Untangling the Traffic Mess at LAX

I couldn’t agree more with your article “Does LAX’s Focus on Nudes Blind It to Issues?” (Travel Insider, Aug. 19). As a business traveler, I fly in and out of LAX at least three times a month. Recently, on a plane coming in from Toronto, we had a touch-and-go landing, my second at LAX in four months. The pilot reported that other traffic had not cleared the runway.

Beyond the safety issue, LAX has problems that most other metropolitan airports share. One is too many people greeting passengers. They clog the terminals, shops and gates. Sometimes it is impossible to walk through them when you deplane. The solution is simple: Do what many foreign airports do, which is to ban people without tickets beyond security checkpoints.

LAX also should ban private auto traffic from the airport loop. At peak times, traffic is gridlocked because so many private vehicles are double-parked, waiting to pick up arriving passengers. Again, there’s a simple solution: All private vehicles park in satellite lots, and everyone takes shuttles to the terminals.

HENRY BOLLINGER

Thousand Oaks

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I noticed that nothing was mentioned in the LAX article about a regional plan, which would help reduce the number of people flying in and out of that airport.

Just think about the expansion of the Ontario and Palmdale airports to handle more flights and what that would mean for everyone. People who live near Ontario and Palmdale wouldn’t have to travel as far, thus saving fuel and time. LAX wouldn’t have to plan for an ever-increasing number of flights.

NORA FRYE

Los Angeles