San Francisco Airport Adds New Lot To Ease Rideshare Traffic Congestion
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - Officials at the San Francisco International Airport are hoping a new strategy will ease traffic, especially with rideshare drivers.
A new parking lot opened up at 9 a.m. Friday morning, but instead of easing traffic, it caused some confusion.
"I'm looking for the waiting lot for Uber," said one passenger.
Up until Friday, Uber and Lyft drivers waited for a pickup call in a lot on the south side of the airport. The new lot is on the north side, adjacent to the cellphone waiting area.
With 244 spots, it's more than double the size of the old lot, but crews were still painting stripes as of Friday morning.
"They don't give me the right instruction. I tried to get over here but I don't see the signal, so I might go back to lot 1 and 2 back in Millbrae," said rideshare driver Pov Kham.
That's the place that was creating major gridlock because it was too crowded. Streets like East Millbrae Ave, Old Bayshore Highway, and Highway 101 have been jammed up with transportation network companies waiting for pickups.
Both Millbrae and Burlingame's mayors wrote a letter to Uber and Lyft last week saying the gridlock was impacting personal lives as well as city operations.
Many rideshare drivers found the lot by asking around. When they did find it, it received good reviews.
"This is great. I think San Francisco and the whole Bay Area should learn from this and should create safe zones for drivers to pick up and drop off passengers," one rideshare driver said.
