To the editor: Visitor contributor Jacob Wasserman isn’t considering large enough (“Solely Los Angeles may spend $1.5 billion to make airport site visitors worse,” Dec. 16).
I wish to drive. Far. Throughout my street journeys, generally my spouse flies out to hitch me for just a few days, which has had me choosing up or dropping off at Dulles Airport close to Washington, the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and the Dallas Fort Price Worldwide Airport. It doesn’t matter what time I obtained to these airports, site visitors was, at worst, 20% of that at LAX. Why?
Dulles is a 40-minute drive from Washington with out site visitors. It doesn’t have a horseshoe as LAX does. It’s one lengthy terminal the place individuals drop off passengers at varied spots. George Bush and DFW are fairly totally different. Their terminals are unfold out and the street system into these is sort of a freeway that has varied offramps for every terminal. One doesn’t should comply with the site visitors of each automotive by means of the complete airport to get to the right terminal, not like at LAX.
The latter two ought to be fashions for each new airport. However with so little land, how may this be achieved at L.A.’s airport? The reply is, it can’t — if we insist on having our airport the place it’s at the moment positioned.
Within the late ‘60s, the town purchased 17,000 acres of land in Palmdale for a deliberate “second” airport. There was a substantial amount of criticism over the gap from the town and the shortage of mass transit to it, and the airport was by no means constructed. Los Angeles World Airports, nonetheless, nonetheless owns the land, which suggests, in principle, the Palmdale airport may come to fruition many years later.
I recommend that the place individuals as soon as lamented touring, they might now go willingly. However the place to get the cash for such a challenge? Straightforward. Promote LAX. I’d suppose that the beach-adjacent location would make it straightforward for the town to promote the land to salivating builders.
So, if our airport leaders merely need to apply a bigger bandage, Wasserman’s options can be good. But when they need to really remedy this vital drawback, they need to attempt doing what different cities have achieved with success.
Joel Drum, Van Nuys
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To the editor: Congestion at LAX has gotten intolerably dangerous. Overriding all the makes an attempt to enhance move is the extraordinary lack of information, courtesy, concern and good citizenship of lots of the vacationers and drivers. Many choosing up or dropping off passengers cease and idle throughout two lanes, sit on the curb ready, dawdle loading or unloading their passengers as others anticipate the valuable spots and block entry to the curb.
The worldwide terminal is the worst. I don’t know if including extra lanes to funnel into LAX is the long-term answer, however I’m optimistic that if we had extra site visitors management officers who sternly ordered these automobiles to maneuver, the LAX site visitors expertise can be a lot improved.
Paula Glosserman, Los Angeles

