What is best ground transportation to and from Metro airport?

[corktownyuppie]

From what I understand, Romulus police have plain clothes people in the baggage claim looking for gypsy cab guys and getting their cars stopped with passengers aboard.

I think we need to distinguish between legally picking up a passenger at the airport versus illegally soliciting for passengers at the airport. Whether it is uber, some small cab company, or some gypsy cab, it is totally legal for them to pick up at the airport as long as you are the one calling them. Where it becomes a problem is if they are the ones trying to hit you up for business. Totally different.

[Sandhouse]

The war between Michigan Flyer and Metro Airport continues. I got this e-mail today:

Serviceat Kensington Hotel Suspended
EffectiveMay 19, 2016, Michigan Flyer-AirRide service at Ann Arbor’s Kensington CourtHotel is suspended indefinitely. We will resume service at Kensington only ifwe are able to resolve the delays caused by new procedures recently imposed on us by the WayneCounty Airport Authority [[WCAA), which runs Detroit Metro Airport [[DTW).

This chart shows how our airport pickup anddrop-off procedures have been needlessly complicated. More than 16,000 people amonth rely on us to be on time. So, even short delays in our schedule areunacceptable, as they would cause many to miss their airline flights or theirrides with us.

This sounds like the airport authority mandated a time-wasting, multi-stop procedure for the Michigan Flyer buses, and rather than reduce frequency the bus line dropped the stop on the south edge of Ann Arbor. I don't know the particulars beyond what's in this notice, or how the Flyer buses are actually operating at the airport. It's odd that no one at MWAA is capable of getting a bus in and out of the airport efficiently.

[softailrider]

I think we need to distinguish between legally picking up a passenger at the airport versus illegally soliciting for passengers at the airport. Whether it is uber, some small cab company, or some gypsy cab, it is totally legal for them to pick up at the airport as long as you are the one calling them. Where it becomes a problem is if they are the ones trying to hit you up for business. Totally different.

Just telling you what I heard, a first hand experience from a guy who was travelling with his wife in a unlicensed car and got stopped by a marked Romulus car. The cop would not let them continue the ride to their destination [[which was their house) The cop called metro cars who picked them up by the side of the road finished the ride.


This guy doesn't bullshit. I believe ever word of his story.

[corktownyuppie]

Just telling you what I heard, a first hand experience from a guy who was travelling with his wife in a unlicensed car and got stopped by a marked Romulus car. The cop would not let them continue the ride to their destination [[which was their house) The cop called metro cars who picked them up by the side of the road finished the ride.


This guy doesn't bullshit. I believe ever word of his story.

Wait, maybe I'm not understanding your story.

1) When you say "unlicensed", are you saying no taxi license? Or no license plates?
2) The story may be accurate. I was never contesting that. It just doesnt address the point I'm making. Who initiated contact? Did the driver solicit the passenger in the airport? Or did the passenger contact the driver and request them to come to DTW for a pickup? Because even with the same driver in both cases, the first way is prohibited; the second way is fine.

[softailrider]

Wait, maybe I'm not understanding your story.

1) When you say "unlicensed", are you saying no taxi license? Or no license plates?
2) The story may be accurate. I was never contesting that. It just doesnt address the point I'm making. Who initiated contact? Did the driver solicit the passenger in the airport? Or did the passenger contact the driver and request them to come to DTW for a pickup? Because even with the same driver in both cases, the first way is prohibited; the second way is fine.

I don't think the second way was fine in this instance. This was a guy they had used for pickups at Metro before and never had a problem, just a guy moonlighting to make a few extra bucks. I'm sure he had license plates on his vehicle, why wouldn't he, that would be asking for problems. Evidently, a cop in baggage claim saw or heard these people interact and that's what got this thing started.

[corktownyuppie]

I don't think the second way was fine in this instance. This was a guy they had used for pickups at Metro before and never had a problem, just a guy moonlighting to make a few extra bucks. I'm sure he had license plates on his vehicle, why wouldn't he, that would be asking for problems. Evidently, a cop in baggage claim saw or heard these people interact and that's what got this thing started.

I think that explains it. If a cop saw them interact in the airport, then it's illegal and is considered solicitiation. In order for it to work, it needs to be like calling a ch company, requesting an uber, or calling a friend. The driver is not on the airport property at the time of the request. If the driver was in baggage claim trying to drum up business then it's a no-go.

It's kind of bizarre but if a cab drops someone off at DTW, a passenger is not allowed to then jump in the same cab and ask for a ride. That same cab driver, however, could receive a call from dispatch to go pick someone up at baggage claim door 3, and it's ok.

[Eber Brock Ward]

The war between Michigan Flyer and Metro Airport continues. I got this e-mail today:

Serviceat Kensington Hotel Suspended
EffectiveMay 19, 2016, Michigan Flyer-AirRide service at Ann Arbor’s Kensington CourtHotel is suspended indefinitely. We will resume service at Kensington only ifwe are able to resolve the delays caused by new procedures recently imposed on us by the WayneCounty Airport Authority [[WCAA), which runs Detroit Metro Airport [[DTW).

This chart shows how our airport pickup anddrop-off procedures have been needlessly complicated. More than 16,000 people amonth rely on us to be on time. So, even short delays in our schedule areunacceptable, as they would cause many to miss their airline flights or theirrides with us.

This sounds like the airport authority mandated a time-wasting, multi-stop procedure for the Michigan Flyer buses, and rather than reduce frequency the bus line dropped the stop on the south edge of Ann Arbor. I don't know the particulars beyond what's in this notice, or how the Flyer buses are actually operating at the airport. It's odd that no one at MWAA is capable of getting a bus in and out of the airport efficiently.

I used to be in-line with the bus company on this, but switched sides. Did you read the Freep's coverage on this from a month or two ago? The Freep actually posted the judge's opinion on the legal fight between the Michigan Flyer and the Airport: http://www.freep.com/story/news/loca...tops/82533972/.

Here are some quotes from the federal judge:

A pattern is emerging. What appears to be happening is an attempt by Michigan Flyer, through various organizations representing disabled people and named individual plaintiffs, to play a game of “heads I win, tails you lose.”

The Court believes what is really at play here is a more narrowed accessible route argument: that Michigan Flyer, on whose behalf Plaintiffs argue, is trying to get preferential access at DTW for its passengers.

During the TRO hearing, Plaintiffs’ counsel was asked to respond to the
suggestion by WCAA counsel that Michigan Flyer is trying to get superior treatment for its disabled passengers even though individuals with disabilities come to the airport by all means of transportation. Plaintiffs’ counsel responded: “Your honor, [WCAA counsel] is 100% correct.

And federal judges are usually pretty low-key and logical in their opinions and wouldn't write something like that unless it was really bad. So basically, it looks like it's all just a game and Michigan Flyer is trying to use the disabled people to advance its interests and lying about it, and their attorney even admitted it by saying to the judge that it's 100% correct!

So the Michigan Flyer is willing to go to those lengths and be that dishonest in a legal court and the court of public opinion, I have serious doubts about what they put in their emails to their passengers.

Just one person's opinion. Their email could be 100% true, but given their track record I'm unlikely to believe them.

[Eber Brock Ward]

I think that explains it. If a cop saw them interact in the airport, then it's illegal and is considered solicitiation. In order for it to work, it needs to be like calling a ch company, requesting an uber, or calling a friend. The driver is not on the airport property at the time of the request. If the driver was in baggage claim trying to drum up business then it's a no-go.

It's kind of bizarre but if a cab drops someone off at DTW, a passenger is not allowed to then jump in the same cab and ask for a ride. That same cab driver, however, could receive a call from dispatch to go pick someone up at baggage claim door 3, and it's ok.

I'm guessing they might be allowed to but don't bother doing so because they probably drop people off at the Departures ramp and everyone is going in there/not trying to catch a cab.

[Sandhouse]

There's no doubt that the AirRide lawyers were attempting to trade on the issue of handicapped access, although I'm perplexed by the judge's phrase, "preferential treatment." The bus company is simply arguing that it be allowed to pull up to the curb, just like thousands of individual auto users, which I don't think is unreasonable for a public carrier that runs less than one bus an hour.

Or on a public transit agency.
Today [[May 31) the RTA bus plan was announced at Lawrence Tech. Its map calls for an eventual seven bus lines to Metro from points in all 4 counties, including the terminus of the Michigan Avenue BRT line. Will RTA get the same cold shoulder AirRide is getting? Or will MWAA yield to greater political power? Where will the buses stop? Stay tuned if the RTA millage passes.

And will any airline passengers actually ride the buses? Many times I've seen co-workers choose slow, costly, cramped shuttle vans to hotels in preference to bus and rail service to airports in other cities. Many commercial travelers simply cannot see themselves on a $2.00 bus ride instead of a $20 van or $30 taxi, even if the bus has superior frequency or speed.