Consolidated Rental Car Facility

[rtz]

the pipe connecting draper to hefner

Why would they connect those two lakes?

[LakeEffect]

Why would they connect those two lakes?

They are connecting the treatment plants, not the lakes specifically.

[bradh]

They are connecting the treatment plants, not the lakes specifically.

Next two phases are out for bid currently, I think they might be the last two, I think the line ends at a booster station near MacArthur and I-40, and then I think the water would be pumped to Hefner.

[ljbab728]

Hmmm. And about the new car rental facility?

[Bill Robertson]

Hmmm. And about the new car rental facility?

They've been putting walls up for a couple of weeks. And they look like some pretty substantial poured concrete walls too.

[Pete]

[venture]

It'll be interesting to see how this impacts flow of traffic. The entrance/exit in the lower left appears to share the existing traffic light for Southwest. The one in the lower right almost appears to just be a SB Meridian entrance only.

[bombermwc]

I just went through one of these in Seattle this week. I have to say, it's quite impressive comapred to the little shacks for each vendor that you see most places. It's a whole terminal with a 5 story garage of its own. We've got surface lots here, but what's nice is it's a uniform POS device for each vender (so seatac owns EVERYTHING), and a single exit attendant, again saves on employee costs there too. It is annoying to get a shuttle, but you also ALL pile in to go to the same place rather than per-vendor. That means the shuttles are larger and full up faster = run more often. At SeaTac, as soon as one fills, ther's already another waiting behind it.

They JUST converted this in the last year and i can't say that i prefer it over On-Site still, but it's WAAAAY better than the old off-site method of individual parcels on Meridian.

[BG918]

I think this is a horrible idea. It would have made so much more sense to build a new garage and put the rental cars there. That would have resulted in a net gain of general parking spaces (probably), would have also maintained the proximity/convenience of the rental cars to the terminal, and and eliminated the need for rental car shuttles.

I wonder if there will be a way to incorprate a light rail from the terminal to the rental car facility, possibly as part of an airport-to-downtown link?

This is what they have at AUS (Austin). It's part of the parking garage when you walk out of the terminal from the baggage claim. It was really convenient not having to take a shuttle.

[Plutonic Panda]

Same way in Orlando to. It was really nice.

[Pete]

Have I mentioned how much I hate this whole plan??


Anybody know if they are still going to keep the rental counters in the terminal by the baggage claim?

At least that way you could take care of most your business before you haul all your crap out into the elements before scrambling on and off a shuttle bus.


If they make you do all that at the new off-site facility, it creates a ridiculous situation where everyone tries to rush off the bus at the same time to get to the counter before the rest.

[Bellaboo]

Have I mentioned how much I hate this whole plan??


Anybody know if they are still going to keep the rental counters in the terminal by the baggage claim?

At least that way you could take care of most your business before you haul all your crap out into the elements before scrambling on and off a shuttle bus.


If they make you do all that at the new off-site facility, it creates a ridiculous situation where everyone tries to rush off the bus at the same time to get to the counter before the rest.

Pete,
You rent from Hertz with Gold service, you don't need a counter....

[Pete]

Pete,
You rent from Hertz with Gold service, you don't need a counter....

I have a Hertz Gold account but even with my family discount the rates are usually way higher than what I get get at Budget and similar.

[Just the facts]

I have flown into San Fran and Atlanta that have off-site consolidated rental car centers and way more people renting cars in a day than OKC gets in a year and the wait at the rental counter is minimal, if I have to wait at all. Both airports use a fixed guideway connection with small vehicles and short headways which does a pretty good job of spacing the customers out. Having everyone wait 10 minutes for a 40 passenger bus will probably just bunch everyone up as Pete fears.

[Bellaboo]

I jumped the bus at Phoenix along with 40 others and it was no problem at the garage, which is a couple of miles away. Was in the car within 5 or 10 minutes after offloading from the bus.

[Bellaboo]

I have a Hertz Gold account but even with my family discount the rates are usually way higher than what I get get at Budget and similar.

I was talking about skipping counters here -

[catch22]

How often will those buses be completely full of people?

OKC averages 4,795 arriving passengers per day. Over about 15 hours 9am-midnight. Which is about 319 per hour. And half of those are probably local passengers with cars already at the airport, and a quarter probably have someone picking them up at arrivals. That leaves it down to probably 80-90 rental car customers per hour. On a 10 minute headway, that's anywhere from 13-15 people per bus. And then those 13-15 will not have the same rental company, so they will split into even smaller numbers....

I don't see an issue.

[Pete]

I was talking about skipping counters here -

Right, but what I'm saying is that I'd have to pay almost double at Hertz, so I'm not likely to go that route.


As far as jamming up the counters, trust me, it happens which is one of the big reasons I hate this plan.

I mentioned that last time I was in town I had a reservation with the one off-site rental car place (because it was incredibly cheap) and there were easily 20 people on the shuttle just for that one company.

[Pete]

I just left a message for the airport admin to find out the answer to the question if the in-terminal car rental counters will remain.

[Pete]

Just learned the rental counters in the baggage claim area will be removed when the new facility opens.

I asked about future use and they mentioned general office space (they are maxed out) and possibly waiting areas.

Also, they are just in the process of seeking proposals for the planning phase of the big expansion project.

[catch22]

They ought to just knock those counters out and add more exits and windows open that area up. They are pretty small spaces, the areas behind the counter wall are no more than 6-7 feet wide to the exterior. So if they were to make them offices, they still would be pretty small.

[Pete]

I was also told the facility will be very similar to the one in Albuquerque.

Note, it's just the same sort of rental car counters in the airport now, just relocated:

[Zuplar]

I would say Denver's setup is somewhat similar being offsite, and I never have any issues. Sure I got to get on the bus, but the whole area is covered there and the bus driver even loads and unloads the luggage. I really don't mind.

[Urbanized]

Yeah, I flew into Denver a little over a year ago and felt like the offsite rental and return process was a snap; much better than most cities with similar set ups. I just hate how far the airport is from town there.

[Pete]

When I spoke to the airport people about this facility, they told me the shuttles will be "bump and go", which means at least 3 and as soon as one gets to the pickup curb, then one in front will depart. Same way at the facility drop-off.

So, hopefully that means there will at least be a shuttle waiting at the airport curb at most times, because they admitted the canopy there is too high to provide any meaningful protection from the elements.