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So the long awaited new rideshare hubs opened on Friday evening at 11:59 PM. It runs for three hours every Friday and Saturday night for the next 6 months as a test with Uber/Lyft and the City of Orlando.
I wanted to try it out so I was the first one in line on Friday evening at the Magnolia Avenue hub.
Even though this was promoted to the drivers, the procedure and instructions on actually how to accomplish the task of getting to the hub, picking up a passenger from that hub and exiting that hub was sorely lacking.
Since the streets of Orlando, in this area, are mostly closed or blocked off by the Orlando police department, construction has closed the primary downtown exits and the remaining open routes are slowed by bumper to bumper traffic, just getting to the Magnolia hub is a challenge (as expected)
Let me say that having a pick up hub is a good idea. I've been suggesting this to Lyft for the past four years. The problem is that it has to be properly executed. So far we aren't there.
The first suggestion that I would make it to put the passenger pick up hub on (the always blocked off by OPD) Church Street. Let the rideshare cars enter on Garland, make a right on Church and exit right on Orange after picking up the passengers. Since this suggestion makes way too much sense and no one listens to suggestions anyway, it probably will not be done.
Getting back to the first night. South street ramp is closed so we can't exit there. Kaley is open, but Division is closed so we can't go that way. So we can stay on I-4 and exit on Colonial, but that puts us past the hub at Magnolia and Magnolia is a one way street going the opposite way we need to go to get to the hub. So the only way I could figure this was to exit Kaley, right on Columbia, left on Orange and snake my way into the bumper to bumper traffic by making a series of left and right turns in an effort to travel in the proper direction to the hub. It took about 15 minutes in traffic to get from Gore and Orange to the hub which is a distance of less than a mile. Fortunately I did not make any wrong turns in the process.
I arrive at 11:55 PM which is 5 minutes before the hub opens. I immediately see the pink Lyft tent with several Lyft workers. That is the only way that I actually knew this was the right area. I pull into the pick up lane and drive all the way to the front spot which is labeled A1. There are several labels for the different positions, A2, A3, etc. There are some temporary que lines sent of for the various spots using those nylon barriers that you see at the airport that lead into the A1, A2, A3 etc. I didn't count how many spots they had but it was probably around a dozen. This reminds me of a ride at universal studios. You que up and get on the ride.
The problem is that there were no riders. There were the Lyft people. There were people from the City Of Orlando Transportation Department.
Within 5 minutes of me pulling up a single gentleman walked up to me and asked if I could drive him around the corner for $20 cash. It was way too cute and I picked him off as law enforcement. I politely declined and told him I can not do that. He just walked away from my mini-van. I don't get a lot of solo passengers in my mini-van.
A young lady in a Lyft uniform comes up and we talk for a bit. It's her first day. The geofence is not working on my phone. She tells me to reset the phone. I did. It still doesn't work. She's really nice but she doesn't know anything. She came up one other time while I was sitting there. Then she didn't come back again. I think she was embarrassed there was a lack of business.
Then a lady comes up in a yellow safety vest from the City of Orlando. I asked her if I was in the right place for picking up Lyft passengers. She tells me that I am. However there is only a five minute wait time allowed if you don't have a pickup. I asked her where I was supposed to go after 5 minutes and she indicated that I am supposed to continuously circle the 4 block bumper to bumper traffic area until I get a ping and then return to the pick up lane, call the passenger and tell the passenger what spot I am parked in. I explained to her, that it will take at least 15 minutes to circle the block and do that. Meanwhile the passengers will be waiting and the line will keep getting backed up. She then told me that since they aren't busy and there is only one car behind me that I can stay longer than 5 minutes. (That was probably the smartest thing she did)
There are more workers than riders the entire time I was there. I drive XL only, so I'm not going to get any X rides. As the hour wore on there were less than a dozen X rides actually picked up at the pickup hub. I'm still in front and there is never a full line of cars behind me. Some riders have called for an X and the X vehicles can't get into the pickup lane because of the traffic and the riders are crossing Magnolia and running after drivers that can't find them.
A channel 9 news reporter shows up. He can't understand why the riders are not here. We do an interview. I try to make it positive as much as possible.
Another City of Orlando transportation guy comes up in his yellow vest. He tells me that I have been waiting over 5 minutes and need to leave. I told him the other lady said I could stay. He goes to talk with her. He comes back. I ask him to ping me to make sure the app is working. He does. I get the ping. He cancels. At least we know that part is working.
The transportation guy tells me we are permitted to use the bus lane to leave the pick up spot for those three blocks only between midnight and 3 AM. I got a ticket using that lane about 4 years ago about this same time, so that is welcome news.
I did notice three vehicles turning the wrong way onto Magnolia (from Washington) coming towards the pickup lane in the opposite direction. They were trapped and had to cross the concrete median to make a u turn and go in the correct direction. There was a tow truck that made the wrong turn and he started backing up and damaged the car he was towing. That blocked the intersection of Magnolia and Washington for about 20 minutes.
Finally at 1:20 AM I get a ping and accept. The only problem is I don't see the riders. I call the riders. They don't know where the pick up spot is. I try to explain. It's not working. I tell them to ask someone. They find a policeman. He tells them where the pickup spot is. It takes them a little over five minutes to find me. They can not enter on the curb side (left) because the city has those airport barriers blocking the left side of the vehicle. So they have to load from the right side exposed to traffic. Off to MetroWest we go on an 22 minute trip for a distance of 8.25 miles. They tell me the driver that brought them downtown earlier from Metro West took 46 minutes to do so. They said they would give me 5 stars. They did not tip.
I wanted to try it out so I was the first one in line on Friday evening at the Magnolia Avenue hub.
Even though this was promoted to the drivers, the procedure and instructions on actually how to accomplish the task of getting to the hub, picking up a passenger from that hub and exiting that hub was sorely lacking.
Since the streets of Orlando, in this area, are mostly closed or blocked off by the Orlando police department, construction has closed the primary downtown exits and the remaining open routes are slowed by bumper to bumper traffic, just getting to the Magnolia hub is a challenge (as expected)
Let me say that having a pick up hub is a good idea. I've been suggesting this to Lyft for the past four years. The problem is that it has to be properly executed. So far we aren't there.
The first suggestion that I would make it to put the passenger pick up hub on (the always blocked off by OPD) Church Street. Let the rideshare cars enter on Garland, make a right on Church and exit right on Orange after picking up the passengers. Since this suggestion makes way too much sense and no one listens to suggestions anyway, it probably will not be done.
Getting back to the first night. South street ramp is closed so we can't exit there. Kaley is open, but Division is closed so we can't go that way. So we can stay on I-4 and exit on Colonial, but that puts us past the hub at Magnolia and Magnolia is a one way street going the opposite way we need to go to get to the hub. So the only way I could figure this was to exit Kaley, right on Columbia, left on Orange and snake my way into the bumper to bumper traffic by making a series of left and right turns in an effort to travel in the proper direction to the hub. It took about 15 minutes in traffic to get from Gore and Orange to the hub which is a distance of less than a mile. Fortunately I did not make any wrong turns in the process.
I arrive at 11:55 PM which is 5 minutes before the hub opens. I immediately see the pink Lyft tent with several Lyft workers. That is the only way that I actually knew this was the right area. I pull into the pick up lane and drive all the way to the front spot which is labeled A1. There are several labels for the different positions, A2, A3, etc. There are some temporary que lines sent of for the various spots using those nylon barriers that you see at the airport that lead into the A1, A2, A3 etc. I didn't count how many spots they had but it was probably around a dozen. This reminds me of a ride at universal studios. You que up and get on the ride.
The problem is that there were no riders. There were the Lyft people. There were people from the City Of Orlando Transportation Department.
Within 5 minutes of me pulling up a single gentleman walked up to me and asked if I could drive him around the corner for $20 cash. It was way too cute and I picked him off as law enforcement. I politely declined and told him I can not do that. He just walked away from my mini-van. I don't get a lot of solo passengers in my mini-van.
A young lady in a Lyft uniform comes up and we talk for a bit. It's her first day. The geofence is not working on my phone. She tells me to reset the phone. I did. It still doesn't work. She's really nice but she doesn't know anything. She came up one other time while I was sitting there. Then she didn't come back again. I think she was embarrassed there was a lack of business.
Then a lady comes up in a yellow safety vest from the City of Orlando. I asked her if I was in the right place for picking up Lyft passengers. She tells me that I am. However there is only a five minute wait time allowed if you don't have a pickup. I asked her where I was supposed to go after 5 minutes and she indicated that I am supposed to continuously circle the 4 block bumper to bumper traffic area until I get a ping and then return to the pick up lane, call the passenger and tell the passenger what spot I am parked in. I explained to her, that it will take at least 15 minutes to circle the block and do that. Meanwhile the passengers will be waiting and the line will keep getting backed up. She then told me that since they aren't busy and there is only one car behind me that I can stay longer than 5 minutes. (That was probably the smartest thing she did)
There are more workers than riders the entire time I was there. I drive XL only, so I'm not going to get any X rides. As the hour wore on there were less than a dozen X rides actually picked up at the pickup hub. I'm still in front and there is never a full line of cars behind me. Some riders have called for an X and the X vehicles can't get into the pickup lane because of the traffic and the riders are crossing Magnolia and running after drivers that can't find them.
A channel 9 news reporter shows up. He can't understand why the riders are not here. We do an interview. I try to make it positive as much as possible.
Another City of Orlando transportation guy comes up in his yellow vest. He tells me that I have been waiting over 5 minutes and need to leave. I told him the other lady said I could stay. He goes to talk with her. He comes back. I ask him to ping me to make sure the app is working. He does. I get the ping. He cancels. At least we know that part is working.
The transportation guy tells me we are permitted to use the bus lane to leave the pick up spot for those three blocks only between midnight and 3 AM. I got a ticket using that lane about 4 years ago about this same time, so that is welcome news.
I did notice three vehicles turning the wrong way onto Magnolia (from Washington) coming towards the pickup lane in the opposite direction. They were trapped and had to cross the concrete median to make a u turn and go in the correct direction. There was a tow truck that made the wrong turn and he started backing up and damaged the car he was towing. That blocked the intersection of Magnolia and Washington for about 20 minutes.
Finally at 1:20 AM I get a ping and accept. The only problem is I don't see the riders. I call the riders. They don't know where the pick up spot is. I try to explain. It's not working. I tell them to ask someone. They find a policeman. He tells them where the pickup spot is. It takes them a little over five minutes to find me. They can not enter on the curb side (left) because the city has those airport barriers blocking the left side of the vehicle. So they have to load from the right side exposed to traffic. Off to MetroWest we go on an 22 minute trip for a distance of 8.25 miles. They tell me the driver that brought them downtown earlier from Metro West took 46 minutes to do so. They said they would give me 5 stars. They did not tip.
