Newly built cellphone parking lots are helping ease congestion at several U.S. airports

When travellers think about air travel these days, many conjure up images of overcrowded skies. And while that may not be easily fixed, there is another problem plaguing many airports – traffic on the ground. And for that, there is hope.

Much of the ground traffic involves drivers circling the terminal or terminals again and again, waiting for arriving passengers to make it to the curb to be picked up. The problem has been worsened by the almost universal use of cellphones, which induced many drivers meeting passengers to stay in the car rather than go into the terminal, because the flyer and driver could co-ordinate by phone.

And it was complicated by security measures, imposed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that prohibit drivers from waiting at the curb in many airports, forcing them to keep moving, or park illegally on the shoulders of roads in or near airports and other potentially unsafe places.

But many busy U.S. airports, from Florida to California, have found a simple partial solution to the problem by creating what they call cellphone parking lots within the airport but away from the terminal.The Greater Toronto Airport Authority recently opened its version of the cellphone parking lot at the east end of Terminal 1 at Pearson International.

Like most of those in the U.S., the Pearson lot is short-term and free. The lots are simply places where drivers can pull in and wait for the cellphone call from flyers who have been reunited with their luggage and are at, or on their way to, the curb.

The idea has captivated not only airport managers, but also limousine drivers and drivers who are picking up relatives or friends. At the cellphone lot at Logan International Airport in Boston, William Young was waiting for a friend recently after driving from Exeter, N.H.

Professional drivers love the cellphone lots, too. Mike Gres, who drives for a limousine company in Mount Vernon, N.Y., was standing next to his car, smoking a cigarette, while waiting for a passenger in the cellphone lot at the Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., one recent afternoon. Gres raved about the concept. He also said he appreciated the cellphone lot’s electronic arrivals board – a duplicate of the one in the terminal.

The lot also has portable toilets, which many drivers consider a convenience – even in the winter.
With about 25 spaces, the Westchester lot was more than half full on a recent weekday, mostly with limousine drivers.

La Guardia airport in New York City simply does not have the room for a cellphone lot – some would say it does not have room for one more taxicab, for that matter. But its big sister, Kennedy International Airport, which covers far more land, does. Its 250-car cellphone lot opened late last spring.

At airports where cellphone lots exist, airport managers usually call attention to them with big signs.

CHARLES DELAFUENTE
New York Times

Categories: New York Limousines
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