Chicago, Once Again, Blocks Uber From Airport Pickups

By Jim Bochnowski in News on Jun 2, 2015 9:45PM



A yellow cab (Photo by Elena Kovalevich via the Chicagoist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)

For the second straight year, the city is preventing Uber and other ride-share companies from picking up passengers at Midway and O'Hare.

Under regulations passed last year, companies such as Uber are prohibited from picking up passengers at O'Hare, Midway and McCormick Place. This rule could be overturned, but only if a complicated set of conditions is met.

Uber has been attempting to drum up public support for a modification of the rules via an online petition to the airport commissioner. It had about 370 signatures Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, however, that proposal is dead in the water for the time being. In an e-mail to the Sun-Times, mayoral spokesperson Elizabeth Langsdorf wrote that "The administration is not planning to revisit those rules at this time — especially while the city continues to receive and investigate complaints about rideshare vehicles attempting to game the system."

This comes as good news to the city's traditional taxi drivers, who operate in the city with additional expenses, including the cost of securing a taxi medallion, and can reap larger fares from taking passengers to and from the airport.

As Peter Enger, an official with the United Taxidrivers Community Council, told the Sun-Times:

"Even though the waits are very long, O’Hare is the place where we know we can make money. We're not competing with a hidden fleet of private car, UberX drivers. We've already had plenty of money taken from us on the streets of Chicago. We can't allow it at the airports."