Consolidated Rental Car Facility

[Pete]

[template=]
development
|category1=transportation
|category2=
|category3=
|category4=
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|project=
|address=
|status=under construction
|owner=OKC Airport Trust
|cost=$38 million
|architect=Guernsey
|start=2013
|finish=August, 2015
|contractor=
|height=
|sq. feet=19,400
|acreage=7.6
|other=900 ready parking spaces
|
|image=
|
[/template]
Information & Latest News

12/17/09: http://newsok.com/consultant-suggest...rticle/3425536
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[UnFrSaKn]

Interesting..since I work for Avis now by the garage, and used to work at Enterprise up the road. I still have to get off Meridian from Airport Road so I wonder how that will effect airport traffic.

[BoulderSooner]

the 3 bucks a rental extra and the 2 min ride .. should really not effect anything and this is needed in the future

[betts]

If the rental car agencies truly don't have enough room for the cars needed by demand, then perhaps we don't have any choice. Also, I could see this if we need the space for people flying out of OKC to park. For instance, if it were doing this or building another parking garage, maybe it would be time to change to the system used in bigger cities. If it satisfies needs for more room and gives us more covered parking, then I would be in favor. But, I don't think we necessarily need valet or luxury parking.

[Pete]

I could understand the perspective from a local's point of view but there is no proxy for the visitors who will be greatly inconvenienced.

The rental car companies can merely continue shuttling cars from lots down the road. This has worked fine for quite some time and it's not like all the sudden traffic has picked up at the airport.

Remember too that the way the airport was designed is that the curbs to pick up shuttle busses and the like are separated from the termina and although there are canopies, that does not shelter you much from the wind, heat, rain and snow.

Every time I make that relatively short walk between the terminal and the garage, I'm glad I don't have to stop out there and wait, because often times the weather is miserable.


And finally, if they want to invest in something that will make the airport work better, build a waiting area DOWNSTAIRS near the baggage claim. I've never seen an airport -- especially a new one -- where people waiting for arrivers are up in the ticketing area. It's absurd and a serious design flaw.

Imagine how bad that will be if and when another terminal is added.

[bombermwc]

Jacksonville, FL is a little bit bigger than OKC, but for all purposes, we're about the same. They are also expanding their airport and already have at-airport rentals. Their rental facilities are on the first floor of their parking garage...which is closer to the terminal than OKC's. In fact is a mere 3 lanes worth of traffic away. It's always MUCH better than having to use any shuttle at all because you don't waste time coming or going. Waiting on the shuttles sucks....I've had to wait as much as an hour before when leaving an airport and in a business situation, that can be a deal killer. Not to mention getting on the return flight. If you drive yourself to the return at the airport for ALL brands, walk a few feet and BAM, there you go. It's a HUGE time and stress saver. And you don't have to worry about some crazy shuttle driver (and they all are nuts).

I for one am glad they are doing it, but I would rather see a third garage built with rental on the first floor of one the closest...just like JAX.

[BoulderSooner]

i fly all over the country and fail to see how moving the rental spot 2 min down the road is any great inconvenience

[HOT ROD]

I agree Boulder, I travel often too and OKC's new rental car facility will not be bad at all. BWI's rental car facility, it's 20 minutes away from the terminal; I think OKC's will be just down the street (a mere 5 minutes or less).

And, I have been one of those travelers who consistently is without rental cars (or with a choice of one or two, that's it) when I come to OKC. And I am a LOYAL National renter (who is offsite by the way - so I already take shuttle even further than this new one will be).

Pete, it's not as if OKC is "acting" like the big boys - it is OKC has BECOME one of the big boys and needs expanded facilities. The days of the small time OKC are long gone.

I also think OKC should start charging the fee immediately so the facility can be built within no time and house ALL of the rental car companies, they can still chose to have offsite as well.

[Kerry]

If they do this it would be a big plus if they connected the terminal to the rental car area by a rail system. Atlanta opened their's last week.

Atlanta Opens Its Central Rental Car Facility, With a Train - The Middle Seat Terminal - WSJ

The wave of airports building centralized rental car centers now reaches Atlanta, where a new facility opens Tuesday with one major benefit over many others: A “SkyTrain” straight from the main terminal.

For the past decade airlines across the country have consolidated rental car company lots into a single facility. Instead of each rental car company running buses through the airport and each company having its own lot, busing is shared, car company counters and cars are side-by-side and valuable real estate around airports is freed up.

...

Cleveland and San Francisco both opened consolidated rental car facilities in 1998 and since then they have opened in Albuquerque, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Kansas City, Fort Lauderdale and other major airports. More are planned, such as Miami, San Jose, Memphis and New Orleans.

[bretthexum]

I can see this working if they had some sort of train/tram connecting it with only a few minute wait on each end. But I agree tho, those off airport rental cars place suck. I used to travel all the time and what a pain. Then get on a crowded bus and stack the luggage, then get off, get the luggage unloaded, etc. At least with a train you can just roll the bags right on and off.

[MadMonk]

I was just in Phoenix and they have an awesome off-site rental car facility. It's a 10 minute bus ride away, which is a bit further than I was expecting, but it was only a slight inconvenience and I think the pros outweigh the cons. A train system would be even better.

[HOT ROD]

If they do this it would be a big plus if they connected the terminal to the rental car area by a rail system. Atlanta opened their's last week.

Atlanta Opens Its Central Rental Car Facility, With a Train - The Middle Seat Terminal - WSJ

SkyTrain is the name of Vancouver Canada's very extensive subway system.

I wonder if that is the real name Atlanta is trying to use or if the article is just using it in reference to it being an airport tram.

[Kerry]

SkyTrain is the name of Vancouver Canada's very extensive subway system.

I wonder if that is the real name Atlanta is trying to use or if the article is just using it in reference to it being an airport tram.

It is the actual name of the system. Here is a photo of the new rental car facility in Atlanta.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartsfi...on/4190719624/


On the trip between the terminal and the rental car hub it makes a stop at the Georgia International Convention Center. The whole trip takes 5 minutes and is just over 2 miles.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartsfi...7622836713701/

[Larry OKC]

SkyTrain is the name of Vancouver Canada's very extensive subway system.

Did someone get confused? Skytrain sounds like an raised, above ground monorail not a below ground subway.

[Soonerus]

I was just in Phoenix and they have an awesome off-site rental car facility. It's a 10 minute bus ride away, which is a bit further than I was expecting, but it was only a slight inconvenience and I think the pros outweigh the cons. A train system would be even better.

I was in Phoenix earlier this week and thought the rental car facility set-up was a real pain, although the facilty was very nice it just added unneeded minutes to my travel time...

[Kerry]

Did someone get confused? Skytrain sounds like an raised, above ground monorail not a below ground subway.

It is because the system is mostly elevated above ground (so not really a total subway).

[Pete]

I was in Phoenix earlier this week and thought the rental car facility set-up was a real pain

I was just there a month ago and *hated* that experience.


By the way, there was an article today that said ridership is finally slightly up for the first time in a year... So why all the sudden do we need to do this?

And for those saying it's a 2-minute ride -- it's not the ride itself. It's the waiting around for the bus, getting on and off with your luggage and then being dumped into the rental lines all at once with a busload of others.

And if we're comparing, I was just in Milwaukee -- much bigger airport -- and they have a great rental car facility built into the ground floor of the parking garage directly across the street.

Why couldn't we merely add more parking structure to the north end and give more space to the car companies in their current location? After all, there is an enclosed tunnel to take people to the current garages... Why not extend it?

[Kerry]

I don't know - I did it for 4 months while flying into San Jose/San Francisco and never found it to be a big deal. In San Jose we had to take a bus and of course San Francisco had the Rental Car Train.

I actully found it better because I was able to get out of the airport faster. The remote car rental facilites were closer to the freeway and I was able to avoid airport traffic which usually consisted of people that didn't know where they were going.

I realize OKC doens't have the traffic at the airport some cities do and this plan will prevent that from happening.

[rcjunkie]

In my opinion, let's leave it to the professional's at the Airport, I'm sure they wouldn't propose this if they didn't feel that it was in the best, long term interest of the Airport.

If they had announced "Airport decides to leave car rental in present location", some of the posters on here would be stating, "that's crazy, they need to move it, around SW 54th and Meridian there's all that unused land.

You can't please everybody all the time.

[MadMonk]

I actully found it better because I was able to get out of the airport faster. The remote car rental facilites were closer to the freeway and I was able to avoid airport traffic which usually consisted of people that didn't know where they were going.

Exactly. Getting away from the airport and it's associated traffic and getting on the freeway to where you are going is more important to me than the inconveniences of the bus trip to the rental facility.

I don't think traffic around the airport is that big of an issue here, but it doesn't hurt to plan for growth.

[so1rfan]

I've been to Phoenix's twice and Denver's twice and Phoenix's is a bit better because one bus takes you to all rental companies. The wait for a bus is virtually non existent. Whereas in Denver, you wait for that specific companies bus to take you to the respective area. Both are off-site and a ten minute ride. But keep in mind the rentals there are probably ten times the number of cars here.

So a two minute ride once you get to OKC? I don't see the inconvenience, sorry. It's not like they're putting it Crossroads mall.

Hey... there's an idea.... I keed, I keed

[SkyWestOKC]

The rental car lots are very bad when you look at them. They take up a ton of space on our airport grounds that could be used for other functions. Although the current facilities and program is working now, we must look forward a few years.

Moving it is a good idea because it not only increases future capacity for rental cars, but it also frees up space for other facilities:

When the new terminal is built, belly cargo will be moved north to just where the current employee lot is. The current employee lot is crowded and a bit dilapidated. I think they can build a new employee lot close to where the current rental car facilties are after the move. We can't build a new terminal if we don't have anywhere to park the employees that work in it. We also can't build one if we don't have the proper facilities to accommodate the theoretical increase in demand.

Here is a pic of the proposed location for the new rental car facilities:


Here is a pic I made of the parking situation:

[HOT ROD]

Did someone get confused? Skytrain sounds like an raised, above ground monorail not a below ground subway.

Vancouver's SkyTrain is a subway network consisting of 3 lines. When it began, SkyTrain was a spinoff of the 86 world's fair in Vancouver - that was an elevated system outside of the core and that was the basis of it's name. In the downtown areas, it was always underground.

Since then, there have been two other lines built. The 2nd line is elevated like the first but goes through a different suburb. The 3rd line opened this summer and is half subway (through all of the city of Vancouver) and elevated (once it gets to the airport and the south suburb).

I would say, SkyTrain is now 40% underground and 60% elevated.

By the way, a rail system does not need to be underground to be a subway as MOST if not ALL subways have on and above ground portions (see NYC Subway, Toronto Subway, DC Metro, Chicago El, BART, SkyTrain, on and on).

Being a subway has more to do with capacity, right of way (exclusive), and the use of 3rd rail. Usually subways/rapid transit also use heavy rail vehicles.

Each line of Vancouver's SkyTrain is designed for at least 15,000 people per hour per direction. SkyTrain's main (Expo line) gets 30,000 pphpd.

By comparison, our new Light Rail in Seattle gets on average only 16,000 riders TOTAL in a whole day. Surprisingly, Portland's much more extensive light rail MAX only has double Seattle's pax capacity.

Vancouver SkyTrain alone, in a day will have 500,000 pax (more pax than the total capacity of Seattle's extensive bus system and all of Portland's transit options). That capacity is the biggest differentiator between 'subway/rapid transit' and light rail.

[jbrown84]

Here is a pic of the proposed location for the new rental car facilities:

Thanks for the maps. For some reason I was picturing it way north on Meridian, like north of Airport Rd. by Winery's or whatever it's called these days. The name literally changed when I was gone for a week in September. We came back and the bus had already been repainted with new logos.

[SkyWestOKC]

Also, Pete - the current demand is there. You just do not see it because the space is needed for other things.

-The 1st floor of the short term is reserved for rental car ready/return. The 2nd floor is for short term, which at some times is completely full.

-The Employee Lot will need to be replaced/moved before the new concourse can be constructed to make way for Belly Cargo.

-Belly Cargo is air line cargo and sorting. It is that brown/gray steel building east of the terminal. It is important to flight ops, and needs to be close to the gates.

-The Rental Car lots are currently an eye sore and take up a lot of space that could be used for other purposes such as: new Employee Parking, restaurants, overflow peak parking, more parking for AAR and the new General Aviation Terminal.

So, just because the rental cars are not in full swing does not mean it is not needed. It will have to be done in order for the new concourse to be built.