AO 2021 External Transport Operations: Taxis, Hire Cars & Rideshare

TAA represented the industry at the discussions with the Australian Open committee planning meetings.

We have collected all the relevant information for Taxis, Hire Cars & Rideshare operations for Australian Open 2021.

Taxi
The taxi rank is located on the north side of Olympic Boulevard between the Rod Laver Arena Loading Dock and Grand Slam Oval Entrance.

As part of the Swan Street Bridge upgrade works, the carriageway along Olympic Boulevard has been upgraded to include two eastbound lanes to the east of Batman Avenue. 

As a result, the taxi rank has also been redesigned and now features a single drop-off/pick-up lane that is similar to a parallel parking lane.

​There is a bicycle lane separating the parking lane from the traffic lanes, but no physical separating median as per the previous arrangement. The physical separation is a row of bollards along the western end of the rank, which separates the queuing area for the taxi rank from the bicycle lane and is intended to prevent taxis from jumping the queue and entering part way up the rank.

There is naturally a break in the bollards at the far western end for vehicles to enter.

The taxi rank will be staffed from Monday 8 February – Sunday 21 February 2021. MSS Security will provide four (4) experienced personnel to supervise the operation (in addition to VicPol). The taxi supervisors will commence at 4:00pm each day for the first 11 days (8–18 February) and at 8.00pm for the remaining 3 days (19–21 February) and will remain on duty until one hour after the completion of each days play or until taxis are no longer required by patrons (whichever is later).

A permanent shelter has been installed at the eastern end of the taxi rank to ensure mobility impaired patrons waiting for taxis are protected from the weather conditions.

During peak times, the taxi supervisors will co-ordinate taxis with the metropolitan depots to maximise the supply of taxis.
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The Taxi Rank operations are unique to the venue and the Australian Open. Some key points include:

• Taxis can either turn left directly into the taxi rank when approaching from the city direction (from the west), or alternatively queue in the westbound U-turn lane on Olympic Boulevard before performing a U-turn to enter the rank. This will generally be controlled by MSS, with a VicPol member to monitor this operation, to ensure the taxi rank queue does not extend out the tail end of the rank storage area and block through traffic on Olympic Boulevard.
• With the new taxi rank design, the western half has permanent fencing installed along the edge of the kerb and is intended as a queuing area for taxis (i.e. patrons are not to get in or out in this area due to the close proximity of the fence).
• The eastern half of the rank is where passengers should get in/out of the vehicles, where there are six marked bays for taxis to stop in. This area also has fencing separating the footpath, but this is offset from the kerb to allow room for patrons to walk when getting in/out of taxis. There are openings at either end of this section of fence to allow patrons to allow patrons to enter/exit the taxi drop-off/pick-up area from the footpath.
• When taxis arrive with patrons, they will wait until the drop-off area at the eastern end before letting passengers out. Once passengers have exited, MSS staff will direct them to the exit points and then direct the next passengers from the queue point to the relevant bay to enter the now available taxi.
• During quiet periods where there is no pedestrian queuing for the taxi rank, security staff can allow patrons to enter from the opening at the eastern end of the rank (directly from Grand Slam Oval Entrance). When crowds get busier and there is higher demand for the taxi rank, security staff will close off the eastern opening to the taxi rank and direct patrons to queue from the fence opening at the western end.
• MSS security are to prevent any patrons from exiting the taxi before they reach the drop-off area at the eastern end of the rank (for safety reasons with the adjacent fencing) and to stop any patrons skipping the queue and getting into a taxi. They will also monitor the patron queue in case of any unwanted behaviour.
• The MSS Officers will monitor the actions of the taxi drivers in adhering to the taxi rank operational plan and the general behaviour of taxis within the precinct area.
• If taxis are having trouble exiting, Bay #1 is where the activation plate for the signals is located. Once a vehicle props in this bay, the signals will activate soon after with a short red phase for eastbound traffic on Olympic Boulevard, allowing the occupied taxis to exit the rank.

Hire Car
There are public pick-up/drop-off areas designated on the north side of Olympic Boulevard, located to the east of Grand Slam Oval Entrance, in front of Melbourne Arena. However, this area is only P2min during the event for short term pick-up/drop-off and therefore cannot be used to park and wait for patrons to arrive. The area will be monitored by CoM parking officers as part of their regular patrols.

Hire cars will need to seek long term parking off-site where available, to then come and pick up at Melbourne arena when scheduled or called by their client.

The Undercover car park is an accredited area and access is restricted. Hire cars are required to submit an Undercover Car Park Access Application Form (click here for the form) and receive permission to gain access into the car park.

The hire car operations will be monitored by security officers, parking & traffic officers and Police.

Rideshare
In past years, Uber have entered into various levels of commercial partnership with Tennis Australia for the event and have therefore been allocated exclusive use of different areas. However, for AO2021 there has been no partnership and therefore Uber have been operationally grouped in with all of the other various Rideshare companies.

This means that there is also no ability to digitally control where pick-ups occur from through integration with the app ride ordering system and the designated rideshare areas are reliant on wayfinding signage (for both drivers and patrons) and communications to the various rideshare companies about utilising the various designated locations.

The two designated rideshare locations for AO2021 include:

• The eastern half of the kerbside parking on Olympic Boulevard, fronting John Cain Arena
• The Russell Street extension turnaround loop area at the eastern end of Federation Square

The Olympic Boulevard location will be managed by two traffic controllers who will be ensuring full utilisation of the available parking bays and making sure that vehicles are not parked for too long waiting for passengers and blocking access for others.

In the event that the bays are all occupied, traffic controllers will waive any new arriving rideshare vehicles further east to the secondary overflow pick up location in front of the clay courts.

The Russell Street extension location will utilise the existing kerbside parking bays on both sides of the extension, with the roundabout at the end providing an existing turnaround facility.

Bollards and fencing will be installed down the centre of the roadway to prevent patrons and passengers from running across the road to get to their vehicle. Traffic controllers will also be on-site with a similar role of making sure drivers utilise the full capacity of the parking lanes and also preventing any vehicles from overflowing back onto Flinders Street.

Note that the signalised intersection to the extension allows left/right/through exit movements, but only left or through entry movements. The traffic controllers are given the instruction that the area is not exclusively for use by Rideshare and public vehicles will also be able to pick-up/drop-off via short-term parking, as well as being able to access the Federation Square car park facility.

Click here for the External Transport Map of the entire grounds. 

For any questions or queries, please contact us at info@taa-national.com.au.