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Line of the times

Long line at Logan

As she waited at 1 a.m. today in this long cab line at Logan, Rachael Ringenberg wondered:

Totally makes sense not to encourage Uber here??

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if only there was some kind of public transportation that ran past 12:30.

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If only there were some sort of technology that could indicate that a plane had arrived, so that the taxi dispatch lot could start sending cabs to the appropriate terminal. I'm sort of imagining some sort of TV screen, connected to a computer network, that would display a listing of arriving flights.

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How do you know that dispatch (by which I assume you mean the Logan central taxi pool) is the problem? It could also be that not enough empty taxis showed up at the airport.

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on the number of times I've waited a long time for a cab, to be told by the cab driver that he waited a long time in the pool.

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I fly every week for work and take Uber to/from Logan. They pick you up in the limo area on the second level. I got one at 1am last Sunday coming back from Florida.

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You probably take the black car service, which is allowed to pick up at logan since they have livery plates and pay the appropriate toll.

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The irony is the tolls are less if you take a black car than a cab (or if you take UberX to the airport). Got to give the convention center their billions. And since the power people take black cars they don't have to pay the higher tolls cabs do.

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Private liveries pay Massport a separate up-front fee to be allowed to pick up at the airport, train stations, elsewhere. That was the toll being discussed. The black cars pay that. UberX don't. So, the cops bust UberX, not Uber/UberBlack.

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Nope. Black cars pay the same inflated toll as taxis.

http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/highway/TrafficTravelResources/EZPassMAPr...
"vehicles with livery, taxi and other commercial plates or vehicles with more than 4 tires must join the E-ZPass MA commercial program"

In addition, the Massport fee is higher for livery cars -- $3.25, versus $2.75 for taxis.

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the black car, not Uber X, but still Uber nonetheless. I've also waited no more than 10 minutes for one, so it definitely beats waiting in a long taxi line after midnight.

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I had no idea about the rules, since we fly just a couple times a year and are fairly new to Uber. We requested an UberX ride the last time we arrived in Logan, he found us hanging out in front of the terminal and we had a quick, pleasant ride home. We had no idea we were breaking the law. What would the penalty have been if we'd been caught?

Surely you can GO to the airport any way you want, including UberX... right?

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I take UberX to the airport all the time. I usually just take the T back to save money, so I never knew UberX couldn't do pick ups.

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They're not allowed to. That's illegal.

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Illegal or not, they're there. And, it's much better than taking a ride from an angry cab driver who thinks driving to Roslindale is similar to asking him to take you to Springfield.

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allowing a system that perpetuates the continuation of an unfair monopoly (cabs) . Or a system whereby a public agency (MassPort) can extort money from cabbies (airport 'fees").

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Why? For the same reason that any limo service is legal at the airport so long as they follow the regulations. Ever see people with the signs with a name? That.

I can arrange a cab from Medford to meet me at the airport, and that is legal, too. Always has been. They simply have to be a limo with limo plates and there to pick up a specific person.

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Aren't allowed to refuse to take you wherever you want to go, or take you home and then have the credit card machine "break" but that happens.

Several months ago, I got off of a 15 hours flight, and when I got home the cab driver told me his credit card machine "didn't work". When he found out I had nothing but foreign currency and flatly refused to go to an ATM, he magically fixed it.

People don't use Uber just because it's cheaper.

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I flew in from London, cleared customs and requested an UberX which arrived in 2 minutes and picked me up in the Limo waiting area. Fare to the South End was $11.60, plus $15 in fees ($8.75 airport surcharge, $5.25 toll and $1 safe rider fee). Driver got out of the car, welcomed me home, loaded my luggage in the trunk and offered me a bottle of water. At the destination, he thanked me for choosing Uber, took my luggage from the trunk and walked it over a snow bank to put it on the sidewalk for me. Overall a flawless experience. Have done the same in the past few weeks when arriving at Terminal B on a domestic flight too. Had no idea it was illegal and frankly, it is stupid that it is.

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Like any other limo, with limo plates and a commercial driver, an Uber Black Car can pay the fees and scoop you up.

I've used Uber Black Car, as well as arranging for a local cab service to pick me up (non-Boston medallion). So long as it is a fully commercial driver and vehicle summoned by you, no worries.

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Take any car rental bus and Uber is allowed to pick you up at the rental garage. Not allowed at the terminal but this is close enough for me.

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Can anyone confirm this? Sounds like a great tip!

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1) It's a Massport-based law and the rental center is still "at the airport" so it's no more legal than picking up at the terminal. However, they probably don't police it anywhere nearly as well/as easily as the terminal so you can get away with it more readily and the address is probably not within Uber's software restricted sphere for allowed pick-ups.

2) Some rental car company shuttles ask for a reservation to allow you on the shuttle.

3) You could do the same by taking one of the park-n-ride shuttles in the same way and not involve private companies, etc.

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There aren't any car rental company specific shuttles. There is a Massport bus that goes to the rental car center, after it stops at the Airport T station.

https://www.massport.com/logan-airport/to-and-from-logan/on-airport-shut...

So they can't know where you are going, exactly, and can't demand a reservation to let you on the bus.

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I hadn't needed a rental car at Logan in quite a while and wasn't looking at the shuttles last time I drove through the terminals to see they'd replaced them all with a single service. The old locations all had separate shuttles.

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Double tap.

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How about taking a shuttle to the curb of the Blue Line station, and getting picked up there? Is that considered Massport, or MBTA?

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Even if the T station roadway is in airport land, I believe you can walk to a street in the real world without passing through the turnstiles.

Does the Massport shuttle bus stop at the Airport T station 24 hours a day? The website just says routes 22 and 33 run during "midday peak hours", and 55 runs during "early morning and late evening off-peak hours".

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Nothing can make you feel more trapped than a long non-moving line when you are this close to home. This kind of thing is totally unacceptable.

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1. Boston is not a world class city.

2. Like its public transportation system, its taxi system is archaic. Almost everyone who has visited me from out of town has commented on how ridiculously difficult it is to get a taxi here, especially at the airport.

3. With this infrastructure, any talk of hosting the Olympics has got to be a joke.

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There are some who want Boston to be a world class city and those people want Olympics 2024 which entails the following: loss of the use of public parks for a year or more, 50+ mature trees to be axed that many of us, myself included, have donated money to annually to ensure that they are pruned and healthy for all to enjoy, relocation of local businesses against their will, tax increases to pay for the exorbitant costs of hosting said games.
On the other hand, there are those of us who recognize that Boston is NOT a world class city and that there is NOTHING WRONG that and as a matter of fact, it's a GOOD THING. We would rather have Boston be a city that is first and for most a 'residents of Boston' class city: a city that looks out for its residents and is less concerned with pandering to 1 percenters of other nations for some sort of world class status BS.
I'm sure there is someone who can express similar sentiments more articulately than I'm able to...

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People on my street pay each other to haul to the airport. Sometimes this is because somebody has eight people coming in for a family reunion, or needed the minivan for all the stuff (e.g. professional videography equipment) and people involved.

There isn't any app involved, just "Hey, could you pick us up next Saturday at 11? We'll pay parking and gas."

Offering to pay your roommate or neighbor to drop/fetch you kind of sweetens the deal.

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I certainly wouldn't want to be alone in a car with some of my neighbors.

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Unlike Uber or a Cab, at least you know that before you get in!

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The airport is a 24-hour location, yet try getting there or back between 12:30 and 5:30 in the morning and you're out of luck (with the minor exception that the 171 will get you there by 4:15 with connections from Ashmont and Mattapan and the 117 by 5:15 with connections from the 39, 57 and 89, sort of). MassPort provides basically-free shuttle service to Back Bay from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., but good luck getting there at other times of day. Even though a third of all airport workers' shifts begin between 3 and 5 am, there is no dependable way to get to the airport at those time apart from three poorly-advertised buses running from two locations (Dudley and Haymarket). For most people, getting to the airport by bike or foot at these times is a non-starter: there's a minor issue of the Boston Harbor being in the way. And travelers are not the only ones who get stuck after T service in the evening: if planes come in late, the service crews and baggage handlers also have to stay late. So they wind up being forced to drive to the airport, and pay to park in Chelsea, and MassPort has to run shuttles to employee parking in Chelsea.

Why are there no cabs at the airport at this time of night? What taxicab driver, who could be picking up fares are bars in Allston and the Back Bay, is going to drive across the harbor, sit in line at the airport and hope that maybe a late flight comes in and they get a fare? And if not, they get to foot the bill themselves to drive back through the tunnel,empty. I've been refused a meter fare once trying to get to the airport in the morning (and a complaint to BPD resulted in a refund and a reprimand) as the cabbie didn't want to pay to come back through the tunnel empty. I've also been on a late-arriving plane which got to Logan at 2:45 and resulted in a long line of people waiting for non-existent taxis. We sort of organized in to groups ("You're going to JP? I'm going to Brookline, let's share.") and the enterprising drivers charged us each the fare on the meter and at 3:30 we were happy enough to have a ride home that we paid it. But the line was 45 minutes long, almost worth lying down on a bench and waiting for the first Silver Line bus to rumble through in the morning.

When we talk about late night T service, we really should be focusing on airport workers and travelers who might benefit as well. The airport immediately comes to mind. What if, instead of running these few early buses, the T, with the financial support of MassPort (which already subsidizes the Silver Line) to run a shuttle service to and from downtown overnight. Existing Silver Line buses could be used and operate to South Station at the surface during overnight hours. Even though there wouldn't be any transit service available at, say, 3:30 a.m., airport workers could bike, walk or take taxicabs South Station and transfer to a Silver Line bus, as could people with early flights (it's basically impossible to get to a flight before 7 a.m. without using one of the buses shown above). And when a flight gets in late, passengers could board a bus to downtown, where there are a lot more cabs rolling around at that time of day. Or, since MassPort already runs Logan Express buses to Back Bay, perhaps this could be folded in to that service, with MassPort providing overnight service between Back Bay, South Station and the airport between midnight and 6 a.m. It would certainly make it easier for most people to get to Logan without the cost of tolls, gas and parking.

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A 24-hour bus route to the airport would certainly be helpful. But it wouldn't do much for people who couldn't walk to a stop on the downtown end, since there'd be nothing to transfer to. Those people would just take a taxi from the airport.

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Could take a cab from South Station, which is quite a few bucks of tunnel fees cheaper than from Logan.

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Not only is it explicitly not permissible for me to pick up at Logan terminals, it's also my understanding that my app won't even go online for pickups if I'm in those areas. So I'm not clear as to how an UberX driver got an UberX ping at Logan.

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So you are surprised Uber drivers aren't following regulations? I have been charged for the cab rate for the ted williams tunnel to the airport by Uber drivers even though they do not pay that (UberX drivers only pay the regular toll) and also have been charged the Massport fee even though Uberx drivers don't pay Massport that. So, don't be surprised Uberx drivers are as shady as cabbies. I started using sidecar and Lyft, much better.

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But the car that picked me up on Saturday night was an older Lincoln Town car, so maybe the Uber black car drivers have access to all UberX/ UberXL requests that flow in from Logan? Regardless of how it happened, I was pleased with the service and will continue to utilize Uber from Logan

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but I've definitely been picked up by cars with livery plates using UberX. So when things are slow they switch to UberX requests?

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Long cab lines are pretty much the norm at JFK. When I need to get to/from Manhattan, and I don't want to risk waiting 45 minutes for a cab, I reserve a black car ahead of time. They monitor my flight information and are waiting when I arrive at the curb. It costs more than a yellow cab, but it's worth the convenience sometimes.

Can't Bostonians do the same thing?

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X amount of time to drive to Logan
1 hour waiting time at Logan
1 hour flight
1 hour + (depending on traffic and NOBODY TAKES THE VAN WYCK!) from JFK to Manhattan
=4+ hours and added aggravation to get to NYC

Acela = 3.5 hours and you're at Penn Station

That's the way I see it anyway. I usually drive since I used to live there and the Merritt can be your best friend when drivng to NYC.

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X amount of time to drive to Logan
1 hour waiting time at Logan
1 hour flight
1 hour + (depending on traffic and NOBODY TAKES THE VAN WYCK!) from JFK to Manhattan
=4+ hours and added aggravation to get to NYC

Acela = 3.5 hours and you're at Penn Station

That's the way I see it anyway. I usually drive since I used to live there and the Merritt can be your best friend when drivng to NYC.

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Check in Online
20 Minutes to Logan
Arrive 30 minutes before flight without checking a bag
1 Hour Flight
45 Minute into Manhattan

Less than three hours, and typically cheaper than Acela

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That's not flying smarter - that's a total fantasy.

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One more strike against Boston cabs.

An earlier poster asked why taxi's would want to pay all the fees, then hope a plane comes in.

A forward thinking company would track the airline schedules (or now, the websites) and SEND cabs to the airport when planes are landing, especially big ones.

However, in my experience with Boston cabs, they barely know when or where an event is going on, and their dispatch services (you know, the people with the phones and radios) certainly aren't advertising it.

Taxi companies & drivers: You have paved the way for Uber and related companies to push you aside.

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What people fail to understand is that Massport runs the airport. That taxi line is created by Massport, taxis are required to park in the airport pool over a mile away and wait to be summoned to a particular terminal. They charge each taxi a $2.25 fee for this service. The cabdriver recovers this fee from the passenger in addition to the $5.25 tunnel toll that limos/taxis and commercial vehicles are required to pay to enter the city of Boston. If uberX was to pick up at the airport they would be required to pay these fees as well or be commercially licensed Many of your uber drivers are former cabdrivers so they know this and they know that the majority of their passengers don't know this, all uber does is have a better delivery system that includes your credit card info, This is all run by the mayor of Boston and the City Council who are the true management of the Boston taxi industry a highly regulated public industry not a private consortium.

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Stop complaining.

I was arriving at 1am the same day. If you don't want to wait order an Uber Black car.

UberX obviously has drivers that don't abide by the regulations, however you cannot request an UberX into Logan. The loophole that people take advantage of is to order an UberX directly outside of the Logan perimeter and then hope for a driver that will still agree to pick you up at the terminal.

So either: Wait, Roll the dice with UberX, or shell out a few extra dollars.

Mic drop.

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