Why are there no clocks at airports?
December 7, 2010 11:09 AM   Subscribe

Why are there no clocks at airports?

Yes, there are the little monitors with flight info, but they are few and far between, and require you go walk up to them and squint to find where the current time is on the display.

Why don't they have them at regular intervals in the terminal passages, like next to the wayfinding signs?

Anyone know an airport designer?
posted by joshwa to Travel & Transportation (29 answers total)
 
This is chatfilterish. But several airports, including the pretty crummy STL, have clocks on all of the wayfinding signs.
posted by zsazsa at 11:12 AM on December 7, 2010


This isn't really chatfilterish.

I'm pretty sure Midway airport in Chicago and LAX both have clocks on the signs. Maybe it's just bad design in the airport(s) you've been to?
posted by wayland at 11:14 AM on December 7, 2010


Confirmation bias. I've never had a problem finding a clock in an airport.
posted by proj at 11:22 AM on December 7, 2010 [7 favorites]


Pretty sure ORD and DTW's older terminal both have large digital clocks on the overhead signs...
posted by FlyingMonkey at 11:24 AM on December 7, 2010


I can't remember walking more than 2 minutes before finding another clock in every airport I've been to. (I love clocks and I'm super paranoid about missing flights and worried that my iPhone will be off a timezone or 30 minutes or something and thus not tell me the right time, hence the constant looking for clocks.)
posted by Brian Puccio at 11:24 AM on December 7, 2010 [1 favorite]


Some of these are false hits, but generally speaking Flickr disagrees with you.
posted by unknowncommand at 11:25 AM on December 7, 2010


Lots of clocks in airports I frequent. One of the bigger ones (can't remember if it's Atlanta or O'Hare or what) even has huge (i.e. 6" tall numbers) digital displays every couple of gates.
posted by phunniemee at 11:27 AM on December 7, 2010


I fly pretty frequently. In LAX last week I took special note of the large clocks that were hung in the middle of the terminal at 20 foot intervals (looked like this, except without the arabic script). Pretty sure this is confirmation bias.
posted by arnicae at 11:31 AM on December 7, 2010


Best answer: My best guess, as someone who has wondered about this, is that it's very similar to other places where a lot of the public gathers but that isn't owned by any one entity. Airports are sort of carved up into a lot of different teeny places that are rented by various people [that is an oversimplicfication but you get the idea] So unlike, say, the school where I work there's not really much of an entity who deals with the whole thing. There are specialized folks who deal with the bathrooms and the waste disposal and I guess cleaning the windows, but having coordinated clocks is actually a little more work than that. You need to either plug them in or give them batteries. You need to make sure they're set properly and synced properly. You need to keep people from stealing them or messing with them.

As it is most displays in airports seem to have the time on them which is synced to whatever the tie server is and so always correct, even if smallish. I suppose there is also probably a Las Vegas issue too. They want you to sort of lose track of time more than they want you to keep track of it. Put another way, the things that require you to be on time are your responsbility (getting to the gate). The things that allow you to track them being late they'd rather you didn't have ready access to.

But I've chalked this up to airport usability being terrible generally. I'm curious what other people say.
posted by jessamyn at 11:31 AM on December 7, 2010 [2 favorites]


Seattle-Tacoma has plenty of clocks to go with the departure/arrival screens, although they are small, analog pieces.

Moreover, if you were addressing this problem today, among the first things you'd consider is that, if they're not already wearing a watch, nearly everyone in the airport is holding a cellphone that tells time.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:34 AM on December 7, 2010


jessamyn: "My best guess, as someone who has wondered about this, is that it's very similar to other places where a lot of the public gathers but that isn't owned by any one entity. Airports are sort of carved up into a lot of different teeny places that are rented by various people [that is an oversimplicfication but you get the idea] So unlike, say, the school where I work there's not really much of an entity who deals with the whole thing"

My experience of and knowledge of airports is the exact opposite. But then, I've never had a problem finding out the time in airports on any continent either.
posted by turkeyphant at 11:44 AM on December 7, 2010 [1 favorite]


Arrival/departure screens show the time and are ubiquitous.
posted by Mom at 11:48 AM on December 7, 2010


The Denver airport has fairly prominent red clocks all over the place. Nice video of one going crazy here.
posted by partylarry at 11:52 AM on December 7, 2010


They want you to sort of lose track of time more than they want you to keep track of it.

Airports like you to spend plenty of time in the shops, but they really don't want you to be late for boarding and cause holdups in the system. In the worst case airlines have to do things like find and offload the luggage of people that checked it in but then didn't show up for the flight, for obvious security reasons. And even just having lots of people turn up at the last minute risks missing take-off slots. All of which causes flight lateness not just to that one flight, but via the knock-on effects to lots other ones as well.

Anyway, personally I've never had trouble knowing the time in airports, but that could be because I wear a watch, so I don't much notice if there is a lack of clocks or not.
posted by philipy at 12:07 PM on December 7, 2010


I've wondered often about the absence of clocks in airports too. Related to what Jessamyn says, I'd always assumed it was because they are (almost above all else) retail environments, and clocks are notoriously absent in stores, presumably so you'll stay longer. and spend more.
posted by oliverburkeman at 12:10 PM on December 7, 2010


Mod note: comments removed - jokes considered non-answers, please reconsider your jokes, thanks
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:19 PM on December 7, 2010


My experience of airports is not that finding clocks is difficult. Having traveled in many different parts of the world, I can't remember a single instance of not being able to easily find a clock.
posted by bardophile at 12:23 PM on December 7, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I'm sitting at Dulles right now, and can see 4 clocks without having to turn my head.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:28 PM on December 7, 2010 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I have the same issue with clocks in American airports. My frequent flyer airports are Phoenix Sky Harbor, BWI (Baltimore), and DCA (DC), and I think they all have this problem. It's common enough that a brief Google brings up a lot of people remarking on it, so it's not just you. This thread in a newspaper forum also mentions Sky Harbor, so it could just be confirmation bias, but these people have had the same experience I've had - there are plenty of clocks in train stations in obvious places, but practically none in airports. I've seen multiple people mention it on their blogs, like this guy. I think I've experienced it worse in the U.S. than in other countries, but I can't recall for sure.

I mostly just wanted to reassure you that this is something that other people notice, as most of the other posters seem to have totally different airport experiences, or they find the teeny little clock on the (sometimes infrequent) monitors enough.

The only answer the internet gave me was a hypothesis that because the clocks would have to be synchronized, they can't just mount big old clocks everywhere, they'd have to be synchronized and networked, which is too much trouble for some airports. I found this bizarre, but I guess train stations are smaller than airports, so would need fewer, um, synchronized clocks to have the same amount per wall area unit.
posted by wending my way at 12:29 PM on December 7, 2010 [1 favorite]


I think it depends on the airport. In my experience, some, like Denver and O'Hare, do a better job than others. I always have trouble finding a clock in Minneapolis-St. Paul and had a similar experience at Halifax Stanfield.

Some airports are just more traveler-friendly than others.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 12:32 PM on December 7, 2010


Best answer: Ooh, and it's a "design-mystery" on the TED blog.

In my ongoing internet search, I've found another explanation that airlines prefer to use their *own* standard time, so the airport doesn't want to be blamed for problems caused by the travelers using the airport time rather than the airline time.
posted by wending my way at 12:41 PM on December 7, 2010


I think it depends on the airport.

Following on from my earlier comment, the busier and closer to capacity the airport is, the greater the impact on flight delays caused by passenger lateness.

At uber-busy airports like O'Hare or Heathrow, if anything slips, the knock-on effects are horrible. Also international and longer distance flights are probably much more affected by things like the checked luggage issue I mentioned.

I guess a place like Halifax might be able to get away with having fewer clocks.
posted by philipy at 12:54 PM on December 7, 2010


Best answer: Arrival/departure screens show the time and are ubiquitous.

Sure, but they are in small print, and you might not want or be able to haul your stuff over with you while you look.

I've wished for a clock at DCA. It's ridiculous that there is not one. Who wants to put down all of their stuff to look at their watch or phone?
posted by jgirl at 1:20 PM on December 7, 2010


I don't think Atlanta has clocks in their underground transportation system which I find baffling. Of course, neither do they have very many departure boards until you get up to the actual wings (I think there's one right at the bottom of the escalator but I always feel bad standing in the way between the escalators and the trains). I have definitely been in a rush and not known if my boarding pass was correct as to the gate and if I then had enough time to get there. There should be more clocks.
posted by hydrobatidae at 2:18 PM on December 7, 2010


I was told once, that the reason that stores in New York City didn't have clocks displayed was because someone once successfully sued a store whose clock was set incorrectly causing them to miss some appointment. Whether or not the story is true, there certainly are few clocks in stores and I seem to remember it was once different. I also don't know whether or not this applies to clocks in airport stores.
posted by Obscure Reference at 2:25 PM on December 7, 2010


Response by poster: Recent airports I've been in without prominent/pervasive clocks:

JFK Terminal 8/9 1 2
LGA Terminal C 1 2 3
BNA 1
SFO Terminal 3 1 2
CLT Terminal B/C 1 2 3
LAX Terminal 4 1 2 3

It presumably varies by terminal, as they have been constructed at different times, by different airlines, etc.

arnicae: I have occasionally noticed those Rolex clocks. They don't count, IMHO, since they look like ads, and are analog, which is harder to parse quickly and at a distance.
posted by joshwa at 6:07 PM on December 7, 2010


For what its worth I was thinking this exact same thing at LGA in NYC, and DCA last week. Found the same to be true to a lesser degree at JFK, and Ohare (ORD) as well. Its not that there aren't clocks. But when you are in a place where so much depends on exact timing in so many locations you can't really overdo it with clocks.
posted by alhadro at 8:16 PM on December 7, 2010


But when you are in a place where so much depends on exact timing in so many locations you can't really overdo it with clocks.

Yes. Every tiny little rail depot had a clock -- a big clock.
posted by jgirl at 5:46 AM on December 8, 2010 [1 favorite]


I can say, as just an additional data point, that there are plenty of large analog clocks near the gates in the McNamara terminal of DTW (my home airport). There's a picture on this page.
posted by Vorteks at 9:08 AM on December 8, 2010


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