Tired of travel fees? Here's a charge you may be unaware of

There are similar charges for limousine, Uber and Lyft drivers as well as shuttle buses for hotels, car rental companies and off-airport parking lots.

San Francisco has one of the highest pickup fees in the nation: $5 for taxi rides that originate there and $3.85 for rides provided by transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft.

Airports across the country say the ground transportation fees are necessary so they can pay to maintain the many miles of roads on their properties.

Officials at most airports were reluctant to further explain why they charged the fees except that doing so helps keep airport costs down, which in turn makes it cheaper for airlines to serve the community.

Spokesman Rob Yingling says the airport has very limited space and needs to create waiting areas for the cars as well as pay dispatchers and do road maintenance.

[...] Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport charges rental car companies a shuttle fee of $1 for every car rented.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey does charge a fee for off-airport parking lot shuttles and an advertising charge for hotel shuttles, making its average ground transportation fee 9 cents a passenger, one of the lowest in the nation.

According to data from the Chicago Transit Authority, more than 18,000 people a day use the train to catch their flight.