New Ride-Share Pickup Location Frustrates Travelers At Logan Airport
BOSTON (CBS) - Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel holidays at Logan Airport. An estimated one million people are expected to travel through the airport over the next week.
Steve Owens arrived in Boston from Chicago Wednesday. He's in town to see his daughter, who's a student at Berklee College of Music. He says the trip is usually a breeze, but everything changed this time around when he went to grab an Uber.
Owens said getting a ride from Logan the day before Thanksgiving was, "a challenge" because of the new ride-share pickup location. Massport decided to move ride-share locations into the central garage to cut down on congestion. Lyft and Uber rides account for about 35,000 trips to and from Logan every day.
Congestion wasn't the problem for Owens. It was a navigation issue. "A bunch of the Uber drivers couldn't find that location," Owens said. "We had three different Uber drivers cancel." According to Owens it took an hour for a driver to finally figure out how to get into central garage.
Allan Klein followed sign after sign to the ride-share pickup location and ordered his ride, but after waiting several minutes he hit a roadblock. Frustrated, he picked up his phone to call the driver. "I don't see your car. I've now looked at 12 cars," he said. "I don't see your car." After about 20 minutes, the driver arrived, and Klein was on his way. "My ship has sailed," he said.
Jennifer Brown had a similar experience returning home from Southern California. She stood in central parking watching her phone as her driver seemingly drove in circles. "It looks like it just keeps recalculating. The driver looks lost."
That driver never came.
Fast forward 15 minutes and she had another driver. Did she get fed up and order a new one? "No, they canceled."