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11 Apr, 2016

Airports, Designed for Everyone but the Passenger – New York Times

Airports have been drastically transformed since the 1970s, when you could smoke anywhere, stroll leisurely through security and hug your loved one at the gate before boarding the plane. Passing through security these days takes forever and sometimes borders on harassment. The lighting is brighter than a World Series night game. Almost all the chairs have armrests, preventing you from splaying out. And the ambient noise — the endless gate changes, the last calls for boarding, the CNN late-breaking news — makes it almost impossible to relax. It’s no wonder then that passengers often feel more like prisoners than clients.

How did we get here? Who is to blame?

Read the rest: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/travel/airport-architecture.html