Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers may go on strike early Monday, August 5, 2013 (again…).
If they do, it will be a big pain in the neck for travelers heading to or from San Francisco International Airport (SFO). To help out, the airport has issued some transportation options and advice, including:
Other transit and shared rides
SFO is recommending that travelers use shared van services, the Caltrain commuter rail or SamTrans bus to the airport and look for updates information on transit options on www.511.org or www.flysfo.com/bart-strike.
Other options include taxis and the ride-share services such as Lyft, UberX, Sidecar and InstantCab.
Free SFO buses
If there is a BART strike, SFO will operate free buses between the airport BART station and the Millbrae Caltrain center. Buses will drop off and pick up passengers at the departure level of the International Terminal, outside the airport BART station.
Free buses will also operate at regular intervals between the airport and the South San Francisco (Oyster Point) ferryboat terminal. A map of these bus routes, along with other supplemental transit options, can be found here.
Kiss & Fly; Cell Phone Lot
If you are getting picked up or dropped off at SFO by car, the airport encourages you to use the Kiss-and-Fly curb at the rental car facility. From there you catch the AirTrain to the terminals.
SFO also offers a free cell-phone parking lot. It’s next to the Long Term Parking surface lot five minutes north of the terminals.
After a long flight, travelers must often deal with the bad weather while waiting in a long taxi line out at the curb.
But at JFK International Airport Terminal 4 in New York, taxi dispatchers have travelers line up inside the baggage hall, where they are protected from the elements and, presumably, from unauthorized operators.
Bars sell drinks in to-go cups so you can have your beer or a cocktail on the street. And now there are vending machines in some city cabs to ensure that parched passengers can sip soda in the back seats.
“You make a choice from a screen, swipe a credit or debit card and, for 99 cents, a cold soda pops out from a slot in the shelf behind the passenger seat,” said Simon Garber, the owner of New Orleans Carriage Cab and Yellow-Checker Cab. “It almost places the can in your hand.”
Garber told NBC News that it was his teenage son who first suggested the idea and, after several years of tinkering with the concept and the machinery, Garber figured out a way to install a vending unit in a cab trunk that can deliver cold soda to the back seat. About 40 of his city cabs have started testing the units.
We took a morning “ride-along” — by cellphone — with cab driver Kirk Lee and Kelly Robin, the first thirsty passenger of the day.
Robin, a server in a French Quarter restaurant, ordered a Dr. Pepper from the five choices on the screen during her short trip to work.
“Cool, cold and convenient,” she said, popping the top on the can that she watched appear from a rectangular metal slot in the shelf behind the seat. “This is going to be a very nice customer service.”
Her driver agreed. “People come to New Orleans to have a good time and do something different than normal. Having this novelty in the cabs, especially on the ride in from the airport, is a great way to start,” said Lee.
He thinks cab drivers might come to appreciate the unusual amenity as much as the passengers.
“I can see building up the fact that we’re the only taxi company offering this service, and on a hot day buying my customer a soda,” said Lee. “Or let them use my swipe card and offer to just add the cost of a soda to their bill. It will be part of an enhanced cab experience and I think it will increase tips.”
It will also help reinforce the city’s reputation as a hospitable place to visit, said Mark Romig, president and CEO of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation. “It really adds to the visitor experience, especially when you consider that 50 percent of our visitors arrive by plane,” and that most tourists take cabs into the city, a ride that typically takes between 20 and 30 minutes.
While the in-cab vending machines only sell sodas right now, “just think where this can go,” said Romig. “Other companies will likely embrace this technology. I think it’s an idea that will catch on.”
If it does, Garber is ready. He plans to install vending machines that will sell soda and, someday maybe cologne, small umbrellas and other items, in all 250 of his New Orleans cabs and, soon, in the hundreds of cabs he owns in New York City and Chicago, too.
“It’s something to improve our service, make the ride more enjoyable and our cab company more memorable,” said Garber. “And, of course, encourage people to choose our cabs over others.”
Cabin and Canoe – Herbert Archer. Cabin & canoe, Saddleback Lake, Maine, displayed September 16–October 7, 1968. Copyright Eastman Kodak Co. Courtesy George Eastman House
These days, airports are the major crossroads of modern life. But not too long ago, train stations had that honor. And if you stop in at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal during a busy weekday morning or afternoon, you can still feel some of that ‘everyone is rushing somewhere’ excitement.
In addition to the round information booth with its four-sided clock, the astronomical mural on the ceiling and the grand staircases, some (literally) big attractions at Grand Central for many years were the giant, panoramic Kodak Coloramas on view in the main concourse.
Promoted as the “world’s largest photographs,” these 18-foot high, 60-foot wide back-lit transparencies were impossible to miss during an advertising campaign that included 556 images and ran from 1950 to 1990.
Now 36 of the Coloramas from the 1960s are back for an exhibit at the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex in Grand Central.
The images are from the 1960s and are smaller than the original Coloramas –two feet high and six feet wide –but still quite lovely. Here are two more from the series.
Harvesting a Wheatfield – Ansel Adams. Harvesting a Wheatfield near Pendleton, Oregon, displayed August 28–September 18, 1961. Copyright Eastman Kodak Co. Courtesy George Eastman House.
Teenagers on Bikes – Peter Gales. Teenagers on bikes at beach, Monterey Peninsula, California, displayed March 11–April 1, 1968. Copyright Eastman Kodak Co. Courtesy George Eastman House.
The Coloramas will be on view at Grand Central Terminal through November 1, 2012. The images are part of an international traveling exhibition created by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, which holds the entire Colorama archive.
The airport has decided to extend through September a program that provides free Silver Line express bus service from the airport to Boston’s South Station, which is the connecting point for the MBTA’s Red Line rapid transit system.
As I reported in June (How to get a free public transit ride from the airport), the airport originally planned to test the free-ride program for 90 days to see if it could heighten awareness of public transit options to and from the airport, reduce strain on maxed-out parking structures and improve the flow of traffic out in front of the terminals.
