“No One Should Pick You Up At The Airport” blares the Wall Street Journal headline. Nikki Waller says you’ll be a hero if you just ride share yourself home. “if you can order a burrito from your phone, you can hail a ride-share car,” she says. Sure, perhaps Ms. Waller has never tried to catch a rideshare at Boston’s Logan Airport, or any of the other airports that have decided to force all rideshares to a dark cold spot miles away from the terminal.
At Logan, passengers need to go up, across, down again and then walk still further to get to or from a rideshare or a taxi. Meanwhile, passenger cars can pick up and drop off at the terminal. Maybe in NY authorities are trying to discourage private vehicles, but that certainly isn’t the case in Boston.
Our humbug columnist is quick to dismiss the romance of the airport pickup- “few things tamp the flames of passion more than sitting bumper-to-bumper on the 405, trying to get onto Century Boulevard and into LAX. ” We disagree, respectfully. Doing nice things for people, even when it is inconvenient or difficult is the essence of human kindness and connection. In a world where touchpoints are increasingly virtual and cold, we need more people picking up their friends and loved ones at the airport, not fewer. What a great feeling it is to walk out of the airport doors after an exhausting journey to see a familiar face who troubled themselves for you.