LAX to Restore Private Vehicle Access

Motorists will be allowed to drop off and retrieve passengers at the curb outside Los Angeles International Airport’s nine terminals starting Saturday for the first time since the terrorist attacks more than three months ago.

City officials scrambled over the last few weeks to find additional traffic officers so they could reopen the curb to private vehicles in time for the holidays. Cars and trucks will be allowed in the lanes nearest the terminals starting at 5 a.m. Saturday.

The reopening marks the first time traffic has been allowed to flow freely at LAX since Sept. 11. For much of the last 13 weeks, private cars were banned, then restricted to parking structures and the lanes most distant from terminal buildings.

City officials have struggled in the weeks since the skyjackings to balance security and convenience at the world’s third-busiest airport. Though federal aviation and law enforcement officials urged a go-slow approach, many airlines and airport concessionaires--who lost millions when people stopped flying after the attacks--pressured Mayor James K. Hahn to allow private vehicles back at the curb.

The business interests were particularly intent on lifting the private vehicle ban during the holidays, to counteract a perception that LAX is unfriendly to travelers.

“We’re working hard to make everyone’s holidays a little bit easier,” Hahn said at a news conference Thursday at LAX.

The traffic controls had been among the most stringent in the nation. Airport security officials hoped that limiting vehicle access would make it more difficult for terrorists to explode a car bomb near the crowded terminals.

Even when airport leaders appeared prepared to restore normal road rules at the airport, federal and local law enforcement officials interceded. On three occasions, they prevented the airport agency from reopening the central terminal area to cars and trucks. A modified plan that forced cars into parking structures was put in place Oct. 20.

Even with the restoration of normal traffic, heightened security will remain in effect. Hahn and other airport officials warned that motorists who leave vehicles unattended at the curb will face stiff fines--including towing and storage fees and civil penalties.

“Everyone who uses this airport should understand the airport police will have a zero tolerance policy to unattended vehicles,” the mayor said.

Unattended vehicles are a security concern and can create a logistical nightmare, because the Federal Aviation Administration requires immediate evacuations within 300 feet any time a car is left unattended, even momentarily, officials said.

To prevent such episodes, the interim traffic plan required drivers to pick up and drop off passengers in parking structures.

But requiring all cars to drive into the cramped parking structures created other problems. During Hahn’s news conference Thursday, cars waited in long lines on the upper-level roadway to gain access to the Tom Bradley International Terminal to drop off passengers.

“We just drove for four hours and we barely got here,” said Sergio Silva, 36, as he worked frantically to untie a rope anchoring a dozen suitcases firmly to a minivan’s roof. “It definitely would be a lot easier if we could pull up to the curb. It would be more convenient.”

Silva, a vegetable packer from Reedley, heaved a nylon bag over his shoulder and rushed his family across the upper-deck roadway to catch a flight to Mexico City for Christmas.

Airport tenants were pleased to hear that traffic circulation at LAX will return to normal this weekend.

“Our view is that we should be trying to do everything possible to encourage people to use this airport,” said Alan Wayne, a spokesman for United Airlines. “Ending this ban on curbside pickup and drop-off will be a positive move.”

Additional traffic officers from the city’s Department of Transportation will work with airport police and the Los Angeles Police Department to patrol the airport roadway during the holidays. The city will add 20 Department of Transportation traffic officers to a force of 55 traffic police on duty at LAX, the mayor’s office said.

Still, officials expect traffic this holiday season to be lighter than normal. About 35,000 private vehicles will circle the double-deck roadway on a daily basis this month--about half of the 60,000 or so cars and trucks that once visited LAX on a typical day, said Michael DiGirolamo, the airport’s deputy director of operations.

The airport’s metered parking lots also will reopen this weekend, as will the 96th Street entrance to LAX--which had been closed to private vehicles since the attacks. A temporary drop-off facility at 9011 Airport Blvd. will close Saturday.