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Can't Stop! Won't Stop! Why Rideshare Drivers Will No Longer Be Able Pick You Up At LAX Terminal

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -- You've just gotten off a long flight and all you want to do is grab your bag and hop into an Uber or Lyft.

Not so fast.

Beginning Oct. 29, Los Angeles International Airport will no longer be allowing rideshare drivers or taxi cabs to pick up passengers at the airport's terminals.

LAX pickup and dropoff
Travelers get dropped off at the Los Angeles International Airport. Oct. 4, 2019. (CBS2)

LAX announced Thursday that because of construction on the new Automated People Mover -- set to open in 2023 -- that will no longer be allowed.

The plan? Pickups are going to happen at a lot across from Terminal One.  A shuttle service is being offered from the terminals to the lot or other designated areas. Ride-hailing services are currently permitted to pick up and drop off passengers at designated locations on the airport's upper/departure level.

Uber and Lyft currently make up 27 percent of all commercial traffic at LAX.

LAX officials Friday morning were holding a sneak preview of the new pickup lot, located at 9610 Sky Way, across from Terminal 1. According to officials, the lot will also have Wi-Fi and cell phone charging.

The new rule does not apply to drop-offs, only pickups.

The "no rideshare" rule is being done to relieve traffic on the airport's upper level,  the airport said. It's unclear how long it will remain in effect.

The people mover will be a 2.25-mile elevated train system which will have three stations inside the Central Terminal Area and another three outside of it, including a Metro station, linking public transit to LAX.

"As everybody who has flown into LAX recently knows, the airport is absolutely a madhouse," said journalist Brian Sumers with the aviation news site Skift, who broke the story about LAX's new rideshare plans.

Sumers is on board with anything that will move traffic along.

"It just wasn't built for this many travelers, it just wasn't built for this many cars," Sumers said. "The traffic is insane right now. And LAX decided it absolutely had to do something."

The numbers seem to bear that out. In 2010, LAX handled 59 million passengers. Last year that number had jumped to 87 million, according to Sumers.

The fact that upwards of 26,000 rideshare cars come into the airport daily -- making up nearly a third of all traffic at LAX -- officials believe this will be an important first step in getting people in and out of the airport more efficiently.

Travelers who were not terribly happy about adding an extra step to their travel when they use rideshare.

"That's more time and effort coming out of LAX," passenger Tim Gnaneswaran told CBS2 Thursday.

"For the immediate need, I think that's a pretty bad fix because it's not a fix, honestly," Az Salleh added.

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