in Meddling, Musings, TSA

Curbside parking at airports

RDU Airport

My usual way home from work, Interstate 40, was backed up this afternoon so I took a detour through RDU Airport. As I drove past the terminal, I watched as an airport police officer stridently whistled away a car that was being parked at the curbside.

As I passed the terminal, I got to thinking at how ludicrous it is for officers to shoo people away from the curb. I mean, if a truck bomb parks there it doesn’t really matter if it’s for five hours or five tenths of a second: the result is the same. And if someone wants to create terror of that nature there are plenty of other places with large crowds.

The ticketing area is completely unprotected as well. Anyone could conceivably walk into the ticketing area with bags stuffed full of weapons and the officer out shooing cars away would be none the wiser.

So what’s the point? I’m not telling the bad guys anything they don’t already know here, but I point this out more for the … well, sheer pointlessness of it all. Many habits outlive their usefulness long before the ones carrying them out ever notice. Some policies that may once have seemed effective are shown (with a little study) to be quite toothless. Yet we still blindly carry them out.

Airports should let everyone park there as long as they need (providing convenience) or not let vehicles anywhere near the building (providing security). Anything in-between does no one any good.