Listening to Marketplace (APM radio) on my way home from work yesterday, I was really intrigued by the story about the lack of wayfinding at the LAX airport. It made me wonder why there is such a lack of clocks in American airports.
The writer Alex Schmidt posed a question similar to one we have been asking: When trying to catch a plane, wouldn’t it be easier to glance at an analog exterior clock to see how much time you have left, rather than struggling to find and look at your cell phone?
The airport in Frankfort, Germany has five thousand (5,000 !) clocks. Our local airport in Grand Rapids has one. And I think I saw zero clocks at O’Hare and SFO recently The flight information display screens do tell the time, but you have to stop and look very closely to see it.
Together with our Swiss partner Mobatime, the creator of Swiss Railway clocks and seller of transit time clocks all over the world, we want to let people know there is a solution: A system of clocks, at terminals, gates, etc. that all tell the exact same correct time, all the time.
