
professional, he is an architect with a Bachelors'
of Design from Texas Tech University. Roddy is
the 2017 Board Chair of the Airport Consultants
Council (ACC) and sits on the Board of Directors
for the International Partnering Institute (IPI) as
well as the International Association of Airport
Executives (IAAE).

unfamiliar with this concept, there is a
good chance you should not be f lying
anywhere. In the U.S., for the most
part, we drive our cars in the right lane,
which means oncoming traffic is to our
left. With some exceptions, we do not
drive on either side of the road or down
the middle without expecting some fairly
negative results.
The same applies in our airports. For
all practical purposes, pedestrian traffic
in U.S. airports should also move on the
right side of any walkway with the flow
of traffic. So, let's get down to the rules.

Keep to the Right!
In the U.S. we keep to the right. Walk
like you are supposed to drive (notice
the words "supposed to" here). Fast
walkers take the left most lanes, midspeed walkers take the middle and those
that have obviously arrived at the airport
7 hours before their flight and are out for
a Sunday stroll keep to the far right. Just
like driving, do not text and walk.
There is nothing worse than someone
who screws up an entire walking highway
by walking on the left. Suddenly all the
rest of us are PP swerving around some
errant object swimming upstream. It's
kind of like the person that is heading
to the back of the plane to retrieve their
luggage while the rest of us are trying to
deplane. Don't be that person.

Don't Walk in a Group
Walking in a group causes trouble in
multiple ways. Two or three people
walking side-by-side, taking up all the
lanes in one direction - or as we see many
times, taking their half out of the middle
- while refusing to shrink can result in
"concourse chicken" (no this is not an
airport delicacy). This "first person that
moves loses" mentality creates a full-

34 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / MAY 2019

body game of chicken that only raises
the anxiety of airport passengers.
The rule in walking as a group is
simple: you must disband.
This includes couples. While it's all
lovey-dovey to hold hands and stroll
gaga-eyed at each other through the
concourse, you need to break the chain
and give your hand a moment to dry out.
Parents know it can be fun to watch
the tots dragging their tiny roll-onboards
behind them, but children are unreliable
to follow, easily distracted, and can stop
on a dime, resulting in high pucker-factor
events for those following too closely and
create PP. Pick those babes up and keep
the traffic moving.

Don't Stop in Traffic
Just like you shouldn't stop in the middle
of a busy, moving highway, you should
not suddenly stop when walking through
a concourse. If you pass the restroom,
bar, pretzel stop, etc., ease to the right
and step out of traffic before coming to
Airport Business

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Airport Business
