Atlanta Says Don’t Drive to the Airport After Passengers Stuck for Hours in Traffic Jam

In 2010 a traffic jam in China lasted for two weeks and stretched 60 miles. There were drivers stuck in the jam for five days, with some cars moving no more than a single kilometer per day.

Perhaps the closest we come to that in the U.S. was Wednesday night at Atlanta airport’s north terminal parking garage. Drivers were “stuck for hours” as a result of construction road closures and heavy traffic.

The airport blames weather and blames passengers. According to an airport spokesperson,

“It was the delays caused by the weather. It was the delays caused by the large influx of passengers who happened to be departing at that time,”

However the garage has only a single exit lane and there’s not much they plan to do about that in the short term, so they suggest simply “don’t drive the airport.”

Perhaps this issue should be added to the federal investigation of corruption at the airport. Just be grateful they have power.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. Re: the metro connection. People in Atlanta are a lot like those in LA, they aren’t getting out of their cars to ride the subway.

  2. I have detected a lot of poor planning when it comes to ingress/egress. It reminds me of grocery stores designed to put the milk in the back so that you have to walk through the whole store to get the one or two items you actually need.
    Given how easy it is to simulate these events in the planning stage, I can only conclude the obvious: governments have no incentive to optimize these decision and designs.

  3. Outside of the North terminal has been a construction zone for at least a year so not sure why anyone would attempt to park there, especially with a the other parking options in and around the airport

  4. Honestly, live 35/40 minutes from airport in nice community of Newnan Ga. There is no transportation here to get to the airport but to drive. No limo service, bus nothing. Wish they did.

Comments are closed.