[MrMichael]

I have not raised it with the council Esselle, but I shall do in the morning. I shall let you know the outcome.

[HarryMonk]

MrMichael

Do the council have a shareholding in the airport?

[MrMichael]

I shall be finding out, watch this space.

[SimonRowberry]

The transport planning reason that Red Routes are implemented is precisely to stop people stopping on the approach roads and dropping people off (and causing road safety issues), rather than entering the short-stay area and paying the fee.

That’s the transport planning reason and it is a sound one (and I speak as a transport planner) – but I am not condoning the short-stay charges themselves.

I worked very closely with BHX on transport planning issues a few years back and I questioned both the charges for the trolleys and the short-stay/drop-off costs. The response from the guys I spoke with was interesting. It went something like “From a Birmingham Airport point of view, we agree that it doesn’t present the most welcoming impression. However, from a Birmingham Airport LIMITED perspective a) the drop-off charges raise significant revenue and we’re building a runway extension and every little helps; b) the trolley charges mean that we do not pay a penny towards their maintenance and replacement.”

I think that’s all self-explanatory….. 😉

Cheers, Simon

[MrMichael]

Simon, I accept your expertise on the subject, but do not accept the road safety issue around Bournemouth Airport. Maybe I am being cynical, but I suspect the red route has been put in to support and prevent people stopping to drop off without paying the fee. Under the Traffic Management Act I can see no justification for a red route purely to support a private sector charge on private land. It surely is equivalent to putting on street restrictions in place near a car park to force people to use the pay to park off street parking rather than the perhaps free on street provision.

[IanFromHKG]

TomInScotland, I not only remember platform tickets, I bought a couple earlier this year! Yes, they do still exist… (That was London Bridge Station btw)

Martyn – on my many arrivals into T3 the Memsahib and I have had no difficulty loading up a car in the drop-off zone. And frankly, I don’t care whether they have a rule against it or not! We do make sure we are very slick and quick doing it though…

[MartynSinclair]

Ian, if you get caught you will be ticketed by either the traffic wardens / police OR by the camera’s.

T3 drop off zone is subject to special rules/laws that Simon Rowberry will be able to explain far better than me. The signage is also different to the rest of the airport.

The police explained that it takes only 3 or 4 minutes of standing traffic for the jam to reach back to the M4 (that’s their words), hence THE RULES!..

[IanFromHKG]

Since the drop-off areas have pull-in areas… Unless they are completely choked (which I have never seen) then I can’t see how a jam could arise. Other than through normal levels of driver stupidity, of course!

As I said, we are slick and quick… I will be waiting on the kerb before the memsahib drives up. Usually takes us twenty seconds or less from stopping to moving off again!

[canucklad]

After your last point Martyn, I’m actually changing my mind about the drop off, pick-up charge at EDI.

At certain times of the day, there is definitely a risk of a serious bottleneck if people were slower than they currently are….and I suppose the charge also acts as an effective deterrent minimising traffic.

Ian, I’m afraid to say that your 20 seconds theory doesn’t hold up. A drop off / pick up point is in effect a queue. Therefore the dynamics of queue management have to be considered.

The expected average queue length has so many variables attached to it , not least the randomness factor , from randomness attach time, now you’d think 20 seconds isn’t a long time, however when you input that figure into a queue calculation and apply -/+ 5 seconds onto your 20 seconds & multiple by cars per minute that jam back to the M4 will happen tout suite. How many times have you beenannoyingly stuck in a rubber necking traffic jam. …

Never been dropped off at T3 so can’t comment, but I can imagine if they hadn’t put measures into T1 it would have resembled rush hour in Paris !

[MartynSinclair]

Ian – check the signs next time you are collecting in T3 drop off zone and also speak to one of the wardens/police who stand guard as the “Lane Dragons”…. they are generally very good at explaining the rules – with lots of sweet fire in their voices… 🙂

[MrMichael]

I would say Ian from HK and his memsahib are ok. They may get ticketed, but provided they have pulled over they are not going to cause havoc going back to the M4. As somebody that works in the field like Simon, picking up and dropping off should not cause any problem, provided there is no waiting element, and if it does then frankly it is poor traffic management design., hardly the fault of Ian and his good lady wife.

[LuganoPirate]

I’ve been to many airports and railway stations where they encourage you to use the car parks to pick up or drop off people. They all charge except the first 10-15 minutes is free. Ample time to take or collect someone, load up the bags and be off.

I fully appreciate airports need to raise revenue, but they also need passengers to be viable, and to charge just for dropping off is I think quite wrong. By all means if you’re dropping off with the intention to have a drink or meal while there then fair (sort of) enough, but not otherwise.

[JohnHarper]

I was stung on a similar con dropping a colleague at LTN. The experience of driving in and stopping was unpleasant enough without having to be robbed for it too.

[MrMichael]

Update as promised. It would seem after a bit of digging that Bournemouth Airport is in the Dorset County Council highway authority area. However the road I referred to in my original post is not shown as Dorset County Council responsibility. Thus it may be that ( I am awaiting a response from DCC) the road is in fact a private road. I do not recall any signage at the entrance explaining that nor giving any Airport Authority security restrictions, and the turning is signposted using Highways authorised signage. Thus one would not know you were entering private land, and therefore thanks to the recent Freedoms Bill if one did stop on the red or yellow lines nothing could legally happen to you. In fact you could park there for a fortnight and your car should still be there untouched, and if it is touched then whoever touched it would have committed a criminal offence. That’s the way of my current thinking, will keep you posted as I delve further.

[BigDog.]

Concerning red lines on private land MrMichael – if you stop, even for a minute to drop-off/pick-up, if caught on camera, what is likely to happen is you will be sent something which looks like a fine, maybe a heavy one, in reality it is an invoice.

After threatening various legalish consequences if you still fail to pay the “invoice” and it goes to court I believe that you would still be obliged to pay the £2.50 as this is the amount that they could demonstrate they had lost by your actions.

I understand someone, the airport authorities?, (now managed by Manchester airports MAG) I think, took away the pavement walkway connecting the public highway to the airport so it is rather an uncomfortable walk should one try to make it.

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