SIGCSE 2009

The 40th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
March 4-7, 2009, Chattanooga, TN USA
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/sigcse09

Travel Information


Chattanooga is a bit off the beaten path, but is just a couple of hours by car from two larger metropolitan areas (Atlanta and Nashville). We hope that this page can help you make travel arrangements that suit your needs.




Airline Service


Commercial airline service to Chattanooga is handled by the Chattanooga Metropolitan (Code: CHA) airport. Reserving a flight directly to Chattanooga will provide the most convenient access to the conference. Airline service into Chattanooga has recently improved, thanks to the addition of a new carrier and a reduction in air fares. Please visit the airport's web site for the current list of airlines that serve Chattanooga.

If flights into Chattanooga are not convenient for you, you may wish to consider flying into a nearby city and using ground transportation between that airport and Chattanooga. Relatively close alternative airports include:


Taxis and Hotel Shuttles


Regular taxi fare from the Chattanooga airport to the convention center area hotels is $28 for one person, or $25 + $5 for each additional person. Ask the driver about the fare before entering a cab. Unless you have made a taxi reservation (see below!), these are the standard rates for all taxi rides from the airport.

To receive a taxi service discount for your trip to or from the Chattanooga airport, please register with Millennium Taxi Services by following this link. In the Comments box, identify yourself as a SIGCSE conference attendee. If you have registered with Millenium Taxi, your one-way fare will be just $10, regardless of the number of passengers in the taxi. Please be aware that, if multiple conference attendees arrive at nearly the same time, Millenium will likely group you into taxis for efficiency. In fact, if you know that you will be arriving on the same flight with a group of SIGCSE attendees, you may register for taxi rides for the entire group at once. Millennium would prefer that you do this instead of making several individual reservations.

Please note: The form's e-mail address field may be too short to hold your email address. We recommend that you include it within the comments field. It is important that Millenium receive a valid email address because, after you register, you will receive an email with PDF page containing your taxi coupon(s). You will need to print out this page and present the coupon(s) when you board the taxi.

When you arrive in Chattanooga, proceed to the Baggage Claim area to meet your ride. You are looking for a blue Millenium taxi. Your driver will charge you for the round-trip ($20) when s/he drops you off at your hotel, and will give you his/her card. Call your driver to arrange your return trip.



City-to-City Shuttles


Here are two companies that provide hourly departures from Atlanta and Nashville to Chattanooga (and back!):

Additional shuttle options may be available; visit the Ground Transportation sections of the airport web sites for their lists of options:


Special SIGCSE Atlanta - Chattanooga Bus


In mid-January, Owen Astrachan made the following offer to the SIGCSE community:


    The Duke Computer Science Education Group has chartered a bus to travel
    between the Atlanta airport and the SIGCSE Marriott hotel. The bus will
    leave the Atlanta airport on Tuesday, March 3 at 7:00 pm. The return
    trip from Chattanooga will leave at 7:00 am Sunday morning.

    The bus can accommodate about 50 people, it has wireless Internet
    access. Travel guides put the trip at about two hours, but traffic can
    have an impact.

    We're doing this because there are more options flying in/out of Atlanta
    than through to Chattanooga and to share the joy and passion of SIGCSE,
    of course.

    There will be a SIGCSE greeter at the airport for the bus at about 6:00
    pm. If you get in earlier you can hang out until then. I'll be getting
    in a little after 5:00 on Sunday.

    We will defray the cost, but will charge each person $40/round trip. If
    you want the bus in one direction let me know, but we'll still charge
    $40.  We should have an online credit card setup later this week, but
    for now you can 'reserve' a spot by committing via email to me.  The bus
    will leave at 7:00 pm, we cannot wait around for really late flights.
    I'll send my contact information to everyone coming.

    Hope to see lots of folks at SIGCSE and a subset on the bus.

    Owen
            

Update: To register for this bus trip, visit the Duke Computer Science Education Group's Registration for SIGCSE 2009 Bus Travel page. Questions may be directed to Owen Astrachan.



Car Rentals


Both Hartsfield-Jackson and Nashville International are served by several major car rental companies. Lists of the companies with contact information can be found at the respective airport web sites:


Daily Parking


If you are bringing / renting a car for your trip, daily parking is available at the Convention Center for $8 per day. The Convention Center's address is One Carter Plaza, Chattanooga, TN, 37401. The toll-free telephone number is 1-800-962-5213.


This site is hosted by The University of Arizona Department of Computer Science.