Security checkpoints at JFK

Just returned from JFK this morning at 6:30 AM where they have set up vehicle security checkpoints on both the Van Wyck and the JFK Expressway entrances. Three lanes become one on the Van Wyck. Traffic was backed up all the way to the Belt on the Van Wyck. The two lanes of the JFK Expressway become one but there was a shorter line and less traffic here. I would imagine something similar is going on at LGA and EWR. I dread seeing what the line will look like during 'normal' business hours! Leave plenty of extra time if heading to the airport this week.

Oh great one more flipping obstacle to make me leave for work earlier.

At Stansted in UK they are restricting traffic also reaching the terminal and suggest taking public transport, so for JFK its Airtrain and Newark it would be NJT but with LGA, is there any local subway stops close enough to the terminals or is it just buses?

Allowing vehicles to the curbside has always been a vulnerability at every airport. Airports were never built for the security which must be put in place today.

In the next few days you will probably see some modifications to the measures put in place.

I saw those checkpoints there, too. Creating quite a traffic backup.

So every time terrorists think of one of the million ways to attack us, we'll have to create more and more measures? It will eventually be overkill. We can't expect to have these car checkpoints there all the time. It was a slow morning at the airport, imagine the traffic during a busier season.

I wonder what the GCP looks like as a result. Also the MAT entrance. That is a hard spot to cover.

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Originally Posted by Phil D.

I saw those checkpoints there, too. Creating quite a traffic backup.

So every time terrorists think of one of the million ways to attack us, we'll have to create more and more measures? It will eventually be overkill. We can't expect to have these car checkpoints there all the time. It was a slow morning at the airport, imagine the traffic during a busier season.

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Welcome to the post 911 era.

hence why i park at 141!.. to much diversions and traffic to deal w/ every day.. i understand why there doing it.. but it gets old fast

Interesting how the authorities always obsess over airports. 2 of the 3 UK car bombs were aimed at pedestrians in crowded urban areas, yet I don't see checkpoints like this around Times Square, Penn Station, Rock Center etc. Maybe they're waiting to put it on along with Bloomie's $8 congestion pricing. Who decided that in America, the only such attacks would be at an airport? Sounds like this is more for the media and public reassurance than comprehensive security.

All seemed normal when I arrived at LGA midday today.

LGA777

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Originally Posted by h2opunk1822

hence why i park at 141!.. to much diversions and traffic to deal w/ every day.. i understand why there doing it.. but it gets old fast

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Wait until we move there a few weeks. I'll let the air out of your tires. :-p

haha.. good luck finding parking!!.. all the cabbies run that place!!... when is the move in??.. i have seen signs for the past 2 months of so?

[>All seemed normal when I arrived at LGA midday today.
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I had to pick up my wife tonite at the MAT and didnt really see anything different security wise. Got there early and hung out for awhile up by Plane View Park and all quiet there also. I hadnt been over there in some years and love that they cut down all the bushes by the fence to allow a great and unobstructed view of the airport.

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Originally Posted by Nonstop2AUH

Interesting how the authorities always obsess over airports. 2 of the 3 UK car bombs were aimed at pedestrians in crowded urban areas, yet I don't see checkpoints like this around Times Square, Penn Station, Rock Center etc.

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Agreed, not to mention a car bomb into the side of a big office building in Midtown will cause significantly greater loss of life and feeling of "terror" than hitting the front of an airport terminal. I've wondered why terrorists have been so obsessed with attacking airports...airplanes I understand, but the front of a terminal is mostly empty space. :?

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Originally Posted by GothamSpotter

Agreed, not to mention a car bomb into the side of a big office building in Midtown will cause significantly greater loss of life and feeling of "terror" than hitting the front of an airport terminal. I've wondered why terrorists have been so obsessed with attacking airports...airplanes I understand, but the front of a terminal is mostly empty space. :?

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The question is, are terrorists obsessed with attacking airports, or are we obsessed with terrorists attacking airports? Remeber, OBL's first attack on the World Trade Center was with a car bomb...

Adam, good point. Call me cynical (I was in the WTC bombing of '93, on the 63rd floor at that) but it seems that years of experience have not changed the reactionary groupthink mentality which always seems to assume the next attack will be identical to the last. I am all for airport security, but the authorities need to be thinking ahead of some rather creative people and consider where else they would potentially target. The Israelis are really good at this and we should learn from their experiences. Either that or DHS should watch "The Siege" again.

Yes, they've attacked more conventional buildings than airports, but the Glasgow incident is not the first. For example, one of the captured suspects which led to the unraveling of the Millennium Plot in late 1999 was on his way to bomb a terminal at LAX. There was also the more recent shooting at the El Al terminal at LAX.

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Originally Posted by Gerard

[>All seemed normal when I arrived at LGA midday today.
<
I had to pick up my wife tonite at the MAT and didnt really see anything different security wise. Got there early and hung out for awhile up by Plane View Park and all quiet there also. I hadnt been over there in some years and love that they cut down all the bushes by the fence to allow a great and unobstructed view of the airport.

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It is there you just can't see it. We were watching you the whole time. :twisted:

>It is there you just can't see it. We were watching you the whole time. <

Yeah believe me I was thinking that. :O)

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The question is, are terrorists obsessed with attacking airports, or are we obsessed with terrorists attacking airports? Remeber, OBL's first attack on the World Trade Center was with a car bomb...

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The car bomb is and old and favored trick of terrorists, they drive them up to embassies, military installations, just about anything.

It's no secret that since 9/11 anyone doing anything around an airport suspicious has been scrutinized. Mostly due to a knee jerk reaction. It will continue to happen every time another terror attack is successful or thwarted. As Fred has said we are letting them win more and more each day. Not only did OBL kill 3000 people, he has instilled fear in many more.

So, will medical schools, students and hospitals be suspect now...??

Since we see these terrorists (surprise surprise) are once again, in this instance, afluent and educated folks... except when they're not.

Wow, and no one in the UK realized they were dealing with hate filled religous zealots with these guys? Amazing.

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Originally Posted by NIKV69

The car bomb is and old and favored trick of terrorists, they drive them up to embassies, military installations, just about anything.

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You're right Nick.

But don't worry. We have the best no photography rules in place and the finest survaillence in the world trained on the chain link fences defending our airports. :roll:

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Originally Posted by Tom_Turner

But don't worry. We have the best no photography rules in place and the finest survaillence in the world trained on the chain link fences defending our airports. :roll:

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The best money the PANYNJ can spend (as long as it is someone else's)!!