Courtesy of Sebastian Fuss via Flickr
What’s the strip over the door of planes? Are fast lanes the newest revenue producer for cash-strapped highway funds? And, hotels team up with Cornell sleep experts to help clients sleep better.
What’s that thing? Thanksgiving airplane travel edition
Often, travelers notice quirky pieces of equipment that serve mysterious purposes. This post looks at the strip above the door of a plane. As the article puts it, “Busy skies also mean human gridlock on jet bridges from the terminal down to the aircraft door. While you’re waiting to board, you might have time to contemplate the purpose of the jauntily angled strip of metal above the door of most commercial aircraft.”
The article also explains the Jetway wheels that ride against the side of the plane and airline thinking about boarding processes. All thought provoking.
…the strip is actually pretty low-tech. And its purpose has more to do with water than air. It’s a gutter, basically. It keeps passengers dry by channeling water to the side of the door while they’re boarding. It also keeps water out of the plane interior, where floors can become slippery.
No one wants an upper fuselage’s worth of water dripping onto their head while they’re waiting for someone farther down the plane to decide just where they would or would not like to stow their hand luggage. The gutters are particularly important when passengers are boarding via steps, rather than a jet bridge. But even with a jet bridge in place, the seal between the bridge and an airplane’s fuselage isn’t always watertight.
On U.S. highways, more fast lanes aren’t free
Do you feel that tolls are getting out of hand? In some parts of the country, I’d agree. I just returned from Florida around Miami and Orlando and found that tolls are everywhere; the worst thing is that there are often no toll booths. That means tourists who don’t know the rules get blasted with tolls and fines later through their rental cars. The Virginia side of I495 that loops around Washington, DC, has a similar system (but only for express lanes) — the only way to pay is with a FastPass. Anyone without gets fined. And, has anyone driven across the GW Bridge from NJ to NYC recently? Wow! What a toll!
Special express toll lanes are being added to highways and can only be used if drivers pony up. With High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, carpoolers, who drive for free, are joined by drivers who pay if they don’t have the requisite number of passengers.
Express toll lanes charge a fee to all cars. The amount of the toll varies depending on traffic conditions and time of day, ranging, in metro Atlanta, from as much as 90 cents a mile during rush-hour congestion to as little as one cent a mile during off-peak times. Drivers who wish to use the lanes use a transponder mounted on their car, and the tolls are collected electronically.
States from California to Virginia see the lanes, often set up in partnership with private companies, as a crucial way of generating new revenue in an era of constrained budgets — even though some haven’t generated the dollars they were projected to bring in. Road planners like the idea of adjusting prices to manage traffic, and they think drivers prefer the option of paying to get there faster over traditional tolls.
Sleep expert says hotels can do better helping guests go to bed
Hotels are not only interested in taking money for a room, they want you to sleep well. The major chains have already been through a war of beds, then a war of bedding. Now, it appears that some hotels are looking into the psychology of sleep, taking the battle over which hotel provides the best rest to a new level. Experts from Cornell have entered this new fray.
The thrust of what Robbins [Rebecca Robbins, co-author of Sleep for Success!] calls “Sleep Hygiene” is based on four behaviors that induce a less fitful night’s rest:
Commit to meet your personal sleep need, between 7-8 hours for most adults
A consistent bedtime is “critical” seven days a week
Pay back any sleep loss
Aim for long, uninterrupted blocks of sleep
Everyone understands that poor sleeping habits result in lackluster behavior during the work day, including irritability, depression and heightened anxiety. But Robbins says that fewer people realize how a lack of sleep also causes us to gain weight. When most of us have less than seven hours of sleep on average, that produces higher levels of the ghrelin hormone in our stomach lining that plays a pivotal role in boosting our appetite.
Regularly missing our required shut-eye also affects intelligence.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
