Wednesday
Dec312008
Wednesday, December 31 Airports Borrow from Skiing
If you’ve been to one of the airports that are having travelers self-assign their “expertise” level at going through security, you will have seen some signage like the above photo. I love how they are borrowing the symbology from another completely unrelated area — skiing.
- Green Circle: Bunny slopes, family travelers
- Blue Square: Moderate skillz, casual travelers
- Black Diamond: Expert skiers, expert travelers
From my experience the system actually works pretty well. Of course I’m a Black Diamond, I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of the other lanes… I don’t know how many people pick up on the symbology though. If you don’t ski you won’t know it, but for those that do it’s a nice tongue-in-cheek reference. It gives me something to chuckle about in the circus that airport security has become.
Reader Comments (2)
I think this form of self selecting segmentation is a great idea as it allows travelers to have different needs at different times - I know I have a different security mindset when I'm traveling on business or on holiday. the TSA have a blog called Evolution of Security where they write regularly about the service design and development of their security areas - check out the innovation section here.
Good catch Adam. Unfortunately, I find many non-expert travelers (many with kids) either oblivious or cramming themselves into the Expert line as they think it will be faster and get them some sort of perk, like self-selecting for VIP/First Class. It's an invitation for a status upgrade that only clogs the system.
It works better on ski slopes because there is a "penalty" for choosing incorrectly—go for the black diamond when you are really a green circle and you risk life and limb. Do so in an airport and you only end up where you would have been anyway, crammed into a slow-moving queue.
If the TSA could take one of their many spare employees and use them to triage travelers like the airlines do at the ticket counter, that might help (then again, be careful what you wish for).