[Natalie Allen, Cnn Anchor:] Well, Congress took up the issue of airport runway safety today. At a hearing on the subject, debate centered on runway incursions. These are incidents where a person, vehicle or plane creates a collision hazard by being where it's not supposed to be. Looking at airports recording the highest number of major incursions: Los Angeles International is first. Chicago's O'Hare International is second, and Charlotte, La Guardia and Phoenix round out the list. Joining us now with more is James Fallows, journalist and author of the book "Free Flight." We thank you for being with us.
[James Fallows, Author, "free Flight":] My pleasure.
[Allen:] How dire is this problem of runway incursions?
[Fallows:] I think as a safety factor it's not that dire. I believe that in the last decade or so there hasn't been anything which was on the verge of actual collisions at runways, and airlines in general are extremely safe. I think the way to think of it, though, is as one more sign of the congestion that's affecting the airport system now. The congestion on runways that causes these incursions is the counterpart of the congestion that the passengers feel when they are trying to drive in and find a place to park. More traffic is going through too few sites, and that's the result.
[Allen:] And the bottom line we keep hearing, James, is that the airlines are saying, well, yes, we've got more airlines coming on and on, but others have got to keep up with the infrastructure. Congress is listening to this problem today. Is there a solution that's anywhere in the near future for fliers?
[Fallows:] I think that there's a short-term solution and a larger-term, outside-the-box solution. The short-term one is one the Federal Aviation Administration has proposed. Over the next 10 years, they are going to add more runways, better controls, both on the ground and in the air, to make it possible to have somewhat more planes fly safely at somewhat a closer schedules, but that's going to add even if everything they propose goes through, the FAA predicts that the airports will be more congested in a decade. I think the out-of-the-box solution is finding ways to use the thousands of smaller airports around the country that are close to where people actually live and work.
[Allen:] That makes sense. Let's get a live chat question now from John Roebuck: "So much times is spent in the planes before takeoff. Why not spend more time in the airport?"
[Fallows:] Well, I guess it's a close call, which is more pleasant: being on the plane or being in the airport itself? But I think there's a very crucial point the questioner brings up, which is that NASA, the space agency, has found that the actual speed of air travel has gotten slower and slower in the last decade, because people spend more time in the airport, in the airplane, something other than actually going where they need to go. That's again why NASA has been pushing this plan to make it easier for people to fly, say, from Savannah to Wichita nonstop, rather than changing through Atlanta and Dallas, a different kind of a small plane that can do that.
[Allen:] James Fallows, thank you for joining us.
[Fallows:] Thank you.