Airport tackles parking woes
Bob Hope board OKs plan to manage ride services’ effects on revenue and traffic.
Officials at Bob Hope Airport are working to get a better handle on the activities of drivers for services such as Uber and Lyft as part of an effort to improve the parking situation at the Burbank airfield.
The on-demand transportation services are “beginning to erode parking revenue,” Dan Feger, the airport’s executive director, said during a meeting of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority board. Some officials also have complained that the drivers block traffic in the airport’s short-term parking structure while waiting to pick up passengers.
Last week, the airport authority approved an interim measure that Senior Deputy Executive Director John Hatanaka said was intended to manage the “explosion of these new services.”
Planned to be in effect for three years, the program would allow the services to continue to drop customers off at the terminals’ curbsides. But for pickups, the airport will shuffle some parking spaces in the shortterm parking garage to create a space for Uber and Lyft drivers to load passengers without blocking the roadway.
The minimum fee for using the parking structure is $3 for the first half-hour, which the drivers must pay.
Drivers also must display signs on their vehicles indicating what company or service for which they are driving. If they are caught picking up passengers elsewhere, such as at the curbside, the service will be issued a notice of violation.
Three violations in 60 days will result in a sixmonth suspension of the service’s access to the airport, and continued violations could lead to revocation of permission to operate on the airport permanently.
An Uber official said the company was looking into the plan.
“We are reviewing the recently approved plan closely and look forward to working with airport officials to make ride-sharing pickups and drop-offs available at Burbank-Bob Hope available for the long term,” said Michael Amodeo, a spokesman for Uber.
The result is estimated to bring in an additional $2,700 in monthly parking fees collected, Hatanaka said.
Parking revenue is a significant issue for the airport, where fees brought in between $1.5 million and $1.8 million per month last year. Parking taxes contribute around $2 million to the city’s general fund.