(Here’s my June “At the Airport” column for USA TODAY)

Want a free ride to town from the airport? In Boston this summer, you’ll get your wish.

In what is apparently a first for a North American airport, Boston Logan International is waiving the $2 fare for all passengers who ride the inbound Silver Line bus from the airport to South Station in downtown Boston. From there, the transfer to the subway – known as the “T” – is free.

The clean-fuel Silver Line buses have been in operation since 2005, have room for luggage and make the trip in from the airport in 20-40 minutes (depending on which terminal you board at), a bit longer than it takes to drive.

The 90-day, free-ride pilot program, called “On Us,” should be a hit with many of the city’s summer visitors, who might otherwise pay $25 or more for a cab ride into the city. But a major goal of the program is to convince locals to switch to the bus and stop paying to park their cars in the airport’s central garage.

At first glance, that part of the program seems a bit counter-intuitive. “Parking is a critical revenue source for North American airports,” said Debby McElroy of Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), an airport trade group. In fact, according to the organization’s 2011 Airport Concessions Benchmarking Survey, parking accounts for 42% of non-aeronautical revenue at airports. “These funds allow airports to modernize facilities, which ultimately benefits travelers,” said McElroy.

So why would Logan Airport decide to spend close to $300,000 to subsidize free bus rides for three months and encourage customers to leave their cars – and their cash – at home?

The answer is space, and not enough of it.

Sprawling airports in Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth sit on vast tracts of land beyond or between urban centers, but Logan has a very small footprint – just 1,700 acres – and is only three miles from downtown Boston. And while the airport’s passenger numbers keep growing (BOS expects to serve close to 30 million passengers this year), due to a regulatory cap limiting commercial parking, space at the airport’s central garages cannot.

The bottom line, is that “Logan cannot build new garages to meet demand,” David S. Mackey, Massport’s Interim CEO & Executive Director said in a statement. (Massport, the Massachusetts Port Authority, owns and operates Boston Logan Airport).

Instead, Logan has been trying to wean passengers from driving to the airport. In March, the daily parking rate in the central garage was raised $3, to $27. At the same time, the daily parking rate at Massport’s suburban lots was lowered to $7, down $4.

The Silver Line “On Us,” pilot program is the next step in that weaning. As part of the effort to reduce curb congestion and bulk up high occupancy vehicle (HOV) usage, the airport has hired and placed extra staff outside the terminals to explain the program to passengers. “We’re collecting information and counting the boardings and the loads at the bus stops at each terminal,” said Carl Leiner, Massport’s deputy director of economic planning and development. “There are people with stop watches calculating the dwell times, which is the amount of time people spend waiting for the bus.”

While no other airports are jumping to match Logan’s free-ride offer just yet, many are watching closely.

“We applaud Logan’s efforts and the fact their parking is full,” said Perry Cooper, spokesperson for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which has a 13,000-space parking garage. “We have not reached a point where we are filling our garage regularly. However, we have been working to encourage light rail use with discount parking offers for sporting events to relieve the traffic and parking problems downtown.”

With 25,000 parking spaces on property, Los Angeles International Airport doesn’t have a parking problem either, but, as part of a longstanding emissions reduction program, it does operate express “FlyAway” shuttle buses to Van Nuys and Union Station (Fare: $7), Westwood (Fare: $10) and Irvine Station (Fare $25).

Miami International Airport (MIA) isn’t reporting a parking crunch either. But while “a good portion” of airport revenue does come from parking fees, airport spokesperson Marc Henderson says the airport is delighted that, since it began operating in December 2010, more than a million people have used the Airport Flyer Express bus that goes to Miami Beach and downtown Miami. The bus has luggage racks, free Wi-Fi and makes the trip in 35 minutes.

“It’s a good way to get people down to the beach who may not want to rent a vehicle and deal with parking,” said MIA spokesperson Marc Henderson. “At $2.35 each way, the service is inexpensive. And it’s done well,” he said.

Moving people out of cars at the airport can be a challenge. While there is a local bus route in Houston that serves the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in August 2011, the Metropolitan Transit Authority decided to cancel express bus service to the airport “because of low passenger numbers,” said airport spokesperson Darian Ward.

Back in Boston, airport spokesperson Matthew Brelis says while “no determination has yet been made,” passengers may find that the free bus rides from Logan into town extend past the 90-day test period. Brelis says that “improving curbside traffic flow and reducing parking congestion” is the main reason the airport is offering the free rides, but “if passengers are thrilled with the service and delighted that it’s free, it’s icing on the cake.”

Photos courtesy Boston Logan Airport

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Categories: Airports, ground transporation, Transportation

Can’t get to Broadway? Try the airport.

JFK International Airport Terminal 8 will be celebrating Pride Week with two live performances by cast members from the production of Bette Midler’s Priscilla.

Details below

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Categories: Entertainment

Courtesy, International Crytoozoology Museum in Maine, Gordon Chibroski

Monsters don’t just live under beds and in closets. Many travelers and cryptozoologists – people whose study of creatures includes some that may have not yet been proven to exist –say Bigfoot and his legendary brethren are out there; you just need to know where to look.

Here are some of the creatures I found for a Strange Sightings slide show on Bing Travel:

Sasquatch/Big Foot

Sasquatch footstep castings, from the Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore

He’s huge, hairy and shy. Not your Uncle Jack; but the ape-like beings known as Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, said to roam the woods in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Bigfoot hunters claim they’ve gathered everything from Sasquatch film footage to hair samples, footprints and droppings left behind by the beast. But while the Big Foot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) has records of Sasquatch sightings in almost every state –more than 500 in Washington alone – so far no one captured one of these creatures.

Sighting tip: Spot a Sasquatch? Keep your distance. At least two Washington State counties are official Big Foot refuge areas where hurting or slaying a Sasquatch is punishable by hefty fines, jail sentences or both.

Mothman statue, Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Mothman: Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Reports of a strange being described as bird-like and shaped like a man, but much bigger, with red eyes, a screeching voice and a wingspan of perhaps eight feet, began surfacing in Point Pleasant,West Virginia in the mid-1960s. Dubbed “Mothman,” this creature went on to be featured as a character in books, video games, TV show episodes and films, including The Mothman Prophecies (2002), with Richard Gere. Today, downtown Point Pleasant sports a Mothman Museum and, in Gunn Park, a shiny mothman-statue.

Sightings tip: Mothman fans gather in Point Pleasant each Fall for the annual Mothman Festival where events include guest speakers, film screenings and the Miss Mothman Pageant.

Ogopogo

Early Canadian First Nations people called the creature said to be living in Lake Okanagan ‘N’ha-a-tik.’ But as years went by, the thing witnesses swore was a sea serpent with a horse-like head, and which song penned in 1924 called “a cross between a pollywog and a whale,” became known as Ogopogo. Residents and visitors to British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley still keep their eyes peeled Ogopogo and report a few sightings a year.

Sightings tip: A statue of Ogogopo can be seen in Kerry Park, in Kelowna, B.C.

Fairies, Yetis, Nessie and other legendary creatures tomorrow…

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Categories: Fun Stuff, Museums

This black leather jacket that Elvis Presley bought from J.C. Penney is one of more than 50 classic black leather jackets on display at the Harley-Davidson Museum. Photo courtesy of the museum.

Today it’s an icon in pop culture and fashion, but the black leather jacket was originally a utilitarian piece of clothing designed to protect travelers.

“In the early part of the 20th century, whether you were flying a plane or driving a motorcycle or a horseless carriage, everything had an open cockpit. So the idea of leather being an appropriate material for transportation gear emerged early on,” said Jim Fricke, curatorial director at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wis.

Early airplane pilot in black leather jacket. Courtesy Library of Congress

The museum’s newest exhibit is “Worn to be Wild: The Black Leather Jacket,” which runs through Sept. 3. More than 100 artifacts are on display, including dozens of jackets worn by celebrities and pop culture icons as well as leather jackets from fashion houses such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace. The exhibit also uses a wide variety of motorcycles, photographs, film footage, literature, advertisements and music to explore how this single article of clothing became such an iconic object in popular culture.

During World War I and II, pilots were photographed looking dashing in their leather bomber jackets, but the public’s fascination with the zippered, wind-protecting garment soared in the 1950s, when Hollywood got hold of it.

“It happened because of the movie ‘The Wild One,’ when Marlon Brando played a motorcycle gang member and wore one of our black leather jackets,” said Jason Schott, COO of Schott Bros. clothing manufacturer and great-grandson of Irving Schott, who is credited with making the first zippered leather motorcycle jacket in 1928.

Brando’s bad-boy image seemed cool, so people wanted that jacket. But because the jacket was associated with hoodlums and juvenile delinquency, many schools tried to ban it.

At the time, leather jackets were considered one way to identify juvenile delinquents, said Fricke, who included memos from an Ohio school district in the new exhibit.

“That made people want it even more,” said Schott. “The jacket just became synonymous with the rugged bravado that Americans seemed to embody.”

Despite a lull during the hippie era in the 1960s, Fricke said, the black leather jacket has maintained its role as the uniform of youthful rebellion and has been seen on everyone from James Dean and Elvis Presley to the Ramones and Bruce Springsteen.

A leather outfit worn by Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Terminator 2” and leather jackets worn by musicians and celebrities such as Fergie, Gene Vincent and Michael Jackson are among items on display. The exhibit also reunites the Harley Davidson motorcycle bought by a 21-year-old Elvis Presley in 1956 with the motorcycle jacket he bought a few years later, from J.C. Penney.

After leaving Milwaukee, “Worn to be Wild” will move to Seattle’s EMP Museum, home of some of the music and science-fiction artifacts included in the show, and will run from October 2012 through February 2013.

If you’re flying to Milwaukee, you’ll arrive at Milwaukee County’s General Mitchell International Airport, which provides free parking for motorcycles and a Harley Davidson shop. Here’s a link to the airport guide for General Mitchell International Airport that is part the 50 airport guides I maintain for USATODAY.com.

My story: Worn to be Wild: Celebrating the black leather jacket first appeared on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin.

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Categories: Museum Monday, Museums

Geeky, I know, but I really look forward to reading the TSA.gov weekly blog post offering a round-up of items TSA officers find at airport checkpoints. The list is always scary, alarming, puzzling and just plain sad. How can so many people just “forget” they’ve got a loaded gun and a large quantity of bullets in a purse or travel bag?

According to the TSA blog, last week 40 firearms – 29 loaded – were found in carry-on bags at airport checkpoints around the country. Some of the people carrying the guns received citations; others got arrested.

Other items on the list this week include 11 stun guns, including one that looks just like a cell phone, and a live blasting cap, a bomb component which TSA’s Blogger Bob Burns helpfully explains, is “a small explosive charge that sets off a larger explosive charge.”

Photos courtesy TSA.

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Categories: Security, TSA