Originally Posted by
LAX_Esq
There are 4 separate rider lines in the LAX-it terminal. Two for Uber, one for Lyft, and 1 for taxis. But all the drivers waiting to come into the LAX-it terminal are in the same holding pattern. Uber drivers apparently hate the new system, because they have to now deal with long waits as the taxi drivers do, where previously they could just get a ride by driving around the horseshoe.
It's not quite true that they could get a ride by driving around the horseshoe. If they did a dropoff, then they could (and probably likely would) get a "rematch" right away without having to leave the horseshoe, but if they were coming from outside LAX they'd have to go to an off-site waiting lot where they could get stuck waiting for as much as 2-3 hours to get a ride. And rematch keeps the queue short for drivers at the expense of longer waiting times for riders who don't get a driver who's being rematched and have to wait for a driver to come from their TNC waiting lot. With the new system the shortest pickup times will go away, but on average everyone is likely to get picked up faster and with a smaller distribution of times.