Well ok of course I hate queues – who doesn’t?
But I have spent a lot of time travelling recently, and I particularly hate airport security queues (I hit a record at Dulles Airport, Washington recently at 90 mins – passport control itself only took 2 mins!!).
Generally I can cope (although no-one needs that when your body thinks it’s 2am) but I was particularly bothered for people who weren’t deemed as most in need of help but certainly couldn’t deal with that sort of queue.
Surely there is a way we could introduce some sort of ticketing system to allow people to sit and wait their turn?
A prime candidate for service design. Thoughts gratefully received so I can pass them on via sites like http://blog.tsa.gov
Queues
– June 10, 2010Posted in:
I totally agree with this. There really has to be a better system. Thinking caps on!
Well in Europe there’s now an EU requirement to help disabled passengers – see: http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/latest-news2/campaigns/air-laws-welcome-despite-flaws
Every European airport has to have assistance points and should fast-track disabled people through the queues. Doesn’t apply to countries outside Europe though.
Some service providers are pretty good on fast-tracking – my son has autism and can’t handle long waits, and we had a great experience at both Legoland and the London Eye. So some SP’s are geting it right, but it is patchy and you need to be assertive.
I was recently in Brasil where I saw something amazing at a supermarket checkout counters. They had a separate one for disabled people, elderly, pregnant or carrying children and that counter had chairs next to it so that if those people still had to wait, at least they could wait sitting down.
How hard can it be to do this in other places?
Oh, I forgot, and I have also once seen a brilliant idea related to queues. It wouldn’t make them away nor it would make them go faster, however it would allow for something like what Dominic suggested plus it would keep people entertained.
You know when you get to the supermarket and you take a ticket at the fish counter and you wait for your turn, how about if that ticket was at the same time a Bingo card? And what if the screen that calls out the next number in the queue also calls out random numbers for people to fill in their Bingo cards? And what if, in the unlikely event of you winning, you were to get a prize? Would you not be happy to wait?
I believe I saw it at a Royal College of Art (http://www.rca.ac.uk/) exhibition a few years ago. It was a simple idea. It has some flaws, sure, but I believe there is something in it worth exploring.