Love Field reconfigures where rideshares, taxis can pick up passengers: "It's a 10-minute walk"
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — Dallas Love Field Airport has reconfigured where rideshares and taxis can pick up passengers, and it's led to a long walk that has frustrated a lot of travelers.
"This is ridiculous to be this far away," Duke Edwards said. "There's got to be compromise. It's a 10-minute walk out here."
Edwards is among the Love Field passengers logging a lot of steps to the first level of Parking Garage B.
"Several other airports have done it, and in perspective, our distance and our walk...[is] not the furthest," said Lauren Rounds, the city's department of aviation external communications marketing manager.
The airport says the change was necessary because of heavy traffic on the road that runs alongside the terminal.
"What we've observed is a large, large amount of roadway congestion and just a lot of traffic backup down Herb Kelleher Way and sometimes all the way to Mockingbird."
There are signs and airport workers stationed around the terminal to help navigate those unfamiliar with where to go, but the change is still frustrating, especially for longtime Love Field travelers.
"They would have to work hard to make it more difficult and more confusing to find this rideshare," Jim Hodapp said. "I travel 40 weeks a year."
So, CBS News Texas decided to walk it and see just how long it takes.
At two-and-a-half minutes, we reached the bridge between the terminal and parking garages.
At six minutes, we rode the moving sidewalks, some of which we're out of service.
Eight minutes in, we reached the elevator.
And finally, we were down where Uber and Lyft cars were waiting in a total of about nine-and-a-half minutes.
After a grace period, paid drivers could face fines for violating the new rules. Travelers, though, can still get a curbside pickup at the terminal from friends and relatives or if they ride DART or a parking lot shuttle.
