Welcome to Los Angeles! Welcome to Los Angeles! The promised land, the wild west of cinematic glamour, the beaches of Santa Monica and the Hollywood sign. Welcome, have you arrived at the airport? Prepare for chaos. Because, first of all, it will be difficult to get out of LAX, the county’s main airport. And when you do, you will have your first comprehensive experience of the city.
Getting around the second largest city in the United States is a mission impossible. Buses are few and slow (carrying 70% of users) and are always stuck in impossible traffic jams; The subway, whose tracks are also limited by use by other trains, is scarce in terms of frequencies and routes and is not always pleasant or safe. The city will invest a whopping $120 billion (raised through a special tax) in its public transportation system over the next 40 years, through 2056. But that seems like little for mobility in a place with more than 10 million citizens who, without a car, are lost. The city itself recognizes this in its strategic transport plan, the target of which is 2028, when the Olympic Games come to the city for the third time (before part of the men’s World Cup takes place in 2026). “Our current transport system is severely overloaded due to inefficient use of road space,” they say, pointing out that “the most disadvantaged members” have “limited options” to get around. We are looking for “high-quality mobility offers” 10 minutes from any point, with shorter waiting times (maximum 15 minutes), better speed and a practical and trustworthy option for the user.
But the front door, as in every city, is the airport, and you have to set foot there and doubt and chaos arise. As an example and first of all, the exit after baggage claim in the international terminal is a curved upward ramp. The hardest thing yet. The narrow exit doors of the terminals do not allow two people to pass through. Then more complications. There is no subway. First, public buses that take you in about 40 minutes for $10 to Union Station – a transportation hub and financial center where hardly anyone lives or stays. Where are the 66 million annual travelers going, which reached 88 before the pandemic? Especially in cars, in the 32 million that drive through LAX each year. Something that creates terrible traffic throughout the airport. So much so that taxis and VTC are no longer allowed: you have to look for a limping bus marked LAX-it (pun on exit) that will take you to another terminal, a kind of wasteland where, yes, you go ask a car via app. When apps like Uber and Lyft came onto the market a decade ago – cheaper and very popular – the cost of the rides was negligible, especially given the high prices in California. So much so that they have essentially put an end to taxis. There are hardly any taxis anymore. And prices for vehicles with a driver have skyrocketed.
The future lies in the subway and the city consortium knows it. LAX has invested $15 billion to modernize its eight terminals and connect them with small airline trains; some start working. An inexpensive parking lot was also created, far away of course: you have to arrive later with another bus. But the subway is fighting back. The C line, far from the most touristy centers of the city (more in the south center, with no connection to downtown, Hollywood or Santa Monica), reaches a stop in the middle of nowhere called Aviation/LAX. From there a connection is being built to another, more popular but still halfway line, the K, which has glamorous West Hollywood in the works and which will one day, as it is late, land in aviation. And from there an ambitious $900 million project will begin: a hub with buses from all over the city, an exit area for travelers from cars, bicycle parking, shops… and a stop where travelers will be transported semi-automatically by trains to the Airport. “Everyone arriving or departing LAX should have access to modern, reliable public transportation that gets them to their destination on time,” said then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti when he inaugurated the project in June 2021 The original intention is for this final step to the airport to be completed by the end of 2024. But for now it’s just concrete, steel and helmets. And it is more than seven kilometers from the terminals. Call the next taxi.
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