After complaints about the previous location in Parking Garage B, Friday the app-based ride pickup spot moved to the Valet Pavilion near Parking Garage C.
DALLAS — Friday marked day one of the new location for app-based ride pick-up at Dallas Love Field. And it marked the first day of mostly positive reviews.
The new location is roughly half the distance of the old location at the east end of Parking Garage B. The new location is at the Valet Pavilion next to Parking Garage C.
“Yes, absolutely better,” said Elise Etheridge of Dallas while waiting for an Uber ride at the new location. “It is so much better. It is so much closer, so much better. It used to be about a 10-minute walk which was not ideal.”
And her driver Kevin Green gave it a qualified positive review as well.
“It’s not like it’s rush hour with all the planes com ing in right now to really test the system,” Green said. “But for right now it’s great.”
But there are also detractors. Driver Alexander Hartdegen wasn’t a fan of the previous location, as a driver or a passenger.
“Making that walk over there was a little hellacious, but I got used to it,” he said. “Here now at this new one at the beginning of the year, there’s no cover. I’m not gonna stand out here in the rain or in the freezing cold waiting for somebody. It’s ridiculous.”
On a day like Friday when the weather was ridiculously nice, the new pick-up location was comfortable. Next to, but outside of, the Valet Pavilion, there is no cover or shade as there was at the old location in Parking Garage B. The current Taxi pickup location is covered inside the first floor of Parking Garage C.
Officers directing traffic did admit, however, to some first-day confusion. The lane that now funnels app-based drivers into the pick-up lot used to be the lane for access to the Valet Pavilion. On Friday multiple drivers, people headed to the valet and app-based drivers, often found themselves in the wrong lane.
But Love Field regular Michael Reneau says to give it time.
“I think this will be much better for the folks here, especially if it stays here so that everybody knows where to go,” Reneau said.
“They need consistency,” added Alexander Hartdegen. “They need to quit changing it every year and give it consistency.”
And if this new spot is consistently good, perhaps it is at its new home to stay.