Salt Lake City International Airport’s behavior, of late, has become mercenary and downright hostile to customers and the community.

Whenever it’s above 40 degrees—at least nine months out of the year—I ride a motorcycle. Like most motorcyclists, I am a responsible rider: I wear a helmet, I don’t break the traffic laws.

For years, there was a convenient spot at Salt Lake City International Airport where motorcycles parked for free. But no more. I recently returned from a trip, and my motorcycle had a ticket on it.

I inquired several times and was told that parking is tight and they couldn’t afford to allocate motorcycle spaces. Another response was that I could park my motorcycle in either short-term or long-term parking, where I could use and pay for an automobile space. That’s $12 per day long term ($24 per day short term)—for a motorcycle. Seriously?

I don’t mind paying my way. In fact, I do pay my way in the form of airport fees attached to every ticket I buy. But adding an egregious parking fee and inconvenience on top of a high-priced and high-hassle system is not right.

If they want to pay for airport expansion, they should do it with airport fees, not by charging parking fees.

Many communities offer free motorcycle parking (I parked in a designated spot downtown just yesterday) and allow motorcycles to use HOV highway lanes. As with carpooling, communities benefit with more parking available spaces for cars and significantly reduced pollution.

Now, rather than driving my motorcycle to the airport, I have someone drop me off and pick me up (two round trips in a car, rather than one round trip on a bike).

So why doesn’t the airport management get a clue, become more customer-friendly and offer free convenient motorcycle parking, like many other international airports, including:

Los Angeles
Las Vegas
New York City’s JFK and LaGuardia
Portland, Ore.
Seattle
Santa Ana, Calif.
Detroit
Newark, N.J.
London’s Heathrow?

HUBBERT SMITH
Salt Lake City