Uber announces new staging lot and pickup/dropoff zones at Moda Center
Posted by Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) on November 17th, 2017 at 4:22 pm
Another year has past, @uber and @lyft drivers park in and block bike lane. Do something about this @trailblazers @PBOTinfo pic.twitter.com/4yGerdQ52G
— Steve 911 (@Intersection911) October 31, 2017
Ride-hailing giant Uber has responded to complaints of their persistent, dangerous, and annoying bike lane blockage behaviors outside of the Moda Center.
Uber’s map showing new staging lot north of Broadway and pickup/dropoff zone on Winning Way.
The problem, as documented by our friend Steve Bozzone in the above tweet, happens after Trail Blazer games (and we assume other big events) when Uber drivers block the bike lane on the south side of the Moda Center on NE Multnomah Street.
We joined with Steve and other readers to help raise a stink about this on Twitter recently and caught Uber’s attention. I engaged with them via private messages a bit and explained the problem and a possible solution. Then today another reader pointed us to an Uber blog post where they address the issue.
Hi @Uber_PDX can you pls tell drivers to stay out of bike lanes around @ModaCenter after the games? https://t.co/iz2MKRPx7u
— BikePortland (@BikePortland) November 16, 2017
Here’s the statement Uber has just released:
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As the exclusive rideshare partner of the Blazers, we have teamed up to make driving easier at this busy venue. We are excited to announce a new staging lot and pickup/dropoff zone after hearing your feedback.
With thousands of fans attending Blazers games each week, we have created a staging lot with a first-in, first-out system to give you a better driving experience. You will be able to queue up in our lot located on the corner of N. Benton Ave. and N. Broadway.
We have also moved the pickup and dropoff zone, which is now located along Winning Way. Once you receive a request, head across N. Broadway and make a left on Winning Way to find your rider between N. Benton Ave. and N. Center Ct. St. There will be police to help direct the flow of traffic across N. Broadway.
Be sure to familiarize yourself with our staging lot and pickup/dropoff areas so you can easily connect with your riders on gamedays at the Moda Center.
We hope these measures have the intended impact. Uber, if you’re reading this, we have many sources out there monitoring the situation and we’ll be in contact if the issue isn’t resolved.
Thank you for responding. And… go Blazers!
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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This will make the Lyft drivers happy as they will have the bike lanes on the south and east sides of the Moda center all to themselves.
RecommendedI guess this could be good for cyclists. These companies exploit their workers horribly though.
RecommendedThis is a great step in the right direction. But we can’t let up the pressure. This doesn’t fix Lyft, taxis, and private vehicle drivers picking up friends. A PBOT engineer told me via email over a year ago that the bureau recognizes the need for an infrastructure fix to protect the bike lane here, yet nothing has been done. I’ve never observed parking enforcement here, and multiple requests to PBOT for info on whether/how often they’ve deployed Parking Enforcement here have gone unanswered. I’m glad something’s being done but there’s still more left to do.
RecommendedHow about some of those better-quality plastic bollards?
RecommendedAnd the penalty for non-compliance is? They did this at the Moscone Center in SF, but the problem is still rampant.
RecommendedPete,
This is just the first step. We won’t let them off the hook until they stay out of our bike lanes for good. And we’re coming for Lyft and taxi drivers – and anyone else who does this.
Recommended“Ride share” is really just a million terrible cab drivers with no regulation. These folks are causing congestion and are a hazard to us all. This is good work, and I’m glad people engaged to mitigate bad behavior, but these business models incentivize unsafe behavior.
RecommendedAgreed. They’re the most distracted drivers I encounter.
Recommendedthat’s because 80% of them just moved here to become Uber drivers. they don’t know where they are 50% of the time, so they’re just staring at their GPS with complete cluelessness..
RecommendedYes, I remember just a few years ago, where so many urbanists on this blog comments cheered the arrival of ride-sharing as the great panacea to many of our transportation problems…
Reality is that clueless private drivers operating personal vehicles commercially can just add to the many problems of cars. Definitely some benefits to these ride-share systems, but hasn’t worked out for us as great as some thought it would.
RecommendedI’m going to guess that once they start using this regularly they will find that traffic at N. Winning Way and N. Wheeler is prohibitive – there is a parking garage exit and an I-5 entrance at this intersection and after games this area is very slow.
RecommendedMaybe we should all chip in and get Bike Portland a giant biomass powered, bike lane width steamroller. We can drive it in circles around the Moda Center after Blazer games. It would be driven slowly so the offending rideshare operators would have time to jump from their “rides” before they are “recycled”. Luckily, based on recent events the worst that could happen to the operator would be a citation for “ failure to yield.”
Recommended“persistent, dangerous, and annoying”
you forgot “legal”… unless you left the illegal activity out of the article… that Lyft mustache in the photo looked like a red police light to me at first, that’s likely illegal…
but good for them on asking their drivers to use a central location rather than taking advantage of the passenger pick-up/drop-off loophole in the law…
how about a campaign to get the exceptions removed that allow drivers to be stopped in a bike lane for such purposes?
ORS 811.550(23)
RecommendedThe most grating thing about “ride sharing” isn’t that they are clogging bike lanes, causing traffic jams at midnight or providing sub-par service, it’s that they have proven our city government to be completely feckless and incompetent to enforce any semblance of order on the streets where they operate. Go downtown and just watch them drive all over the bus mall, turn the wrong way down one-way streets, park wherever.
Indeed, this is not unique to Portland.
Their drivers’ routine and flagrant disregard for our laws and general traffic congestion they cause leaves us all poorer will subsidizing their billion-dollar frat-bros in SF or wherever.
While the rest of us play by the rules, and pay our taxes (even the arts one) I can count on zero hands the number of times I have seen a TNC car pulled over for breaking the law. These guys need to be held to a higher standard. They are profiting off our public streets and giving little to nothing in return.
Recommendedthere’s not enough money for all the motor vehicle enforcement we need… it’s not just Uber they’re just easy to pool together in blame due to their placards…
I see plenty of people driving their 2 ton weapons illegally on the bus mall, from all categories of people… it’s one of the places I hope to do some citizen enforcement…
RecommendedI still don’t understand why traffic law enforcement with massive fines can’t be self funding. If there is some sort of structural government issue that is preventing this maybe we should focus on political action to change this problem as our first priority.
RecommendedIt is in some places. And if we are able to use automated cameras, it will be self-funding everywhere.
Recommendedmight be because PDX has no police traffic division anymore….
RecommendedWhen and why did the traffic division get axed? I would genuinely like to know. We seem to be spending more and more on public safety with each passing year.
RecommendedCongrats to actually making something happen. I’ve watched the clusterf__k since the Blazer season began as I regularly attend games which I walk to from NE PDX. It’s been horrible already with the pedestrian traffic, Lyft drivers sitting in the middle of intersection blocking traffic trying to get on I-5. Been waiting for a serious traffic incident. As a bicyclist I’ve especially worried when I’ve seen bicyclist trying to use the bike lane. Since Blazers are heavily promoting Lyft I’ve thought of contacting them my self.
RecommendedWhen I went to the game the other night & noticed all the cones protecting the bike lane I wondered what was up. So glad to see the improvement.