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Bugged by Buggies
The Travel Critic · November 9, 1998

Forget air safety. Travelers should worry about airport safety, to hear people like Leo Cole talk about it.

"Those darned carts that are supposedly for the handicapped or the elderly are a menace," complains the Memphis, Tenn., salesman. "Every time you turn around, one is about to run over you."

Cole's close calls with the electric buggies - he says they often approach from behind in a crowded terminal and push their way past him - thankfully haven't resulted in any injuries.

But the same can't be said for Robert Forbes, Yetta Edwards and Olimpia Miller, all three of whom were mowed down by a passenger cart at Newark International Airport last year. (Fortunately, their injuries weren't serious.)

No one keeps statistics on the number of cart collisions at airports, but it doesn't take a double-platinum-level frequent flier to know that the courtesy shuttles are trouble. And you don't have to live out of a suitcase to know where the buggies are becoming a serious problem.

"Dallas seems the worst," observes John Hahn, a project manager from Philadelphia. One time, while walking to a connecting gate, he heard a shuttle approaching. "As the cart got closer I stayed close to the side of the concourse, but the driver kept moving over to weave around people. As the cart came by me it actually brushed my attaché case I was carrying. I commented to the driver to be careful. And she said, quite loudly, that 'you people need to get out of the way of the carts'," he says.

The courtesy shuttles at DFW (if you're generous enough to call them that) are operated by a subcontractor called Globe Aviation for American Airlines. Neither party returned phone calls about the menacing fleet.

Airport spokesman Joe Dealey says the buggies are the sole responsibility of American Airlines, but airport authorities keep an eye on them.

"We get calls from people who have been bumped by the carts," he says. "During the day, I see the carts driving at a reasonable speed. But late at night, when the terminal isn't crowded, I've seen them drive in a less-than-cautious manner, at a speed that's faster than a quick walk."

But what's an airport to do? Ban the buggies-and send the out-of-work drivers to Manhattan to work for a cab company?

It wouldn't work. An airport like Dallas needs the shuttle service desperately. Passengers arriving on an American Eagle commuter flight at the northernmost end of Terminal 2E who need to transfer to a flight at Terminal 3E, at, say, gate 44, would have to walk more than a mile to get there. Try doing that on crutches.

I asked Bonnie Wilson, a senior director for airport facilities and services at the Airports Council International in Washington, D.C., for some help. She suggested that if airports used the passenger service vehicles for their intended purpose, there'd be little reason to complain. "The golf carts aren't meant to be an expedited transportation method-they're intended for people who can't comfortably travel the distance from check-in to the gate under their own power," she says. "The ones that are speeding are taking their mission too seriously."

Maybe. It could also be good old-fashioned greed, an impulse that's pretty rampant at airports these days. The drivers have been observed cutting deals with able-bodied passengers who, for some reason, needed to reach their gate quickly. These airport patrons have been seen waving $10 and $20 bills as incentives to get them to their destination on the double. No wonder neither the drivers nor their employers will talk about it.

Mark Sasala, a consultant from Pittsburgh who is a regular at DFW, blames the airport architects for the cart troubles.

"It is probably too late to build the terminal right, with separate lanes for the carts," he says. "However, it would really help if they didn't leave the carts parked in the already narrow concourse-can't they find someplace else to recharge the batteries?

"Also, it would help if the gates had a true line for the boarding passengers so that the line did not stretch across the concourse."

If you ask me, I think a reasonable first step toward solving the cart conundrum might be to impose a speed limit on service vehicles inside the concourse, just as the Federal Aviation Administration does for vehicles on the tarmac. On most runways, the trucks and buggies may not drive faster than about 20 mph (the FAA mandates that it must be a "safe" speed).

The electric carts, fueled by promises of a quick cash reward, tend to drive considerably faster than the passengers on foot, which makes them unsafe.

Almost makes you wonder if you're better off on the tarmac than in the terminal.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.