For Immediate Loading and Unloading Only

Growing up in Southern California and having LAX as our home airport, these words greeted us whenever we went to pick up or drop off someone at the airport.

The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading only. No parking.

Watch a movie from the 1980s that uses LAX as a location—Lethal Weapon comes to mind, but it’s been yeeears since I’ve seen it so I’m probably wrong—and you’ll hear that recorded announcement. En español, too.

Yesterday, we arrived in Louisville, Kentucky for our first trip of the holiday season. As we waited for our ride, I noticed that the passenger loading zone outside of the terminal had turned into short-term parking. And there was no police presence keeping these drivers honest.

The curb at the terminal acts like short-term parking at SDF.

The curb at the terminal acts like short-term parking at SDF.

During our ten-minute wait at curb, I saw two cars there the entire time. One big white Escalade SUV had even blocked the crosswalk and wheelchair ramp. But in all fairness, I don’t think the driver had any idea that the crosswalk even existed.

One of the nice things about flying in and out of Louisville is that it’s a pleasantly small airport. There were no traffic jams caused by the illegally parked cars outside of the curb. There were no pesky pedestrians using the crosswalk impeding the flow of light traffic. For what should be a busy holiday travel day, it was pretty quiet there. That’s probably why the rules need not apply here.

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