"Better signage would help visitors to airport"

Sunday, August 3, 2003

COMMENTARY
Better signage would help visitors to airport
Missing that one sign on I-77 may mean missing flight home
BY DIANNE WHITACRE
The Charlotte (NC) Observer


Have you ever found yourself driving to an out-of-town airport, the clock
ticking toward takeoff, and you're struggling to find a highway sign?

Did you miss the airport exit? How much further?

Of course, if you live in Mecklenburg, you could find Charlotte/Douglas
International Airport in your sleep. But what about out-of-towners? They
should leave for the airport two hours early -- not because of security, but
to find the place.

Airline ticket agent Marcy Quealy hears plenty of complaints from visitors.

"There is not a day that goes by that someone either misses a flight or
barely makes it because they got lost coming to the airport," she says. "I
have worked in eight different cities ... and I have never come across a
city with an airport the size of Charlotte where the signage to the airport
is so atrocious."

I asked Charlotte Chamber folks and aviation director Jerry Orr about
airport highway signs, and they are all puzzled by my questions. The
airport's easy to find, they say.

Sure, people in Charlotte know where the airport is. Signs are for visitors
-- people who don't know their way around.

Charlotte's worst airport sign is next to the bridge that takes Woodlawn
Road over Interstate 77. It's critical for drivers leaving I-77 and heading
to Billy Graham Parkway and the airport. Yet bushes have grown over the
sign, leaving only an arrow showing.

That blocked sign means travelers will drive 3 miles before seeing the first
airport sign on Billy Graham Parkway. It's a small pole sign next to the
right lane. You had better be in the right lane or you'll miss it.

And what about those cryptic signs that merely show an airplane? If the
airplane points right, drivers are supposed to turn right. If the plane
points left, they should turn left. Using an airplane as an arrow is cute
but confusing.

One of those signs is posted uptown on Church Street at Interstate 277. The
next airplane sign appears on Wilkinson Boulevard, but drivers unfamiliar
with the area have no clue if they should take the exit to I-77 North, I-77
South, Freedom Drive or Wilkinson.

Airport signs on Interstate 85 are passable. The first of three big overhead
signs start 1.5 miles from the airport exit. But the first sign should be at
the county line, saying Airport X-miles ahead.

I-77's airport signs are far worse. There is only one sign, posted on the
freeway shoulder, directing drivers to Exit 6B, Billy Graham Parkway. The
exit itself does not have a sign.

Orr, the aviation director, says the state put up more airport signs about
15 years ago, but he hasn't given signs much thought since then.

"When you live here all your life, you never look at the signs," he said.

Remember, signs are supposed to help people who don't know where they're
going.


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