Rolling through the Rolling Stones Drop-off/Pickup at NRG – Saturday July 27, 2019

The official lot for drop off and pick up for both Uber and Lyft for the Rolling Stones show at NRG this Saturday is at the Yellow lot as shown in red below, but like every other event at NRG it is going to be a hot mess. This is your Official “Unofficial” Ridesharing Guide to avoiding traffic and surge like a pro!

Dropoff
When requesting a Uber or Lyft, use the Fiesta, Holiday Inn North of the Red Lot as your destination. This way, the driver will be able to drop you off there with no questions asked. (There is a lot less traffic typically on this side of the stadium). You can use any nearby address, but that is my recommendation. That shopping center is close to the gates and usually a easy in and out for the drivers. DO NOT PUT NRG. This will direct the driver up Kirby drive, which will likely be blocked off. If there are cops blocking the area, and you get out ANYWHERE that is shown on the above map, (NRG Property, and the streets surrounding it), the police off will most likely yell at you to get back into the car and can give the driver a ticket. Since the driver would rather avoid this, he/she (if they did their homework and found out about the yellow lot) will head down Main instead and may refuse to let you out of the vehicle. To me, this is a form of kidnapping. If you want to get out, so be it. (just make sure there are no cops that can ticket your driver lurking around.) Please do not ask us to stop on a busy street like Main St. or Kirby, if traffic is moving. If you are stuck in traffic, by all means, ask to get out, JUST NOT IN FRONT OF A OFFICER. Because some drivers maybe hesitant to let you out, (no one wants a ticket) this is why you should use an address of a local business (or apartment) as your destination. It should be noted that we get just 13 cents a minute to wait in traffic, so we do not want to be waiting longer than we have to.

Pickup
This is the most important. When choosing where to go, be sure to choose a spot that is not on NRG grounds. When choosing, try to walk in the direction you need to go in order to get home. As a general rule, the further away, from an event, the cheaper the prices get, so you are rewarded for your hard work.

North of NRG:
Think of Holiday Inn, Fiesta, ToysRus, CVS, Kroger. Wherever you request, enter the name of the store you are in front of. This helps narrow it done in the parking lots. You can always text or call your driver.

West of NRG:
Crossing Main St. is essential. Traffic will be backed up. If you see a driver on Main street, and there is traffic, go ahead and cancel. The good drivers will be coming down Buffalo Speedway, or already in the neighborhood. A good street to walk down is Murworth. It leads to a quiet neighborhood and your driver can take Buffalo Speedway out of there. If you end up in front of a business, please use the name of the business and or call or text your driver the name.

South of NRG:
CROSS UNDER 610! There is that Crown Plaza on Main/610 that a lot of riders are waiting at now. In recent times, HPD has been blocking off Main underneath 610. In other words, we can not get to you anymore without going all the way down to Kirby/Fannin and then turning around. Again, Main is usually backed up, so it is still going to take a while. I know, some of those spots south of 610 can be questionable, but you need to get to that side. If you walk straight down Kirby from NRG, it is a lot nicer, than Main/610. Keep in mind, if you take US-90 home, that gas station off 610/Main is going to be the easiest way out of there, but there are back streets we can take to get back to 90 if you are off Kirby or even Fannin.

East of NRG:
This is my least favorite spot, but it makes sense if you are on the east side of the stadium already. Be sure to cross Fannin and walk a few blocks. This area is lonely and doesn’t look that great, but if you get to Cambridge street, this gives us easy access to 610 West, as there is a on ramp (hopefully it is still open) before Fannin (Great if you are need to be taken towards Meyerland to get home)

Wherever you are picked up at, be sure to check that our license plate matches what is on your app. If a driver’s license plate does not match, yet it is the same driver, that means your ride is NOT insured. This happens a lot when drivers have rentals or courtesy vehicles. Yes, if they look like the driver on the app, and know your name, then they probably are your driver, but you do not want to get in a ride that is not insured, especially after a large event where there WILL be drunk drivers. Sadly, always a couple bad wrecks after these events.

There are several reasons why you should walk away from the yellow lot to an area that is less congested.

1) A chance that you can avoid surge pricing, either by walking out of the surging zone, or you simply walked for too long and surge pricing goes down, (usually within 30-45 minutes, surge is completely gone)

2) You avoid traffic. Remember the drop off traffic at 13 cents a minute? In traffic, if it is surging, we can be getting double that rate. No need to waste your money. Your driver would rather not wait in traffic, drop you off, and come back for more rides. Back when Uber first came, we would get the majority of the surge, now, Uber and Lyft give flat rate bonuses to drivers. So we may get an extra , $5, $10, per ride, no matter how long it takes nor the distance.

3) Drivers who have figured out to wait outside of stadium property are your “veteran” drivers. We have drove enough events to realize that going into the specified lot, is not our best bet. If you want a more experienced driver, this is where you will find them.

Pro tip: If a driver requests and is no where to be found, cancel right away. You will be waiting a while because of traffic, road closures, that driver may not know they can pick up outside of the designated lot. At a event like the Rolling stones, there is absolutely no reason why you should be waiting more than 5 minutes for your driver to come, unless you are ordering a higher tiered ride like UberXL (not as many drivers). If you are ordering a UberX ride, there are that many drivers. With that said, if you are in the yellow lot, you will likely be waiting a lot longer than 5 minutes to find that driver. Myself? I don’t even turn on the app until I am in the Fiesta parking lot. Then I wait for a rider ping that is in the general vicinity. Keep it Simple.

TL;DR? Choose another drop off/pick up location AWAY from the stadium to avoid traffic and surge!