It's amazing what a few billion dollars in prospective tourist money can do when it comes to repairing and improving infrastructure!
With the walking dollar signs set to arrive in 2028 for the Summer Olympics, LAX has looked around and realized that it has a traffic problem. To that end, the Los Angeles International Airport board recently approved the final phase of its roadway-improvement plan, part of a larger $30 billion overhaul. The aim is to streamline rides in and out of the terminal zones by rebuilding roadways, creating new ramps, rerouting vehicles and separating airport traffic from public roads, such as Sepulveda and Century boulevards.
In a wild fit of optimism, the $1.5 billion plan is set to reach completion two months before the start of the Olympics.
The centerpiece is a redesigned “horseshoe” loop, that U-shaped stretch of road where cars, rideshares, shuttles and hotel vans all converge in exhaust, honking horns and gridlock. That all stays. It's the exits and entrances that will shift.
Airport officials say the proposed redesign will steer drivers around the airport hotels rather than shoving everyone onto the overcrowded skyway ramp. Right now, traffic from Lincoln and Sepulveda boulevards forces eight lanes of cars into a single ramp. To relieve that, the agency will carve into its own right-of-way to add two new off-ramps for airport access, plus three “through lanes” that let drivers cruise straight toward Imperial Highway and the 105 without merging into the mess.
Officials also acknowledge that the traffic within the loop itself will “roughly remain the same.”
That caveat is what has led to deep skepticism (well, that and experience). According to researchers at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, the plan runs into the problem of induced demand. In other words, make it easier to drive somewhere? Great, now more people will drive there until it stops being easy.
There's also the issue of the contractor, the same company behind the much-delayed Automated People Mover. A spokesperson for LAX told the Los Angeles Times they have learned lessons from those very public delays and are in a "good spot because of it."
Opponents, including local resident advocates from Westchester and neighboring communities, are calling for more than a road-focused approach. They argue money might be better invested in high-capacity shuttle services, expanded bus lines and other alternatives that shift people rather than simply moving more cars.
But LAX's board is determined to upgrade its traffic arteries, leaving the bigger question looming: will smoothing the flow of cars translate to a faster journey or pave the way for more vehicles to pour in until the gridlock comes full circle? For now, the grand plan has been approved, the construction schedule locked in and the countdown to Olympics traffic has begun.