It’s a hail storm at Logan
Massport’s plan for Uber, Lyft is neither fast nor convenient
The first impression for tourists visiting Boston won’t be one of ease and convenience navigating through the airport in order to get a ride to their destination. Last spring, Massport announced that Uber and Lyft could no longer pick up curbside at Logan International Airport and were being moved to two areas in Central Parking.
Traveling with young kids is challenging enough so when the announcement went into effort I turned my Uber app off and returned to the archaic taxi system and got in a long line. A family of four with lots of bags requires a minivan taxi, which means you wait even longer for the right car to pull around the turn. It reminds you why you use these apps in the first place and how inefficient the taxi industry is and why entrepreneurs have made billions disrupting this marketplace with a turnkey solution.
It is so typical that a state agency would want to ruin this efficient form of transportation for travelers after being exhausted from a long flight.
Now Terminal C is under construction, so taxis and Ubers all pick up in the same area. This construction project will last well beyond one year. I got my first taste of what it is like for tourists coming to Boston and relying on their favorite app for a ride and how terrible the journey is to find your car. It is long, cold and confusing.
Regina Winslow of Boston recalled the horrible experience she dealt with last week.
“Having to walk half a mile at 2 a.m. with four bags and two tired kids doesn’t give a great first impression of Boston. Regardless of the recordings of Marty Walsh and Charlie Baker greeting you with trying to ‘welcome you to our fine city’, It doesn’t welcome people and it angers the taxpayers.”
It is not lost on me that Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin
Walsh don’t have to do this schlep to Central Parking. They have police-chauffeured SUVs picking them up, so it’s easy for these politicians to allow Massport to create policies that are totally inconvenient for the rest of us.
Massport spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan said, “Ride app vehicles had caused significant traffic congestion at the airport and moving them to Central Parking was aimed at reducing congestion while providing a better passenger experience. The walk to and from the area is the same as those who park in Central Parking, and by reducing congestion the overall vehicle trip time is shortened.”
One of the reasons travelers don’t park in the Central Parking lot is because it is too expensive if you are going away for a week. The whole point of Uber is to make travel easier and avoid parking garages entirely. That is now being taken away from us.
Making it harder to find the car you ordered won’t decrease traffic unless travelers start choosing other airports like Providence and Worcester.