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Chapter 10. AIRPORT ACCESS PLANS 72. General. This element of the airport master plan should indicate proposed routing of airport access to central business districts and to points of connection with existing or planned ground transportation arteries and beltways. All modes of access should be con- sidered including highways, rapid transit, and access by vertical and short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) aircraft. The capacity requirement for the various modes considered should be determined from forecasts of passengers, cargo, and aircraft operations developed in Chapter 2. This information should be converted to trip data, by mode, to and from the airport. The need for in -town terminals should also be established. The airport access study should be of a general nature since detailed plans of access outside the boundaries of the airport will be developed by highway depart- ments, transit authorities, and comprehensive planning bodies. 73. The Access Problem. In 1967-1968, the Bureau of Public Roads conducted an in-depth survey of highway access problems at all United States large and medium hub airports. They recommended that 30 minutes be considered as the maximum acceptable travel time from the central business district (CBD) to the airport. Tables 4 and 5 summarize the results of this survey. It will be noted that peak travel time at Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington all exceed this BPR recommendation for travel from the CBD. Considering that these five cities account for 27 percent of all United States pas- senger movements, the airport access problem is ob- vious. With a forecasted tripling in demand by 1980, airport access will be critical and will involve many additional cities. The necessity to locate new jetports further from the CBD because of noise and limited availability of land will, in the future, impose even greater travel distances. The decrease in flight time derived from jet service is helping the air traveler meet his time saving goal. However, surface access time constitutes an increasing proportion of portal-to-portal trip time as figures 6 and 7 graphically illustrate. The problem of airport ground access must also be considered in light of the overall urban transportation problem. To travel al- most anywhere in today's urban environment requires increasing amounts of time. The daily commute to work, the weekend recreation jaunt, and even the neighborhood shopping trip is generating greater trip times. Thus, the inevitable question must be asked, "Why should an air traveler be able to get to the airport any faster than he can get to work, or shop- ping, or anyplace else in an urban area?" Although various trip purposes are difficult to evaluate, the failure of an air passenger to make his plane usually has more time -cost associated with it than does an occasional failure to make a shopping appointment or to arrive at work on time. The nature and length of the air trips and the type of service which airports offer should also be consid- ered in analyzing access problems. Medium length access times to small close -in airports which serve medium distance flights may be more critical than longer access times to large far out airports which serve long -haul flights. Therefore, the solution of each airport access problem must be judged on its own merits and it will often be more advantageous to es- tablish an acceptable access time based upon total trip time and distance than to set an access trip time such as the 30-minute recommendation. 74. The Segments of Airport Access. Airport access is usually divided into three major segments or jurisdictions: a. Access from the CBD and suburban areas via highway and rapid transit systems to the airport boundary; b. Access from the airport boundary via airport roads and rapid transit to passenger unloading curbs at the terminal building; and c. Access from terminal curbs through the ter- minal to aircraft. The first segment is a part of the overall regional or urban transportation system and serves both gen- eral traffic and airport traffic. State and local high- way departments and local transit authorities will bear the major responsibility for the administration, design, and construction of this first segment. Airport spon- sors are responsible for developing the requirements 57