Salt Lake City Airport is in the middle of a large project to reorganize the airport parking situation. Instead of two lots they have consolidated long term parking into a single large lot with new shelters while you are waiting for the bus. The new shelters are beautiful in comparison to the old airy steel ones they used to have. The only problem is that they are situated on the wrong side of the road! So when the bus comes you have to walk across the road in front of the bus to board.
Rumor has it that the reason the shelters are on the wrong side of the road is because the company designing the new parking lot didn't bother to consult with the bus drivers and planned to have the bus start from the far side of the lot.....So before dropping off a single passenger in the lot, the bus had to drive 1/4 of a mile to enter the lot...... In practice the route didn't exactly work out very well. I don't think it even made a week. So now the buses enter the lot from the "wrong end" but start dropping off and picking up passengers very quickly at the various stops.
Am I the only one that thinks some studies and modeling could have been done to have avoided this situation? So as I stand at the nice new bus shelters on my way to a consulting engagement and before crossing the road to catch the bus, I always remind myself to make sure that I talk with the various end users of a system I'm designing! I hope this approach will ensure that none of my creations end up on the wrong side of the road!
