What's Old is New Again: Parking at the Airport

In my old days of travel, the 90s and 00s, I'd drive to the airport and park. Parking was expensive, but taxis were even more expensive. Even when leaving for a week I could often find a coupon that made parking for a whole week cheaper than two taxi rides. Plus, taxis were unpredictable. After calling for a pickup at my house I might wait 30 minutes for a driver to show. Though parking at the airport entailed its own form of waiting... like waiting up to 20 minutes for a shuttle from remote parking to the airport, then the agonizingly slow and/or long ride in the shuttle.

Uber and its imitators like Lyft changed that up in the early 2010s. Suddenly instead of using 50 year old technology to dispatch 20 year old cars, I could hail a ride in a near-new car using my smartphone. And it was half the price of a taxi. And I could pay with a credit card without arguing. Driving to the airport and parking became a rarity.

Over time Lyft and Uber have become more expensive. A ride between my house and SJC now runs around $30 normally with surge pricing of $50+ at peak times and late evenings. SFO is $50-60 normally, $80+ on surges. And that's before tip. Ten years ago tipping was not a thing with Uber and Lyft. They added that in, and we users accepted it, because they were screwing their drivers and we felt sympathetic. Bottom line, Uber/Lyft prices have increased to the point that driving and parking is attractive again, on shorter trips.

I did a quick cost comparison ahead of my day trip to Phoenix yesterday. I realized I could park in the hourly lot for probably half the price of two Lyft/Uber rides. Unlike the long-term lot or an offsite lot, which requires those infuriating shuttle rides, the hourly lot is seriously convenient to the terminal.



The photo above shows where I parked (black SUV on the right) relative to the terminal (straight ahead). It was just a few minutes' walk to the terminal door. That totally beats the old rigamarole of the long-term lot with waiting up to 20 minutes each way for a shuttle bus and then shuttling miles at low speed.

Edited to add: Driving and parking also gave me certainty about my schedule. There were no doubts about how long it would take a ride share to arrive of if the driver would cancel. One of my colleagues scheduled an Uber for 5:30am the night before— and the driver simply didn't show. 😨 He had to hail another ride after giving up, then that driver canceled and another was assigned. The net result was he got to the airport 30 minutes later than expected and arrived at the boarding gate only 2 minutes before boarding began. What bullshit! I am so glad I wasn't playing that game.

On the way home last night I was pleased all over again with how convenient and cost-effective the arrangement was. During the flight I made arrangements via text to meet Hawk for dinner— but the dinner date needed to be timely because it was already getting late. The plane docked at the gate at 7:20pm, I was in the terminal by 7:25, minutes later I was riding the escalator down past baggage claim, and....



BAM! I could literally see my car from the escalator down into the arrivals hall. No waiting 20 minutes for a shuttle bus that drives slowly to a remote parking lot. No waiting 10 minutes for a Lyft that says "4 minutes away" for 6 minutes. For amusement I timed my walk from the terminal door to my car door. 1 minute 52 seconds. 💥

Less than 15 minutes later I met Hawk at a favorite local pizzeria, Giovanni's. I arrived just as she was getting out of the car. A delicious meal together was a great way to wind down a day that had already been 15 hours of go-go-go.

Not Everyone's a Travel Pro

On my quickie business trip yesterday I was reminded that not everyone's a travel pro. It's natural to project to a certain degree, assuming that "others are like me" including when it comes to being able to book travel on a simple business trip they agreed to attend. While that's generally true for people who've worked in enterprise sales for years, where travel is part of our job, not everyone's in that role. One of our engineering execs whom I traveled with, "Doc", is not.

Doc was kind of lost a few weeks ago when I suggested that he could fly out and back the same day to visit this client. I gave him the approximate times for the flights and he was confused; he couldn't figure out which flights to take. When I sent him a link to my booking in the company travel portal he figured it out. Apparently he needed to see all the info... or maybe there was a "Copy this reservation" button.

Doc had trouble again at the airport. He wasn't checked in. He couldn't figure out how to do it on his phone. He tried a self-service kiosk at the airport but couldn't figure that out, either. I tried to help him but he was such a wreck at it it wasn't working. We flagged down an airline employee who did it for him.

I'm not sharing this to shame anybody. Navigating booking engines and airports quickly is a skill I built years ago. I learned it because I needed to do it a lot. I mean, I learned fast, but part of what's made it second nature is that repetition. For somebody who's only ever flown maybe a few times a year it's not that surprising they're kind of clumsy at it. And that's okay.

24 Hours Later, On The Road Again. Fuck Transit.

24 hours after getting home last night from a day trip to Phoenix I headed back out on the road. It's another business trip. This one's longer at 2 days/2 nights but also closer to home, in San Francisco. I'm working a trade show.

I mulled my options on the best way to get to SF for this trip. Parking in SF is expensive, so it seemed like the most logical choice was to use transit. But taking transit would require walking a mile to the train station, then connecting between three trains— CalTrain to BART to a cable car!— or taking one train followed by either a bus or an Uber/Lyft across town.

This morning as I took stock of my schedule for the day, with several meetings and just enough time to catch up on stuff from yesterday and last week, I decided, Fuck it, I don't have time for transit. I would drive instead.

I further decided that instead of leaving around 4 I would drive after dinner. Pushing the schedule later— and allowing nearly 24 hours at home instead of 20— made a huge difference in my state of mind this afternoon. I got all my meetings and followups done by about 4, packed my suitcase, and then took it easy for an hour. When Hawk came home from work we went out to dinner together then played a couple quick rounds of Wingspan at home. I grabbed my coat and bags and left at 8.

Leaving later also made the drive faster. It was just under an hour from home to my hotel in the Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood of SF. And that includes driving across the city— exiting I-80 at 4th Street, going north on 3rd across Market Street to Kearny Street, then left on Christopher Columbus past Chinatown and North Beach to Fisherman's Wharf. Taking transit would have taken at least twice as long in the absolute best case.