It’s well-known that construction of the new central terminal ( Terminal B ) has messed up roadways in / out of LGA and added to daily traffic problems.

What might be less well-known is that as of two weeks ago ( April 5 ), anyone arriving in Terminal B who has a pre-arranged car service or “Uber” type pickup cannot be picked up at the terminal anymore.    The new drill is basically this:   you walk out of the terminal , cross the first lanes of the roadway to the center  pickup island, and attempt to find one of the poorly-marked buses that runs the “Green Route.”    If you have heavy luggage or children or have trouble walking for any reason, you are already infuriated at this point.   OH, but then it gets worse….

The “Green Route” bus basically dumps you on a stretch of airport service road near the end of the takeoff runway, where pickup services are supposed to send their cars to get you only after you get there and call them to come from their (new) waiting area, at yet a separate point.

At night it is poorly lit ( always helpful where most cars waiting to pick people up are dark colors).  There are some small tent-like structures there in case it rains, but they seem to be on the wrong side of the road from where cars are instructed to come in and pick up passengers.   There is not enough room to stand on the sidewalk, but roaming “customer service” people — none of whom seem able to give instructions in comprehensible English — bark at you to step back onto the sidewalk and not stand in the roadway.  SO if you do have an arranged pickup service, good luck getting the driver to find you.

And did I mention? This new ‘system’ is going to be in place for several years ….

I am old enough to remember images of the rooftop evacuation of the US embassy in South Vietnam, back when.   This new enhancement to the customer experience at LaGuardia reminds me a lot of those pictures.    Chaos, with hundreds of people trying to get out.

I was sucked without warning into this little corner of hell at 10PM on April 16.

Anyone who is planning trips into LaGuardia from anywhere should plan on doing anything they can to avoid this experience.   If your trip involves coming into Terminal B:  Change your plans.   That means try to avoid United, America, Air Canada, Spirit, Jet Blue…. and a lot of others.   Use Delta ( terminals A, C,  and D are still working ‘normally.’ ) , or go into White Plains even if you have to change planes somewhere to go in there.   Even JFK is better in comparison …

Chris Bourdain

Larchmont NY