Is Metro Airport biased against public transit users?

Eric D. Lawrence | Detroit Free Press

With his white cane in hand, Fred Wurtzel is on a mission.

Wurtzel, the former head of the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan, wants to show the challenges facing some disabled riders inside the Ground Transportation Center at Detroit Metro Airport’s McNamara Terminal garage. A year ago, the Wayne County Airport Authority, citing safety concerns, moved the bus stop for public transportation providers.

What had been essentially curbside service for riders like 64-year-old Wurtzel, blind since age 40, now means a walk hundreds of feet farther, past a line of stops for shuttle buses and an elevator. The Free Press estimated the distance just to get to an indoor waiting area at five times as far. And the distance to and from the security area once travelers are inside also is farther.

The Ground Transportation Center is inside one of the world’s largest parking garages. For Wurtzel, the vehicle noise and fumes, which are often amplified by jets parked at the terminal, create a confusing environment to navigate. He calls the effect "a wall of sound."

“The noise levels are just excruciating sometimes,” said Wurtzel, who lives in Lansing and occasionally flies out of Metro Airport. “It’s so loud, you can hardly hear the other passengers if there are any other passengers moving ahead of you. It removes a blind person’s primary means of orientation, using their ears."

Wurtzel and others use the public-private AirRide service, a bus service connecting riders in Ann Arbor to the airport, and disability advocates want the bus stop returned to the terminal’s International Arrivals area. Their concerns continue to dog the airport authority, which runs the facility, and are influencing a broader debate about whether the authority supports or acts as a barrier to regional public transportation.

The authority defends its record, saying it's an industry leader in its relationship with disabled people and that it values public transportation.

But the authority's decision to move the bus stop has raised concerns.

An initial flurry of letters seeking a resolution to the dispute or advising against the move came from officials including Gov. Rick Snyder, state Attorney General Bill Schuette and former U.S. Rep. John Dingell. That has given way more recently to a Federal Aviation Administration review of access issues at the airport, federal lawsuits and renewed requests from state legislators decrying “discrimination.”

State Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, and state Rep. Peter Pettalia, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, sent a letter to FAA officials, calling on the agency to end the authority’s “discriminatory practices” against the disabled community.

“As chairs of the state House and Senate transportation committees, we will not sit by and watch disabled public transportation users be effectively barred from using public transportation services, including travel service to DTW,” reads the Oct. 14 letter. It says the new location “is unusable by many disabled riders, particularly those who wish to maintain their independence and travel alone.”

Pettalia, R-Presque Isle, noted in a follow-up phone conversation that the distance from the public transportation stop is “quite a haul if you’re in a handicapped situation. Whether you’re in a walker or a wheelchair, it’s quite a challenge.”

One lawsuit, filed last month against the airport authority and Delta Air Lines in U.S. District Court by Lansing resident Paul Palmer, who has cerebral palsy, and Donna Rose, who is blind and lives in East Lansing, takes issue with the location of the drop off. The bus stop for public transportation providers AirRide and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) is at the farthest possible spot of the Ground Transportation Center away from the terminal.

Despite the lawsuit, the attorney in that case, Jason Turkish of Southfield, is looking to the FAA.

“The FAA could end this,” he said. “The FAA has direct oversight over Detroit Metro Airport. They can order the airport to make this accessible again, which is what I hope they do.”

Even airport authority board member Sue Hall said she would like to see the airport make some kind of compromise for disabled riders using public transportation, perhaps dropping those riders closer to an entrance. She noted that the issue is close to her heart because she has a sister who has been blind since birth.

Airport says it was obliged to act

The airport authority has maintained since last year that its decision to move the stop was a matter of safety, and officials point to a handout with 17 photos taken at different times in the International Arrivals area as proof of unsafe congestion.

“We have observed numerous recurring instances of AirRide motor coaches loading or unloading passengers two or three lanes from the curb and have observed vehicles passing the AirRide bus on the right while pedestrians are in the street,” airport authority CEO Thomas Naughton said in the news release announcing the change in September 2014. Naughton, along with John Hertel, general manager of SMART, and Michael Ford, who was then head of the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (AAATA) and now is CEO of the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan, signed the agreement that allowed AirRide to load and unload at that location two years earlier.

The photos, taken in August and September 2014, show numerous cars parked between AirRide buses and the curb, with some showing two buses in the same frame.

Michael Conway, an airport spokesman, said that “when you see something like that, you have to take action.”

Critics have asked why the airport authority did not simply ticket passenger vehicles that were posing problems. Conway said that although the authority does “patrol the curb,” it’s not efficient in these situations. Better, he said, to move the buses to the Ground Transportation Center, which is designed to handle them. When asked why an employee shuttle, which continues to use the former SMART and AirRide stop, would not also pose a safety issue, the authority said the employees do not carry luggage, which means they do not take as long to load or unload.

Conway said the airport authority notified SMART and AirRide — operated by Michigan Flyer (a partnership whose majority owner is bus company Indian Trails) and provided through partnership with the Ann Arbor transit authority —months ahead of the switch. But AirRide, he said, has “continuously” raised objections.

Chad Cushman, vice president of Indian Trails, said the airport authority never mentioned concerns about safety before announcing the move.

Michigan Flyer filed a lawsuit against the airport authority this spring, claiming that the authority was retaliating against the service because of its support for disabled riders in a separate legal case involving conditions at the Ground Transportation Center. AirRide claims that the authority since has reduced the amount of time buses could remain at the curb, causing passengers to miss flights and forcing buses to leave before scheduled departure times.

But Conway appeared to push back against AirRide’s claims.

“They were isolated from competitive ground transportation services, and it was right next to the building. Everybody wants to park right next to the door,” Conway said, noting that SMART has never complained about the switch.

Brian Sadek, the airport authority’s in-house counsel, said the old location might be more convenient for some people but it’s far less safe.

Sadek and Conway said the Ground Transportation Center is specifically designed to handle buses and motor coaches and includes a tactile strip between the driving/parking area and the walkway. Sadek said the bus stop for SMART and AirRide was placed farther from the terminal entrance than other services because SMART and AirRide make fewer stops there. He said it is good practice to keep the most frequent users closer to the terminal and that the combined number of trips for SMART, AirRide and various charter services is approximately 51 per day, compared to hundreds of stops just for the rental car shuttles.

Regarding the level of service for disabled travelers in the center, Sadek said the authority goes “above and beyond the standard we have to meet."

Turkish, the Southfield-based attorney, however, would disagree, and even criticized the name of the Ground Transportation Center as misleading.

“It’s a big name for a not-very-nice area,” said Turkish, noting the distance and noise that Wurtzel mentioned as well as the frigid winter-time temperatures that travelers experience in what is effectively the outer edge of a covered open-air garage. He said the heaters in the bus stop shelters offer inadequate heat for conditions.

According to Turkish, the real issue is the airport authority’s resistance to public transportation — a charge the authority strongly denies — because of the airport’s funding model, which is reliant in part on revenue from parking and others sources, including its approximately $1.5 million annual contract with Metro Cab. Conway calls any suggestion that the contract affects the authority’s decisions on this front a red herring because it’s a flat rate.

But those critical of the decision to move the SMART and AirRide bus stop note that Metro Cab and the affiliated Metro Cars services, which charge rates several times that of AirRide, occupy a location immediately outside an access door to get to the terminal.

Some say revenue is key

Those critics contend that revenue is the real issue. They note that any changes in revenue from parking and concession agreements — the airport waives fees for public transportation — affect how much the airlines pay. Turkish said that because of Delta’s position at the airport, it has substantial say-so, and that when more people use public transportation, it is seen as cutting revenue.

Airport officials are quick to point out that the airport is user-supported — including through tickets, concessions and landing fees — rather than being funded directly by taxpayers. In fact, Delta pays for about 76% of the net debt service on the bonds that paid for the Ground Transportation Center, according to Conway, who noted that the airline pays for 100% of the net debt service on the McNamara Terminal.

That debt stems from the more than $1 billion in bonds issued in 1998 “to construct the first phase of the McNamara Terminal, the attached parking garage, Ground Transportation Center and other airport capital improvement projects. The associated debt on those bonds will be retired in 2028.”

Delta did not return calls seeking comment.

Delta’s influence was referenced during an airport board meeting in June on the topic of a moving walkway that has been idled for years — although passing travelers must continue to walk on it — because of a previous Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit. Unlike walkways in some other parts of the airport, it is located in a more narrow area and forces everyone trying to pass to travel on the moving belts when it’s operational, which can be dangerous for some disabled riders. A recording of the June meeting, where Wurtzel and his wife, Mary Wurtzel, who is also blind, spoke to the airport board, included a reference by board members to the airline and its apparent concerns about the loss of parking spaces if the walkway were to be retrofitted.

Instead, the airport authority plans to remove the walkway, which is on one of the floors above the Ground Transportation Center, although nothing has been finalized, according to Conway.

Airport officials were asked for, but did not provide, the number of parking spaces that would be lost if the walkway were to be retrofitted.

They did, however, reject the notion that Delta calls the shots, saying, “We make decisions based on what we, at the airport authority, believe is in the best interest of all our customers.”

But this is not the first time questions have been raised about what affects decision-making at the airport, particularly regarding revenue.

A February 2013 study created for the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau by Wayne State University that weighed the viability of a shuttle service from downtown Detroit to the airport made several references to the effect Metro Airport’s funding model has on airport authority decisions.

“Because of this model, both the airport and its constituent carriers are cautious about actions that could negatively affect airport revenues,” the report said.

That report, incidentally, paved the way for Skoot, a shuttle service that connects certain locations — hotels, casinos and Cobo Center — in downtown Detroit to the airport. The service launched about two years ago, and owner Greg Bessoni said business has been good in the warm months but not so good in the winter, aside from the North American International Auto Show. At $20-$23 each way, a ride on Skoot is considered a bargain compared to some other options, although it is not as inexpensive as the $12 ticket from Ann Arbor to the airport on AirRide.

Michael O’Callaghan, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the convention and visitors bureau, said the bureau had set out to expand transportation options for visitors to the Detroit area with the 2013 study.

O’Callaghan said the Detroit area can be a tough sell for visitors, in part because of transportation challenges. When the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America held its annual youth gathering in Detroit this summer, it cost an estimated $2 million to provide busing for the 30,000 young Lutherans, he said, noting that it behooves the region to try to improve its lackluster public transportation system.

One way to do that would be to provide a service like AirRide to other parts of Metro Detroit, he said.

That effort, which appeared dead a few months ago, may have gotten new life. The RTA had issued a request for proposal for an express shuttle service to and from the airport, which would have been modeled on AirRide, from Detroit as well as Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

But there were no bidders, and the operators of AirRide, who would have been expected to bid on the service, even issued a letter of protest, citing an extra permit agreement for bus operators inserted at the behest of the airport authority as problematic.

Officials with Indian Trails/Michigan Flyer said they felt the agreement was unreasonable, could leave them open to being charged airport access fees and was targeted specifically at their service, while the airport authority said it was only codifying what already takes place in the Ground Transportation Center. Sadek, the airport attorney, has said the fees would not apply to the new service.

Critics, including Turkish, claim the airport authority purposely tried to torpedo the RFP process by insisting on the extra agreement. Sadek called that claim "very inaccurate."

But the RTA is now planning to rebid the service, although it would likely be limited initially to Detroit, some time in December. The extra airport authority agreement will remain despite a request from Indian Trails/Michigan Flyer that it be dropped.

The new RFP would be clearer about funding sources for what the RTA is calling a demonstration service, and open the process up to a wider array of vehicles, which would give a company like Skoot an opening, according to RTA spokesman Travis Gonyou. The RTA hopes to launch the service in 2016.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com or on Twitter @_ericdlawrence

About the McNamara garage

"The McNamara Terminal Parking Structure is an 89-acre, 10-level facility that opened

in February 2002. It is one of the largest parking structures in the world. It includes a

ground transportation center, pedestrian bridge, two luggage check-in locations,

conveyors and bridges to transport luggage, six restrooms, three offices for parking

officials and two electrical substations. The structure can park 11,489 cars in seven

user groups."

Source: 2009 Detroit Metropolitan Airport Accessibility Assessment