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Citizen complaint of the day: If Logan can centralize ride shares, why not Boston?
By adamg on Wed, 10/23/2019 - 11:59am
A concerned citizen notes the impending centralization of Uber/Lyft pickups and drop offs at Logan Airport and poses a question via 311 to BTD:
If Massport is able to handle Uber and Lyft efficiently at the airport, why hasn't BTD done anything about controlling the illegal drop offs in no stopping zones downtown that contribute to traffic and gridlock? When will you work with the TNCs to ringfence the Financial District/Govt Ctr and carve out and put up signage for dedicated curbside pickup/dropoff areas?
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Comments
But Massport ISN'T able to
But Massport ISN'T able to handle Uber and Lyft efficiently at the airport.
i tend to
agree with the sentiment here, but it isn’t really an argument against trying something different. the fact is that something needs to be done.
Exactly
MassPort is terrible at managing ride share. They seem to want to make it as difficult as possible (Terminal E). I'm withholding judgement about the centralization until I use it, but I'm not optimistic. It looks like longer walks and more competiton.
The whole concept is to have
The whole concept is to have Uber and Lyft at the customers disposal, having it at a centralized location defeats the purpose.
We can do the same for all types of delivery trucks especially subcontractors who work for Amazon let the city centralize delivery vehicles.
kind of a stretch
i don’t think zero effort on the part of the passenger is the “whole concept” of ridesharing.
it’s certainly the most ideal scenario from the passenger’s perspective, but i’d argue that the ability to take a personalized ride directly to your desired location is the “whole concept”.
having to walk to a predetermined location doesn’t denigrate the experience all that much.
You wouldn't know it from how
You wouldn't know it from how most riders behave though!
Asking many of them to walk to the end of the block may as well be asking them to cure cancer or bring about world peace.
That's confusing
So, the app gives you a choice about going to the end of the block for a lower fare. I can say that a friend was hit by another car when the rideshare made her cross the street. Customers might have a reason behind their reluctance.
But this airport stuff is being advertised. You can always wait for a cab. I wonder if the rules apply to XL since they are livery.
Does this also apply to
Does this also apply to private livery and to movie stars or vii’s who are dropped off by limo’s.
Okay...
Okay so you want to do doorside pickup for every single person whenever they feel like it? That has created a disaster on so many streets because the drivers have no idea about the neighborhoods and are not trained whatsoever by the companies who technically employ them. Subcontracting is a menace on the inhabitants of neighborhoods and a joke for employment standards. These people get zero training and are 9/10 times not even from the city or state they operate in. The whole concept is rubbish and it's going to end ugly sooner or later where someone gets run over and potentially killed.
If...
If people hate Lyft and Uber so much why do they keep using it? No sane person could argue that the T isn't comprehensive, clean, safe and efficient
Irrelevant.
No stopping zones are no stopping zones. Either enforce the zones, or get rid of them.
Indeed
No sane person could argue that the traffic laws aren't strickly enforced in this town except when it comes to rideshare drivers. So I agree the only solution is to get rid of the no stopping zones
Sarcasm and double negatives
are a bad combo.
Maybe so
However your post was confusing and could easily be understood as being against stopping zones. Next time make an argument not just shoot from the hip and people will know what the heck you are talking about
...
Are you trying for performance art now? The projection is staggering.
i’m struggling to decipher
i’m struggling to decipher your point here. is this just a general complaint about the T? or is it some kind of larger argument against regulation?
as a previous poster noted, the two rhetorical devices you’re using are not yielding the results i think you wanted.
...
My grammer is as bad as your punctuation
*grammar (heehee)
*grammar
(heehee)
lol
so you had no point at all then? cool.
Let's be honest, a lot of the
Let's be honest, a lot of the "no stopping" zones could easily be parking spots without impeding traffic.
If someone is pulling over and not obstructing traffic (including bike lanes and crosswalks), that's much more preferable than blocking a travel lane or having a central pick-up spot that could be blocks away. I've had trouble locating rideshares a block away in neighborhoods that I knew well... since we often take rideshares in areas we're less familiar with, that'd just be a mess.
Just make the whole city a no
Just make the whole city a no stopping zone, and traffic will never stop moving!
I think Logan airport should
I think Logan airport should invest in several hundred enclosed electric golf carts at the centralized Uber drop off location , it will be useful especially for the elderly.
yeah gotta love trying to use
yeah gotta love trying to use the T when you're leaving the airport at 12:10 AM on a sunday night.... very useful....
BU for example could partner with the City to do this
Geo-tag certain parts of campus that are designated drop off/pickup zones just like at Logan.
Otherwise you continue with the free for all now where bike lanes at the GSU are really just drop off/waiting zones. Especially considering that West of the BU Bridge, there is no bike lane to double park in anymore so TNCs are either dropping off at bus stops or stopping in traffic to let passengers out.
Why treat rideshare differently?
Why are we treating, say, my wife stopping to pick me up or drop me off, differently from an Uber driver doing the same?
It seems the issue here is enforcement of no stopping zones and has nothing to do with TNCs
I don't really think there is a difference
Taxi's/private citizens driving have always been parking where they shouldn't, you're right its a lack of enforcement.
TNCs have just lead to a larger proliferation of people waiting in no stopping zones, especially bike lanes, due to that lack of enforcement and the nature of how digital ride hailing works.
The difference is the technology that TNC companies can employ to curb this. The taxis/private cititzens require better parking enforcement, perhaps theres a way to automate but right now TNCs are employing a technical solution brought on by MassPort demands right? Lets do it for the rest of Boston.
No difference
It is just that ride share companies are profiting from it. The worst part is that most people don't pull over anywhere they just jump out into traffic.
Because the breaking the law
Because the breaking the law is pretty much the business model of these ride hailing and delivery companies.
Yes, your wife can pick up up, but Uber, etc. has made this illegal occurrence way more frequent.
WTF are GSU and TNC
Honestly I even looked them up. Georgia Southern University and The Nature Conservancy were the top results.
Transportation Network
Transportation Network Companies no idea as to GSU.
GSU = George Sherman Union,
GSU = George Sherman Union, BU's main student center.
TNC = Transportation Network Company, the legal term for rideshare services.
Because that is not
Because that is not convenient and people so not want life to be harder than it needs to be...
The city is already working
The city is already working on this, right? i.e. on Boylston in the Fenway.
Enforcement is another issue and I don't know how well these things are being enforced. Complainer's heart is in the right place.
Of course the city is not set up for the app-driven conveniences the modern city-dweller wants, e.g. ridehails and deliveries. So something needs a major rethink.
Airports are a great
Airports are a great experience. Let's emulate them. Everywhere should ban car drop-offs and require a shuttle bus ride from some other off-site location, including the shuttle bus pickup locations themselves.
you can always tell a great idea
by the frequency of arguments ad absurdum in response
Maybe I’m cynical
But seeing as how well parking in the bus only lane in Roslindale is regulated (or bus stops in general), for example, I have doubts that the city would effectively enforce any new parking regulations related specifically to ride share cars.
Build it into the system
You're right that just saying, "Don't stop here" isn't going to work. However, if the Uber/Lyft software was programmed so that they could only drop off at select locations, it would go a long way towards making the drivers and their customers avoid stopping where they shouldn't.
Is the Roslindale bus lane badly enforced now?
I only see it up by the square it's usually car free when I go through there.
Always a few cars
There’s pretty frequently a few cars from the square to Forest Hills.
My favorites are when it’s various City department vehicles.
When I go down it
There are typically 2 or 3 vehicles parked in the bus lane. One by Target (roughly), one by the home daycare, and one beyond Archdale. Not necessarily the same cars, but always those spots.
easy fix:
equip the busses with cameras and auto-ticket those motherfuckers. parking in a bus lane is the height of me-me-me selfishness
If you take Back Bay for
If you take Back Bay for example- demand for parking drops during the day (residents leave for work) and Uber and traffic pick up (people using Uber to get to meetings, doctors appts, etc.). What you need are flex spots on certain streets - like Newbury. From 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM when Uber and traffic are heaviest, use those spots for pick up and drop zones. Once traffic dies down and Back Bay residents return home, convert those spots back into parking.
Walk down Newbury Street at any given time and you will see Ubers double parked in a lane. This directly causes most of the congestion in the city. You need to incentive people to call the Uber when they are actually ready, not when they are wrapping up their meeting on the 17th Floor of the Hancock Tower. Once the car arrives, give them 1 minute to get in and get moving. Otherwise the meter starts running. Charge them $5 a minute for blocking traffic.
Uber is fantastic technology and provides a great service. I can't stand when the city acts like blockheads trying to come up with a solution. Just get a handful of half-intelligent people in a room together, give them a gallon of coffee and you'll come up with a better solution than what we currently have in place - 100% guaranteed.
South Station
is screaming for some sort of traffic centralization/enforcement.
Lyft already has this for
Lyft already has this for South Station.
It does? As a driver I've
It does? As a driver I've never noticed anything different about South Station pickups/dropoffs.
So the roof?
So the roof?
Amtrak and Transit Police
As bad as South Station is, I do regularly see those two agencies chasing away cars on Summer St. Never seen BPD do that anywhere in Boston.
The problem with South
The problem with South Station is that there is currently no legal place to stop. This is a problem not even limited to just TNCs. I wrote a comment on here a while ago breaking down the restrictions all the way around the building, but in short every single foot of curb space in front of or alongside South Station is either a bus stop, a taxi stand, or posted no stopping.
The city needs to actually provide a place for drop offs and pickups. People are never going to stop getting rides to and from South Station, no matter how much you try to regulate the practice out of existence.
DC does this in their "wharf"
DC does this in their "wharf" neighborhood, which is their version of the mini-seaport (all brand new district).
If youre anywhere in that area, you are given the choice of 3 drop-off or pick-up locations. Thats it.
Same interfase like when you get to an airport and it prompts you to pick your terminal and "door"
The concerned citizen...
... makes some very good points.
Uber and Lyft are out of control in downtown Boston. I say ban them completely.
I assume you never use either
I assume you never use either service then?
If Massport is able to handle
In what parallel dimension is this concerned citizen living in?
It's temporary
Lyft and Uber are stock scam's and these companies will collapse before we solve these problems.
You mean their main
You mean their main innovation over traditional cabs ("hey, let's lose billions of dollars!") isn't sustainable?
In the meantime....
While that may be true, in the meantime they're not all bad: they have done a lot of financial damage to those speculators who profited from the government-run protection racket that was the medallion system. Eddie Tutunjian, we're lookin' at you here...
I don’t know what people are
I don’t know what people are complaining about. It’s always been this way. Remember cabs, anyone? Even though the city made a measly attempt to create can stands in a few specific places, they would be constantly blocking traffic and double parking everywhere - not to mention all the people with regular cars that would double park so they can ‘just’ run inside to go to the store or drop off groceries because they couldn’t find a parking spot.