In his great book City of Quartz urban geographer Mike Davis describes the lengths to which the City of Los Angeles has gone to make life difficult on its own people, reaching its zenith with the creation of “the bum-proof bench”, a specially-designed park bench which is curved so that homeless people can’t sleep on it.
If Mike ever comes to Australia he won’t have to go very far to find a similar level of designed hostility towards the public - he’ll have landed right next to it.
Already voted the worst airport in Australia, Sydney Airport has just become a whole lot more unpleasant with its management closing a turning lane for motorists – forcing them to use the exorbitant Macquarie Bank-owned carpark, or exit the airport altogether.
Without any public announcement, Sydney Airports Corporation has placed yellow road blocks and a no-exit sign on what for years had been a public turning lane which let motorists do a lap as they waited to pick and family and friends whose flights had been delayed.
The lane – opposite delivery company DHL near the airport exit – is now open only to taxi drivers.
Its closure means that motorists now have to drive out of the airport and turn elsewhere if they need to do a lap – or pay a minimum $7 for 30 minutes’ parking at what the consumer watchdog has labelled the most expensive carpark at the worst airport in Australia.
A spokesman for Sydney Airports Corporation denied the lane closure was aimed at corralling people into the carpark.
“You can still pick people up first thing,” the spokesman said.
“But if you are planning to do a circle you just have to do a longer circle.”
In a damning report released in March, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found Sydney Airport was the worst in the country, both for passengers and tenants, with evidence of “monopoly rents” forcing up prices across the board.
For a third year running passengers rated Sydney Airport as the worst in Australia, with baggage carts incurring a $4 hiring fee but being free in the rest of the country, and the $14-an-hour parking charges comparing to $4 in Adelaide, $8.45 at New York’s Kennedy Airport and $8.50 at London’s Heathrow.
A spokesman for Sydney Airports Corporation denied the lane closure was aimed at corralling people into the carpark.
“You can still pick people up first thing,” the spokesman said.
“But if you are planning to do a circle you just have to do a longer circle,”
The spokesman said the measure was aimed at easing congestion at the exit, rather than raising more carpark revenue.
What do you think of Sydney Airport? What other pieces of public infrastructure drive you mad?
“It’s to stop the exit from getting blocked,” he said. “It is not to force people into parking. Free pick-up is still being preserved.”
Happily, when Sydney’s Daily Telegraph visited the airport yesterday it found that many motorists were simply ignoring the yellow road blocks and driving over them.
We can hope that they are allowed to do so with impunity. Remember - this is the airport that did nothing when a gang of bikies spent 15 minutes bashing a man to death in broad daylight on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It mightn’t be a great look if having failed on that front they opt instead to go after the innocent motorist.
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