Airport transportation demand management in flux
The rise of ride hailing has significantly impacted airports in two ways.
First, fewer people are driving to the airport and then parking their car and racking up fees for the duration of their trip. This has significantly reduced parking fees as a source of airport revenue. Heretofore it had been significant ("Protecting Your Bottom Line From the “Uber Effect”," Airport Improvement and "As Uber and Lyft grow, fewer are using taxis and airport parking," Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
Second, the use of ride hailing has caused significant congestion problems, and airports in San Francisco, Boston, and Los Angeles among others, have taken steps to direct ride hailing vehicles away from the regular arrival and departure lanes (Addressing Airport Congestion as Traffic Takes Off in the Age of Uber and Lyft, student submission, Airport Cooperative Research Program design competition)..
Just as taxi firms are going out of business because of the impact of ride hailing services with people using their own cars ("The Human Cost of Uber and Lyft: Life in the Dying Taxi Industry," KQED/NPR) the same is happening with airport shuttle services ("Say goodbye to those blue-and-yellow airport vans: SuperShuttle is going out of business," USA Today).
The company had already stopped serving certain airports like BWI in Maryland and more announcements of service cessation have just been made including airports like LAX and National Airport in Northern Virginia.
From a transportation demand management perspective, it's worse to have passengers switch from a shared van to individual vehicles, although it is definitely more convenient for the rider, even if it costs more money.
I've written about transit and airports a few times, including airports "taking more responsibility" for organizing transit service to and from the airport as well as better connections to nearby stations.
-- "Transportation demand management, transit: Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and Logan Airport, Boston," 2019
-- "London's Stansted Airport provides digital information on transit options," 2019
-- "A brief comment on ground transportation at National Airport vis a vis VRE rail service," 2016
-- "Revisiting stories: ground transportation at airports (DCA/Logan)," 2017
-- "Airports and public transit access: O'Hare Airport and the proposed fast connection from Downtown Chicago," 2018
And biking:
-- "Why not a bicycle hub at National Airport?: focused on capturing worker trips but open to all," 2017
Metro Magazine has published a report by DePaul University's Chaddick Institute on higher end shuttle services to airports, although these trips can be hundreds of miles, to provide access to larger airports serving more locations ("Premium intercity bus lines launching new airport-oriented services"). Also see this Minneapolis Star-Tribune article about such a service in Out-state Minnesota, "Shuttle between MSP and Duluth and Mankato airports to launch with $9 fares."
I have a half written piece about how Chaddick's study of high volume origin-destination data to determine gaps and opportunities in high capacity transit service over long distances ought to be the basis for longer distance railroad passenger planning.
-- Ground Transportation Gaps
Labels: airports, fixed rail transit service, infrastructure, railroads, transportation demand management, transportation planning, visitor services
posted by Richard Layman @ 9:49 AM&Permanent Link
1 Comments:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/20/metro/uber-lyft-fee-logan-airport-massport/
Catching a flight? Rideshare fees to Logan airport will jump to $11 roundtrip this summer.
Passengers using rideshare apps to travel to or from Logan International Airport will start paying higher fares this summer, after Massachusetts Port Authority board members unanimously approved increasing the fees it charges rideshare companies for airport trips Thursday.
The fees, which are passed on to customers via fares, will increase from $3.25 to $5.50 for people being picked up or dropped off at the airport. The higher fees come as Massport anticipates a surge in passengers over the next decade, causing more congestion on the roadways and at the airport.
The vote follows weeks of heavy lobbying from ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft, which were fighting against a higher, proposed $15 fee on roundtrips. The companies argued the surcharge would hurt the reliable business enjoyed by drivers and batter the wallets of consumers. Uber pumped six figures into an ad campaign to get Massport to scrap the proposed fees or delay the vote.
He cited the impact on the airport and surrounding communities, including East Boston, which faces heavy pollution. Experts have said that microscopic pollution spewed from airplanes taking off and landing at Logan poses a risk to public health, including asthma, heart problems, and other severe medical conditions.
Logan Airport faces numerous ground transportation challenges, including demand for parking at the airport, Logan Express service, and ride-app facilities often exceeding capacity. Severe congestion at the airport entrance roadway, in tunnels, and at the curb also results in major travel delays. (Boston consistently ranks among the most congested cities worldwide.)
In the next 10 to 15 years, Massport forecasts growth to 53 million passengers, a volume that will add “an estimated 13,000 vehicles per day to already constrained” infrastructure, according to a presentation by Dan Gallagher, director of aviation business and finance at Massport.
The surcharge will increase on July 1. For now, a second fee increase that had been included in the earlier proposal — $7.50, effective July 1, 2027 — is paused.
Taxis and limos will also be hit with a fee hike for pickups, from $2.25 to $5.50, and from $3.25 to $7.50, respectively, by fiscal year 2028. Rates for employee parking, terminal and economy parking, and passport gold parking will also climb under the deal.
Rideshare apps are the largest mode of transportation at the airport, with roughly 30 percent of passengers using them to come to Logan, said Gallagher. The airport will likely average about 9.5 million ride-app trips in 2025, equating to about 14 million vehicles, he said.
“We need to continue to build the right facilities for them that allow us to make them even more efficient, moving more passengers and fewer vehicles, reducing customer wait times, reducing customer canceled trips — all things that contribute to poor customer experience and campus congestion,” Gallagher said.
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