I have to question whether the airport got professional advice about the design of the drop off zone or whether a couple of airport numpties came up with the layout on a scrap of paper.
The last effort with its four lanes and four barriers replaced eight lanes and eight barriers before the airport upgrade began and that was bad enough due to the time it was taking to get through the barriers. Now the barriers have been removed but so have all of the lanes bar one extra long lane. The result is no improvement at all despite a massive investment.
When the plans were first published here some two years ago those four pedestrian crossings on a single drop off lane looked like a recipe for disaster but even I am surprised at how bad it is in the early mornings. There would actually be even more passengers crossing the road if they could get into the drop off zone but the zone has a peak time traffic flow rate of as little as ten cars a minute. I know that as I fact as I have done a traffic count before I have started a shift.
So the airport build a spanking new duel carriageway that also has a traffic flow rate close to 10 cars a minute as some cars will be heading for the car parks.
Nice one Luton Airport.