LAX Is Spending More Than A Billion Dollars To Make Horseshoe Traffic Worse

Late last week, Torched‘s Alissa Walker broke a story about LAX getting construction underway on a massive roadway expansion. When complete, it will send even more cars into the already gridlocked central “horseshoe” roadway. Widening the roads leading into an unchanged horseshoe will, you guessed it, worsen congestion in the horseshoe.

In early October, Urbanize reported on $323 million (that’s just an early phase of the $1.5+ billion) worth of early construction on LAX’s Airfield and Terminal Modernization Project (ATMP) Roadway Improvements.

Alissa Walker (whose reporting at Torched and L.A. Podcast really deserves your support right now) broke down the insanity of the LAX ATMP. Please read the whole piece at Torched:

LAX is basically building a brand-new freeway into the airport.

Yes, the very same airport where we just spent $2 billion — actually, more like $3 billion, plus another $900 million if you count Metro’s investment in the LAX station; so let’s just say $4 billion — to make cars go away. After all that talk about car-free connections for the transit-first games, LAX is dropping 5.8 lane miles of roadways in one of the most congested areas of LA.

I’m calling this hefty serving of spaghetti carbon-emissions the LAX-pressway. And the LAX-pressway must be stopped.

Walker outlines how LAX roadway expansion is designed to match on-hold LAX terminal expansion, how LAX’s own calculations say the LAX-pressway will induce more driving, and how LAX could and should get travelers into terminals without cramming more cars into the horseshoe. Read Torched.

If you’re back, after reading and supporting Torched, you might also want to watch Nick Andert’s excellent new 10-minute explainer video “LAX Wants to Spend $1.5 Billion to Make Traffic Worse.”

Andert terms LAX roadway expansion “a zombie project, carried forward solely by inertia, by an airport going through the motions for literally no reason.”

If all this insanity makes you frustrated and/or angry, make your voice heard! The LAX Gridlock website has additional details on the project, and easy ways for you to tell decision makers what you think.