to the editor: Guest contributor Jacob Wasserman doesn't think big enough (“Los Angeles alone could spend $1.5 billion to make airport traffic worse.” December 16).
I like to drive. Far. During my road trips, my wife sometimes flies to accompany me for a few days, requiring me to pick up or drop off at Dulles Airport near Washington, George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. No matter what time I arrived at those airports, traffic was, at worst, 20% that of LAX. Because?
Dulles is a 40 minute drive from Washington without traffic. It doesn't have a horseshoe like LAX does. It is a long terminal where people drop off passengers at various points. George Bush and DFW are quite different. Their terminals are dispersed and the road system to them is like a highway that has several exit ramps for each terminal. You don't have to follow the traffic of each car throughout the airport to get to the correct terminal, unlike LAX.
The last two should be models for each new airport. But with so little land, how could this be done at the Los Angeles airport? The answer is that it cannot, if we insist on having our airport where it is currently located.
At the end of the 60s, the city bought 17,000 acres of land in Palmdale for a planned “second” airport. There was much criticism about the distance from the city and the lack of public transportation to it, and the airport was never built. Los Angeles World Airports, however, still owns the landmeaning that, in theory, the Palmdale airport could come to fruition decades later.
I suggest that where people once regretted traveling, they would now do so willingly. But where to get the money for a project like this? Easy. Sell LAX. I would think the location adjacent to the beach would make it easier for the city to sell the land to salivating developers.
So if our airport leaders simply want to apply a bigger bandage, Wasserman's suggestions would be good. But if they really want to solve this important problem, they should try to do what other cities have done successfully.
Joel Drum, Van Nuys
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to the editor: Congestion at LAX has become intolerably bad. Overriding all attempts to improve the flow is the extraordinary lack of awareness, courtesy, concern and good citizenship of many of the travelers and drivers. Many picking up or dropping off passengers stop and idle in two lanes, sit on the sidewalk waiting, entertain themselves loading or unloading their passengers while others wait for precious spots and block access to the sidewalk.
The international terminal is worst. I don't know if adding more lanes to get to LAX is the long-term solution, but I'm sure that if we had more traffic control officers sternly ordering these cars to move, the traffic experience at LAX would be greatly improved.
Paula Glosserman, Los Angeles
