Imagine you’re a family, heading to Disney World with two young children and a flight to catch. You take an Uber to Logan Airport, but instead of the usual curbside drop-off, you’re deposited at the central garage. Dragging kids and luggage, you must make your way from there to your departure terminal.
To reduce airport congestion, Massport is proposing that inconvenient scenario for Uber and Lyft rides. If implemented, it would make Logan the only airport in the nation that doesn’t allow so-called Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) to drop off or pick up at the terminal curb. An exception would be made for riders with a physical disability who choose a designated paratransit vehicle. Meanwhile, curbside drop-off and pickup for taxis and limos would stay the same. And personal vehicles will still loop around Logan’s notoriously cramped footprint with curbside privileges intact.
Who doesn’t hate bumper-to-bumper airport traffic? But this is unfair to TNCs and unfriendly to consumers — and it could create a different kind of ground-control headache at Logan.
According to Massport, TNCs generated 12 million total vehicle trips to and from Logan during 2018, accounting for 30 percent of airport ground transportation. Also, according to Massport, 5 million TNCs arrived or departed without a single passenger. As Massport sees it, there would be less of that if all TNC pickups and drop-offs were moved to the ground floor of the central garage. There, it would be easier for someone dropping off a passenger to be matched with a waiting pickup. Passengers would have a shorter wait time, in a weather-protected area. But they will also have to haul luggage and children to and from various terminals that connect to central parking. And managing all those Uber and Lyft drivers in the garage has the makings of another traffic nightmare.
The Massport proposal is modeled after a pilot plan in the Fenway area , which creates a designated zone at the intersection of Bolyston and Kilmarnock streets, between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. Uber and Lyft support the Fenway proposal — because it makes sense. It’s no big deal to walk from a nearby store or restaurant to that spot, and riders probably won’t be lugging luggage. Airport travel logistics are different. While Massport acting CEO John Pranckevicius is right to take on the congestion problem, there are better ways to address it.
For instance, in San Francisco, TNC riders have the option to pay a higher price for curbside drop-off. Pranckevicius said Massport decided against that because of equity issues: “We were concerned about creating a different class of users,” he said. Under Massport’s proposal, the pickup fee for ride-hail trips would increase from $3.25 to $5, and riders would also pay the same fee to be dropped off at the airport. However, in a bid to encourage carpooling and reduce traffic, Massport would charge only $2.50 to those who use TNC ride-hailing options, while encouraging more riders to take shuttle buses to Logan from downtown Boston.
But there’s already an equity divide. People who can afford taxis, limos, and TNCs take them; those who can’t, take the T. Massport has been working to make public transit options better, and that’s a better way to tackle equity than reducing the choices available to everyone.
At Reagan National in Washington, Uber said the company partnered with the airport to reduce congestion by alternating pickup points depending on time of day, to offer pickups at under-utilized curbs. At LaGuardia Airport in New York City, Uber said it uses separate pickup zones for UberX and premium rides, so there isn’t excessive bunching.
Uber and Lyft say they understand congestion is a real problem and want to work with Massport to address it. That family headed to Disney would appreciate another solution also.