Security checkpoint gets makeover
ARLINGTON, Va. -- As Catherine Lillie was designing a futuristic airport checkpoint that would calm stressed passengers, she faced a crucial decision: classical music or New Age?
Listening to soundtracks in a warehouse at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Lillie's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) team debated which tunes cast a more serene aura.
"We ran a couple of classical music tracks at one point that were simply too musical," Lillie said. "They take over, and you start focusing on the music."
The New Age instrumentals were "spa-like and soothing" — perfect to make passengers relax as they line up at a metal detector. "It's like aural wallpaper," Lillie said.
Nine months of Lillie's handiwork will be tested starting in May at Baltimore/Washington International Airport and could be adopted at airports around the country.
The checkpoint prototype is part of the TSA's effort to ratchet down the tension of airport screening. If passengers are more relaxed, screeners who specialize in behavior observation will have an easier time spotting potential terrorists who look tense or are acting suspiciously, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said.
The road to relaxation draws heavily on industrial psychology. Lillie studied how banks align furniture to deter robbers and how restaurants use color schemes to stimulate eating.
"Research shows that the cooler ends of the spectrum, blues and greens, have a calming effect," Lillie said. Her checkpoint line is bathed in the glow of mauve lights.
The line itself is tight and boxed in by portable wall sections — better for screeners to chat up passengers and watch their expressions and body language as they reply to friendly questions.
"Now it's very easy to move through a checkpoint and not talk to someone. From a security perspective, that's far from ideal. We want interactions," Lillie said.
Other features include belts that return security bins to the front of an X-ray machine; a counter near the checkpoint line where passengers can stop to put their bottles in bags; and headsets to be worn by screeners so they can talk quietly to each other instead of barking over radios. Photo displays with biographical information about local screeners are posted to make screeners more human and sympathetic to passengers, Hawley said.
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