I love queues. Not that I love queueing — I may be English but I’m not that English. But from a safe distance, queues are fascinating. They’re less fun if they cause you to miss your flight. In mid-May, two-hour queues for security at Chicago’s Midway airport had just that effect. Jeh Johnson, the US Secretary for Homeland Security, offered travellers some meditative advice: “Contemplate increased wait times as you travel.” I’d hope we can do a little better than mindful meditation.
我喜欢排队的队伍。不是说我喜欢排队——我可能很“英国”,但我还没那么“英国”。但离开一个安全距离来看,排队是个有趣的问题。如果排队让你错过了自己的航班,它就没那么有趣了。5月中旬,在芝加哥中途机场(Midway Airport)排队两小时等着过安检就导致了这种结果。美国国土安全部部长杰•约翰逊(Jeh Johnson)建议旅行者考虑周到一些:“旅客们请考虑到,等待时间延长了。”我希望我们能拿出比建议旅客考虑周全更好一点的解决办法。