Quote:
Originally Posted by SD_Phil
People looping on LAX are waiting to pick up a passenger. That's why they loop. Want to make that more convenient? How about we build better people-mover systems that can move individuals who have landed to a location that is easier for someone to pick them up? Alternatively, create better holding areas for people to sit in their cars (instead of looping) while they wait to receive the call from whomever it is that they are waiting for?
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We already have a cell phone waiting lot but no one uses it. Why? Because there is no cost to endlessly loop and create traffic congestion.
There is only one way to ease traffic at LAX. Or rather there is only one way to ease traffic anywhere, period. You charge people for using the road (especially inefficient use of road).
I've outlined some very basic and low cost steps LAWA can do to make significant improvements to the traffic flow but I'm just a random nobody on the internet. To summarize...
1. Implement mode separation with FlyAway bus, hotel and rental car shuttle, and uber all using the upper roadway and private cars and taxi using the lower road way. This will eliminate 50% of the bus and shuttle traffic and reduce congestion. The current system where each bus or shuttle makes two circles once it enter ring road is completely idiotic and a gross waste of road space.
2. Install license plate readers at ring road entrance and charge drivers a fee for continuously circle the loop while waiting to pickup people rather than using the cell phone waiting lot - i.e. if you enter the ring road for a 2nd time within 1 hour, you will be charged a toll that is the same as 1 hour of parking in the CTA garages. So the choice is clear... you wait outside the airport until the person you want to pickup is at curb side, or you park in the garage and take your car off the ring road.
3. Add electronic parking toll collection lanes (i.e. using Fastrak transponder) at CTA parking lots and reconfigure the exit road so when you exit the garages, you are funneled directly to Sepulveda instead of back to the ring roads.
4. Add some amenities to the cell phone waiting lot - maybe a Starbucks or Coffee Bean to encourage people to hang out there.
And once the APM and the two inter-modal transit centers are in operation, LAWA should charge
ALL private vehicles a toll for entering the ring road
during peak hours with some exceptions (e.g. handicap license plates). If you don't want to pay a toll, just drop off and pick up from either of the 2 APM stations/inter-modal transit centers.
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