New lot to ease Logan arrivals

Picking up family and friends at Logan International Airport could soon be a lot less nerve-racking.

Responding to years of requests from airport patrons and public officials, Logan this week will open its first "cellphone parking lot," where a driver can wait for the call from a passenger who has made it through the terminal and is ready to be picked up.

Many major airports around the nation, including those in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, have established such lots in recent years. Officials with the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, have repeatedly said they liked the idea but lacked the space.

With the recent completion of construction in a lot on Harborside Drive near the Hyatt Harborside Hotel and Logan's water-taxi pier, Massport will set aside 50 parking spaces there for the service.

"It's been designed to expand if it becomes popular," said David S. Ishihara, Massport director of aviation operations. The lot should open later this week, he said.

The plan could put a small dent in Massport's $90 million in annual Logan parking revenues - although with more than 15,000 parking spaces on airport property, the agency will still have plenty of income from parking. Also, while the plan could encourage more people to arrange pickup in private vehicles at Logan instead of using mass transit, the new lot would offer the environmental benefit of letting drivers park and shut off the engine while awaiting passengers, instead of idling or circling the Logan roadways.

Up to now, the options have been limited: Drivers waiting for arriving passengers may pay $3 per half-hour to park in the garage, or repeatedly circle the airport roadway until they get a call, or idle curbside at designated pickup spots outside terminals until a state trooper tells them to move along.

Several frequent Logan visitors - who have gone through all this - raved about the plan.

"It's a stroke of brilliance," said Carl M. Rubin, a partner with Monument Data Solutions LLC, a Needham technology consulting firm. "The last time I picked someone up, I had to do five loops around the airport. This is a great way to reduce the amount of traffic driving around aimlessly."

Pam Derringer, a technology writer from Marblehead, called the opening of the new lot fantastic news.

Derringer said she stopped picking up friends at the airport after State Police cranked up their enforcement of curbside parking bans after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"It's just too dangerous to keep circling, especially at night, because the lane changes are confusing to people who don't drive there all the time and there is a high risk of an accident," she said. "Other drivers get mad and honk loudly."

Mary Alice Callahan, a financial services executive from South Boston, said the cellphone parking lot will help "especially if you have gone on the airline website and checked the flight status, only to find out that the arrival time is not current when you get to the airport."

Ishihara, the Massport official, said State Police will enforce a rule that no one can wait in the cellphone lot more than 30 minutes. Driving from the lot to the terminals requires going through two sets of traffic lights, but in evaluating the plan, Ishihara said, he drove the route several times and found it took 5 minutes, at most, to get to the farthest terminal, the international Terminal E.

In addition to making drivers happier, Ishihara said, Logan officials like the plan because it will "remove traffic from the terminal loop, reduce emissions from idling vehicles, and offer security benefits" from having fewer parked cars snarling traffic.

The lot could draw thousands of drivers every week. According to Massport spokesman Richard Walsh, 16 percent of the roughly 13.5 million arriving passengers each year are met by a private vehicle.

Depending on how many of those being picked up are couples or groups, and how many of the drivers have cellphones, that could represent 4,000 or more vehicles a day potentially trying to use the lot.

At 50 spaces, Logan's cellphone lot is similar in size to many other airports' lots, but smaller than some. Chicago's enormous O'Hare International, for example, has 150 spaces in its cellphone lot.