[nfbmi-talk] news story on mi flier etc

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Came out right about the time we passed our resolution. An fyi...
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Fliers irked by Detroit Metro drop-off/pick-up policy

Leonard N. Fleming, The Detroit News 10:34 p.m. EDT October 12, 2014

Airport transportation changes

 

Detroit Metropolitian Airport is no longer allowing some public transportation services to pick up and drop off passengers at the McNamara Terminal (Photo:

David Coates , Detroit News )

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Romulus — Detroit Metropolitian Airport is no longer allowing some public transportation services to pick up and drop off passengers at the McNamara Terminal,

prompting a lawsuit and a flurry of protests from advocates of the disabled and elderly who say the move puts their safety at risk.

 

Although airport officials insist the move promotes more safety, opponents say passengers with disabilities will have to navigate a long distance from the

terminal to get to ground transportation and do not feel safe.

 

A lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit against the Wayne County Airport Authority seeking to rescind last month's relocation of the

Michigan Flyer-AirRide boarding and drop-off sites to the airport's Ground Transportation Center. Protest letters have come from an assortment of riders

who use the service including the governor. A hearing on the case will be held Oct. 17.

 

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"Hell or high water, there will be a lot of chaos," declared Ody Norkin, vice president of the Michigan Flyer service, who strongly opposed the relocation

that went into effect Sept. 22. "The big issue will be winter. We are not in California. There is no accommodation at the new location to protect passengers

from the elements when they wait for the bus. There is at the current location. We were colder than the north pole this winter."

 

"…People in the wheelchairs or walkers of people that are blind will have to depend on services to come out there," he said.

 

Metro Airport officials contend the change was unavoidable because the International Terminal has become more congested due to an uptick in passenger traffic

that hovers around 32 million annually. And airport officials say the Michigan Flyer shuttle was picking up and dropping off passengers two or three lanes

from the entrance — putting them at risk. The Wayne County Airport Authority board, which oversees the airport, endorsed the move.

 

"Overriding everything is the concerns for the safety of all our passengers, said Marcus Kemper, senior vice president of facilities and development at

Metro Airport. "We're trying to recognize all the individual concerns that people have. But we have to work to what we think is the most safe."

 

The Michigan Flyer-AirRide is a motorcoach service that offers multiple daily round trips between East Lansing, Ann Arbor and Metro Airport and carries

more than 100,000 passengers a year. The SMART bus service also is part of the move, but airport officials say the suburban bus company did not oppose

the relocation. The shuttle bus is a public-private partnership between Michigan Flyer and the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority.

 

Kemper said the airport has to worry about the safety of all of its passengers and that the move keeps every one of the passengers using public transportation

safe. Commercial transportation services had been allowed to pick up passengers at the International Terminal curb. Now they must let passengers off 450-500

feet from terminal entrance.

 

"The International arrival curbside always was intended and designed for private vehicle access," Kemper said. "It was not designed to accommodate bus traffic

or commercial traffic at that arrival curb. The Ground Transportation Center was designed and was intended always to handle all the commercial activity

for the terminals."

 

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a wheelchair-bound man from Westland and a blind woman from East Lansing, accuses the airport authority of violating the

American with Disabilities Act "by forcing the public transportation companies to load and unload their passengers in an inaccessible area with numerous"

ADA violations. Airport officials declined to comment on the suit.

 

Cathy Stewart, 65, of Lansing, often takes the Michigan Flyer to Metro Airport with her partner, Nemah Hussain, 79, who has Parkinson's disease and at times

needs a wheelchair. Stewart is concerned about the distance she and Hussain will have to endure walking to the terminal in the Ground Transportation Center.

 

"The fact that they could pull up to the sidewalk, let the bus down and we could step off on to the sidewalk was wonderful," Stewart said of the prior International

Terminal drop-off area. "There was no walking, I didn't have to get a wheelchair. We didn't have to get out the walker."

 

Stewart said she and Hussain have come to see the "Michigan Flyer as a very good alternative to me having to drive" because they don't have to worry about

inclement weather.

 

In a June letter addressed to Metro Airport CEO Thomas Naughton, Gov. Rick Synder wrote that the relocation of he AirRide services had come to his attention

and that he hoped "that you will continue to work together to resolves these challenges."

 

"Maintaining the integrity of the current stop locations which provide convenient, direct access and ideal customer service is important to keep the service

attractive and convenient for travelers," the governor wrote.

 

Another letter written to Naughton from Michael Ford, the CEO of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority and the soon-to-be-chief executive of the Regional

Transit Authority, said he's "particularly concerned for our customers who are elderly and have disabilities."

 

"The fact that there will not be a designated boarding space for public transit and that public transit must share the boarding location with charter bus

will create more congestion," Ford wrote in an August letter. "And the success of public transit is dependent upon published schedules."

 

But Metro Airport spokesman Michael Conway said the airport has pictures of the Michigan Flyer shuttle dropping off passengers sometimes into two or three

lanes of traffic when the terminal is busy.

 

"Our motivation in doing this is safety. That is the motivation," Conway said.

 

Conway said the airport would never take an action "that would deliberately annoy our customers unless we have a good reason for it" and insists the Michigan

Flyer service "wants to stay where they are" because it has had its own exclusive area.

 

But Norkin said the changes will drive away customers who will not want to walk the distance in the rain or coming cold weather.

 

"Remember what January was like," he said. "...We're two or three months away."

 

lfleming at detroitnews.com

 

(313) 222-2620

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Source:

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/metro-detroit/2014/10/12/detroit-metro-airport-transportation-services/17130453/