Even as ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft have gained officials status at airports, they’ve lost space at curbside, where congestion means missed pickups or being waved off by traffic control.
So, with the ride services more and more often being kept to designated pickup points, Uber is trying a new way to get your car. Instead of being assigned a ride and told to wait for it, airport users at Portland International, Uber’s test site, get a PIN number and directions to the pickup area, where Uber will operate its own version of a taxi line.
When the user gets to the head of the line, he or she gives the PIN to the first available driver; the app is then populated with the rider’s and driver’s info. Lyft is running its own test with a similar system; its test site is San Diego.
