Luton Airport ANPR 'fines'

Fergie76

smjxm09 wrote: »

To be honest the problem was there before the £1 charge was introduced as it is a 1 minute walk from the drop off area and only 30 seconds from the roundabout.

Again I am not a defender of the airport but before the £1 charge was introduced drivers would park up in the drop off area while they waited for their passengers. This resulted in horrendous traffic jams as other cars could not park against the pavement and were forced to block the exit lane to load and unload.

The airport has used traffic wardens in the past as a deterrent but they never seemed to issue many tickets as the drivers were sitting in their cars and motorists just used to ignore them if the wardens were in another part of the drop off area. At least now the drop off area has free flowing traffic.

So why not have a drop off point away from the terminal building, in one of the car parks, then for the pound charge (per car), use this for people to get on a shuttle bus to the terminal building and only have these airport shuttle buses in the terminal drop-off zone?

Coupon-mad

smjxm09 wrote: »

To be honest the problem was there before the £1 charge was introduced as it is a 1 minute walk from the drop off area and only 30 seconds from the roundabout.

Again I am not a defender of the airport but before the £1 charge was introduced drivers would park up in the drop off area while they waited for their passengers. This resulted in horrendous traffic jams as other cars could not park against the pavement and were forced to block the exit lane to load and unload.

The airport has used traffic wardens in the past as a deterrent but they never seemed to issue many tickets as the drivers were sitting in their cars and motorists just used to ignore them if the wardens were in another part of the drop off area. At least now the drop off area has free flowing traffic.

OMG surely not parking up to wait for their passengers in a drop-off area. Whatever next! :eek:

Have I missed something? That exactly what a drop-off area is for and at an airport it's simply not possible to time your collection of your passenger down to the last minute if they are going through customs or held up a little.

Jeeeezz, if the drop-off area was always full do you know what the 'problem' was? It was that the drop off area wasn't big enough for the size of the Airport. That's all the problem was!

Bigger drop off area = problem solved. Appoint a PPC = problem created. :mad:

robredz

Coupon-mad wrote: »

OMG surely not parking up to wait for their passengers in a drop-off area. Whatever next! :eek:

Have I missed something? That exactly what a drop-off area is for and at an airport it's simply not possible to time your collection of your passenger down to the last minute if they are going through customs or held up a little.

Bigger drop off area = problem solved. Appoint a PPC = problem created. :mad:

This perverse logic applies to Loading Bays, in ceertain ppc "controlled" centres where a Courier Van, will be invoiced for stopping in the bay to deliver to dhops in the centre.

NFH

smjxm09 wrote: »

Again I am not a defender of the airport but before the £1 charge was introduced drivers would park up in the drop off area while they waited for their passengers. This resulted in horrendous traffic jams as other cars could not park against the pavement and were forced to block the exit lane to load and unload

The solution would be to maintain the new infrastructure in the drop-off area and allow 5 minutes of free waiting, anything over being charged at £1 per minute, payable on exit. This would encourage those picking up passengers to wait elsewhere and to use mobile phones to arrange when to drive into the drop-off area.

MissMoneypenny

lammas wrote: »

The signage at Luton was not clear and we did not actually stop to let anyone in or get out. We only strayed briefly into bus lane before we noticed the drop off zone which we then went into.

I went to Luton for the first time this month and found the signage very clear.

As you say "we", if you have trouble driving and reading signs, can you designate one of the people in the car to read the signs and road markings for you?

There are also online maps you can look at before you travel to some of these airports and that might aid you also.

MissMoneypenny

NFH wrote: »

The solution would be to maintain the new infrastructure in the drop-off area and allow 5 minutes of free waiting, anything over being charged at £1 per minute, payable on exit. This would encourage those picking up passengers to wait elsewhere and to use mobile phones to arrange when to drive into the drop-off area.

I think the idea of a "drop off only" area is to drop passengers off who are flying out. For "picking up", you are meant to use one of the car parks. I assume Luton charge for the "drop off only" zone as some [STRIKE]idiots[/STRIKE] people park there to wait for famliy/friends, they are collecting from flights? A few selfish drivers will always ruin it for the decent people.

The short stay car park is about a 2 minute walk from the "drop off" zone. There is also a free car park (drop off and pick up) with a free bus to the terminal, on the approach road to the terminal

I have been there once, late at night, on my own, and I still managed to see all the signs and road markings for different car parks and bus lanes. It's not hard.

NFH

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

I think the idea of a "drop off only" area is to drop passengers off who are flying out. For "picking up", you are meant to use one of the car parks.

Why would you want to park in a car park (and be charged) when the arriving passenger(s) you are collecting are outside the terminal with their baggage, ready to get straight into your car? There should be a pick-up area too (with no waiting allowed), just like at other airports. In the absence of this, reasonable people will seek to use the free alternatives.

MissMoneypenny

NFH wrote: »

Why would you want to park in a car park (and be charged) when the arriving passenger(s) you are collecting are outside the terminal with their baggage, ready to get straight into your car? There should be a pick-up area too (with no waiting allowed), just like at other airports. In the absence of this, [STRIKE]reasonable[/STRIKE] selfish people will seek to use the free alternatives and block other road users.

I've corrected your statement for you.

If your relatives/friends are already "outside the terminal with their baggage" when you arrive, then they can just as easliy take the free bus ride, to the free car park, where you can arrive and park for free: if you don't think your family are worth paying the £3.50 for the short stay car park.

As the free car park is on the approach road to the terminal, just think of the fuel you will save too by not having to drive that extra couple of minutes up to the terminal.

NFH

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

If your relatives/friends are already "outside the terminal with their baggage" when you arrive, then they can just as easliy take the free bus ride, to the free car park, where you can arrive and park for free: if you don't think your family are worth paying the £3.50 for the short stay car park.

It is certainly not just as easy for arriving passengers to take a free bus ride, as it unreasonably and unnecessarily lengthens their journey. It's not about whether someone is worth paying £3.50 for, but about whether one believes as a consumer that it is reasonable for an airport to force those picking up arriving passengers to pay a fee to the airport for doing so. It's a point of principle.

taffy056

The point is though their invoices are not enforceable at all, and there must be issues with the infrastructure there otherwise it wouldn't happen, they are choosing the cheap option of doing nothing, then getting cowboys in to profit out of it, other airports seem to be able to sort out problems like this, Luton are failing to sort out the problem.