While Fran Spielman's report on parking rates at O'Hare [Sept. 22] did not dwell on parking at the airport in general, the situation at O'Hare is dismal compared with other major airports. For anyone that wants to park in the airport garage, it is catch as catch can during the week, yet the city charges $26 a day for ''close-in'' parking, which could be in the garage or on the roof or out in an open parking lot. The charge is the same either way!
In the last 10 years, major airports such as San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, New York (JFK) and Newark have added additional garage parking spaces close to the terminals. Chicago's answer is to pave over more land and have passengers ride shuttle buses and a people mover.
Getting out of the airport is yet another challenge from remote parking. The Mannheim Road bridge over the exit road was completely rebuilt, adding a lane into the airport but funneling outbound traffic to two lanes. The alternate exit to the north on Mannheim from remote parking is a single left turn which handles almost all the traffic, while the other lane is used for straight ahead and right turns. Why hasn't the city developed a double left-turn lane?
While the airlines get a large number of complaints, it sure looks like the city is doing its best to contribute to the aggravation of the travel experience.
John Andrews,
Ingleside
