My first impression of the airport (although I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time I've been there, it is the first time I remember well) is incredibly long lines. As I arrived from Newark I had to fight the lines for security in order to get to the car rental area.
On my return trip I had another impression. My return flight was at 10:00PM, so I didn't have to deal so much with long lines at security (fortunately). No, I had to deal with avoiding being hit by electric carts.
They seemed to be everywhere. Sure enough, there were people in various levels of distress riding on them. Mostly, they were rather large people. I'm technically obese, I think, at 192 pounds and 5' 9". The people riding the carts put me to shame. There were old people as well, probably more old people than obese people riding the carts.
The airport appears to be relatively updated, but there was no provision for the alrge number of electric carts (which are almost car sized) driving around all over the place.
There also seems to be no checklist for the functionality of the carts, as several of them lacked running lights or working beep signals that they were running. I was almost hit by one, partially my fault because I walk around with half of my head thinking about other things. After that, I paid more attention to the carts and my discover that they were everywhere.
After I finished eating my dinner, I found that there were a huge number of the carts parked or taking on passengers in the concourse. Really, I had to say there were probably about 9 of them in the area at one time.
Charlotte-Douglas airport needs a serious update. Either a floor above or below the regular walking area where the people who can't get around well on their own can get around the airport. I saw other people almost get hit by these crazed cab-driver-like cart drivers. There are no rules or lines for these carts to follow and for some reason, I don't know why, but there are more of them in use at Charlotte-Douglas airport than I've seen at any other airport.
The implications, as our US population increases and the number of disabled people through age or obesity increase on building structures for everyone should be immediately obvious. We need either separate access for the disabled or controlled access for everyone. The last thing I think anyone wants to see is someone become disabled because they were hit by a cart to move the disabled people to an airport gate.
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