KCI considers widening road sooner, new cellphone lot. Will it fix traffic issues?

A new cell phone lot and a longer third lane for incoming traffic could be among the remedies for the traffic congestion problems that have troubled Kansas City International Airport’s arrivals curb since the opening of its new terminal.

Airport officials said steps they have taken over the past nine months, and more recently during the Thanksgiving holiday, have significantly cut down on the traffic issues.

“We have really seen a lot of improvement in the way that the traffic flow has worked from where we were when we first opened,” Justin Meyer, deputy director of aviation marketing and air services development, said Monday. “Those massive backups were pretty commonplace on the arrivals curb and we think that we’ve seen pretty notable improvements in that.”

Since the new terminal opened at MCI on Feb. 28, there’s been intermittent problems with traffic congestion causing long delays for drivers attempting to pick people up after their flights.

Early on, frustrated drivers told The Star they waited as long as one and half hours in long lines of traffic to travel just a half-mile to pick up passengers.

The improvement seen so far is due in part to enforcement, changes in airline flight schedules and passengers figuring out how to use the new terminal in an effective way, Meyer said.

Members of the Kansas City Aviation Department appeared before city leaders last week for a presentation on improvements to the new terminal operations during the City Council’s business session.

Melissa Cooper, the new director of aviation for Kansas City, told council members she was excited to share what was going on in the terminal right after Thanksgiving, a peak travel rush period which she said gives an indication of what’s working well and what still needs work.

At its worst, the time it took the furthest traffic to get to the arrivals curb was 10 minutes, which happened at 10 a.m. on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Cooper told council members. She attributed the delay to the combination of arriving and departing passengers at the airport and short staffing — contracted traffic control officers were scheduled for noon. The staffing was adjusted for Wednesday.

“We’d love to hear your feedback: Is 10 minutes an acceptable level of service for 1% of the day?” she asked council members. “Is five minutes our goal? Zero is probably not feasible but how do we keep it moving?”

The aviation department knew Thanksgiving was going to be a peak time for the new terminal and many of the passengers would be experiencing the terminal for the first time because the holiday attracts a lot of infrequent travelers to the airport, Meyer told council members.

The department promoted the use of the airport’s cellphone lot, which Meyer said “really helped solve” the arrivals level curb issues by keeping vehicles away until travelers had claimed their bags.

The airport also ramped up staffing to keep traffic flowing and to enforce that the arrivals curb was only for those actively loading passengers, he said. More aggressive enforcement, including the ticketing and towing of those who parked, stopped or refused to move on, was also used.

“If passengers were leaving their cars, we were ticketing,” Meyer said. “Over the 12 day period, we did issue 46 traffic violations to people that refused to move their cars or had exited their vehicle.”

Traffic control officers also handed out cards the size of postcard that had QR codes with directions to the cellphone lot.

“It was certainly more helpful this time to be able to say you can’t be here waiting, but here’s where you need to go,” Meyer said Monday.

The airport adjusted staffing to meet demands of peak arrival times. Six people were at cross walks and arrivals curb during the day. At peak time, staffing would double, according to a chart Meyer showed council members. The peak times were 9 to 10 a.m., 4 to 6 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m.

At 5 p.m. on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, there were 2,500 seats arriving within the hour on flights. If every seat was full and everyone exiting to the arrival curb, that meant “essentially 40 passengers every minute stepping out on the curb,” Meyer said.

The aviation department is already looking into what can be rolled out for the upcoming peak period during the winter travel season, New Years and even into spring break, he said.

New cellphone lot, third lane extension?

Next year, the aviation department will study the possibility of creating a new cellphone lot for those waiting to pickup arriving travelers. The existing cellphone lot, located at 680 Brasilia Ave. near the Marriott hotel, is a multi-purpose lot that is shared with ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft.

The aviation department has already expanded the lot once since the new terminal opened by moving some temporary barriers and barricades.

“We’re recognizing that there may be need to be an even larger solution,” Meyer said. The aviation department will study what its options are, including possible locations on airport property, traffic flow and what amenities it should offer there.

The aviation department will also study to see if they could create a third lane on Northwest Cookingham Drive prior to the Paris Street exit. Currently, there are two lanes there, widening to three lanes after the exit.

The backup is primarily driven by the arrivals curb traffic and when they occur, drivers tend to fall in line early into the right lane. The airport is using signs to encourage drivers to use both lanes.

If the airport could add several hundred more feet of the third lane for drivers approaching the new terminal, airport officials feel it could improve traffic flow, Meyer said.

The department is also considering limiting access from Paris Street to the new terminal temporarily during peak times or permanently because that is where drivers are deciding to head to the parking garage, arrivals curb or departures curb, he said. The ramp creates traffic concerns and a source of congestion.

Instead, drivers would be routed to Bern Street to get back into the traffic headed to the terminal, he said.

Also next year, the aviation department intends to demolish Terminals B and C next year. The parking garages for the terminals would remain, with the parking garage at Terminal B used for employee parking.