Travelers are increasingly using Ride Share companies like Lyft or Uber. SFO recently added a specific section for these ride share cars to pick up passengers. This helped a little bit with the traffic and congestion at SFO but it’s still not fixed. This is why SFO is proposing a agreement with BART.
San Francisco International is the main airport in the Bay Area and handled over 55 Million passengers last year. In 2003 expanded to include SFO to its network. BART has access to both the Domestic and International terminals.
With the high increase of passengers using Lyft and Uber, public transportation has dropped all over the United States and the world. BART system has seen a rapid drop in users in recent years and it has created the knock-on effect of increased congestion at SFO. Taking these issues into account, BART has come up with a plan that will be mutually beneficial to both the transportation system, as well as the airport.
BART has proposed that passengers arriving with them may enjoy benefits like Priority Security Screening. This would enable passengers a smoother and quicker processing time for departure. In order to successfully implement the strategy, BART is further developing its trip verification technology. SFO staff will be able to use scanners on users’ BART mobile applications to verify whether a passenger made use of public transportation to get to the airport. Successful verification will clear passengers to proceed to the priority line for the Transportation Security Administration screening checks.
When will this happen?
Discussions between SFO and BART are ongoing but there is no confirmation at this time as BART first has develop its trip verification technology. I really hop this gets implemented as lowering emissions is something that needs to happen.