Austin Airport Parking

Formula One: Austin Grand Prix still faces many questions as city vote is set ...

The saga of Formula One in Austin, Texas, and the under-construction Circuit of the Americas is a plot full of twists and turns worthy of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. And various issues once again took center stage at Tuesday's city council public work session.

The seven-member Austin City Council is on Thursday supposed to vote on whether to endorse the Circuit of the Americas facility--and thereby allow the race promoters to collect the $25 million subsidy offered by the State of Texas via its Major Events Trust Fund. But confusion still reigns.

Austin's mayor, the city manager, the city legal department, a representative of the Texas comptroller's office, six of the seven council members, city staff and counsel for F1 Circuit of the Americas, Richard Suttle, all gathered in the room on Tuesday, but no one seemed able to explain several contentious issues to the satisfaction of those present--and this work session did not even include public input. That comes on Thursday. Tuesday's session was held in an attempt to calm the city council's fear--and, of course, get it to sign on the dotted line.

Among the issues apparently still unresolved: Where, exactly, is the money coming from, and where it is going? At the moment, F1 Circuit of the Americas has offered to pay a $4 million annual figure--for all 10 years of the contract with Formula One Management--which will in turn trigger the $25 million annual payment from the State of Texas, through the City of Austin, to the promoters of the Circuit of the Americas and on to Formula One Management in the U.K.

Lots of other questions remain, such as how much will all of the support services supplied by the city--police, fire, EMS, sanitation, etc.--cost, and who will pay for them? What about the road conditions and capacties out near the track, and transportation in general?

From an on-the-scene scene perspective: In the middle of last week, with no official, notable or major tourist events on the Austin area's calendar, the W Hotel in downtown Austin was at full capacity. Simultaneously, most--and at times all--of the rental cars and parking places at the airport were spoken for. The F1 promoters plan to add 120,000 people to this mix next year, in 100-degree daily temperatures. On Tuesday, a morning news program described major traffic congestion on Interstate 35, which rolls through downtown Austin, as "America's Parking Lot." So it's not hard to see why concerns remain at the local level.

Austin, Texas's Bergstrom International Airport parking losing a ...

I am writing this blog while in flight to give a keynote presentation at a quality conference in New Jersey.

This is my third airplane trip in the last two weeks.  For these trips, I have given up dealing with the Bergstrom International airport parking and parked in at a remote lot, where I was shuttled to the terminal by bus. I figure that if I am forced to take a bus why not take a bus from a remote lot, and avoid the Bergstrom International parking lot hassles.

I understand that from previous dialog with the airport parking management that they really don’t care about having me as a customer but I thought in this blog I would share my experiences and get some of the frustration off my chest.

Parking at Austin, Texas’s Bergstrom International airport has been a hassle for a long time.  I have sent many e-mails to the management of the airport giving my inputs to issues, which they have responded to. However, they have refused to listen to me and take my suggestions into consideration.

In the Austin airport, I like to walk from where I park in the long-term parking.  Previously this was not a problem when the airport left all their lots open and one could park where they wanted; however, over a year ago the airport decided to close one lot that I could walk from to the terminal and then directed through many people to park where THEY wanted me to park.  They cite the reason for closing the lot was to save fuel for passenger pick up but I offered the suggestion that they could have just posted a sign saying that this lot would not have bus pickup. They refused to consider any inputs that I had.

In reality there is a huge workforce directing people around and moving signs – what waste!

Now they decided to resurface the parking lots where they need to close lots to do this.  You can imagine the confusion that this brings – especially when the lots really did not need resurfacing in the first place.

It appears that there is a policy that the parking lot must spend the money that they get either through hiring masses of people to add confusion to basic parking or do unnecessary resurfacing the lots.  If the reason for making such a poor decision about this resurfacing is because of policy relative to how parking profits can be spent, federal government or not, the policy needs to be changed.

The Austin Texas airport is a classic example of what can happen when you do not listen to customers and that antiquated policies or procedures of doing things are not challenged.

Insiders' Guide to Austin

Frommer's San Antonio & Austin

Fodor's San Antonio, Austin, & Hill Country, 1st Edition

Texas Monthly

Frommer's Texas