Gridlock Chaos At LaGuardia Airport Leaves Fliers Running On Highways To Make Flights
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – It's becoming an all too familiar sight around LaGuardia Airport – a traffic nightmare with people ditching their cars to walk on foot to the terminal.
Thursday was no exception.
MORE: Endless Traffic, Mass Confusion, Ride-Share Price Gouging Creating Chaos At LaGuardia Airport
State police worked with Port Authority police and the NYPD to direct traffic Thursday night – getting things running smoothly again. Earlier in the day however, it was another gridlock disaster to get to the airport.
In cell phone video taken Thursday afternoon a pack of people – including a little girl – is seen dragging their luggage around standstill traffic on the highway leading to LaGuardia.
Cars were backed up for miles. The gridlock was so bad desperate fliers were forced to race to the gates on foot.
"There was so much traffic and I'm about to miss my flight," one person said.
Another frustrated flier tweeted "LaGuardia Airport is a national disgrace… 200 people waiting for a shuttle that's never coming… no explanations."
A Port Authority spokesperson told CBS2 the airport was making up for 300 flights that were canceled due to Wednesday night's storm.
That reportedly made Thursday LaGuardia's second busiest travel day on record.
On top of that, the airport is in the midst of peak construction so several entrances and exits to the terminals are closed.
"Can't get in here. Police have the exits blocked off there, there, blocked off back here just gotta drop people off and walk in," one person explained.
"We were going around in circles there's no way to get in."
Last month, CBS2 detailed the frustrating backup at the Terminal B parking garage, where heavy traffic forced ride-share drivers to cancel on passengers again and again.
"So you have six lanes coming into one," Lyft driver Nabi Israfil told CBS2' Lisa Rozner.
After exposing the dysfunction and alleged price-gouging by drivers, Gov. Cuomo's office told CBS2 he directed Port Authority police and state police to ramp up traffic enforcement to help alleviate the combination of summer travel with airport construction.
Still, it seems in this case they struggled to keep up with the chaos.
Port Authority officials also claimed it increased its patrols by 50 percent to deal with the traffic Thursday afternoon.
