I have been told that at the entrance to the drop off zone a matrix sign has been has been put up encouraging drivers to use the return lane but despite the sign most passengers are dropped off or picked up as close to the entrance as possible. This isn’t really holding the traffic up but just slows it down as cars squeeze into small spaces while the return lane has masses of room.
What does stop the traffic every few seconds are the 2 pedestrian crossings that will soon become 4. When the traffic stops some people see this as an opportunity to get into or out of cars in the middle of the road plus load or retrieve luggage from the boot but before they have finished the traffic has moved on but nothing can then get by. Can’t say it was major a problem on my last visit but it happens enough times to have an impact.
I am already thinking that the new drop off zone isn’t going to work even when finished by the very fact that there are always plenty of spaces even now on the return leg so the zone already has enough space for the very restricted traffic flow. The issue is those pedestrian crossing points within the zone. Of course the pedestrian crossing point to the short term car park is having a major impact but even without it the traffic flow would not increase due to the queue of traffic trying to drop off. By comparison the foot traffic to the short term car park is only a very small fraction of what the drop off zone handles yet it is the first point where traffic grinds to a halt with tailbacks going back a couple of miles at peak times so it is clear that the much busier crossing points within the zone are a much bigger issue.
Actually when finished the length of the drop off zone could cause more problems than it fixes. This is because the lane will loop under the foot bridge before returning so there won’t be a route to the terminal from the most popular left hand entrance lane without using 2 crossings. If the lane was a little shorter passengers would not need to cross the 2 lanes at all but could just walk along the pavement before turning towards the terminal. This means the two crossing points on the inbound lane could be removed. So the question is would the loop for the return lane be better if it was put in just before the bridge? Ok it makes the drop off zone smaller but the traffic would flow better.