A photo history of nightmare LAX travel, from 1928
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A photo history of nightmare LAX travel, from 1928
The airport is expected to be the busiest in the US this Thanksgiving season, with 2.1 million passengers traveling through in the last 10 days of November.
So as holiday travel season dawns, let's take a look back at LAX through the years, and realize it was always kind of a giant pain:
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/1...story.php#more
So as holiday travel season dawns, let's take a look back at LAX through the years, and realize it was always kind of a giant pain:
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/1...story.php#more
#2
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Thanks for sharing this, the article has some really great photographs in it. I didn't realize that it took them so many years to add two levels to the roadways outside the terminals.
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#6
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I don't know the history, but what we have in LAX today seems like the result of separate terminal projects, with little or no thought to how the airport would work as a whole.
#7
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The airport was built primarily for O&D traffic, not as a connecting hub. I remember when there were only six terminals in the late sixties. T2 was the international terminal, Pan Am and National also operated from there, T3 was primarily TWA, T4 American, T5 Western, T6 Continental and T7 United. I don't recall where PSA was located; probably with WA or CO. Other smaller operators, such as Braniff and Delta, were scattered around.
#8
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Looking at the pictures reminds me that emerging from baggage claim was a whole lot less awful in the old days. Arriving visitors' first view of LA is really dismal now: a fume-filled, noisy, grey tunnel with very little to suggest you're near the beach or that the sky is probably blue.
#9
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LAX is a nightmare for families with young children when they are renting cars. I mean that literally. With one or more car seats and lots of baggage in tow, you have to wait for your shuttle bus on a narrow concrete strip, with traffic zooming past on each side. If your kid were to dart off in either direction, it might be tragic (wonder if that's ever happened).
Maybe there are airports even more badly-designed than LAX, but it tops my list.
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As I recall, prior to the construction of the upper deck, there was no traffic island/median in the middle of the roadway - it was probably constructed to house the upper deck support columns - and the shuttle buses stopped at the curb, right outside the terminals doors.
#11
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LAX is a nightmare for families with young children when they are renting cars. I mean that literally. With one or more car seats and lots of baggage in tow, you have to wait for your shuttle bus on a narrow concrete strip, with traffic zooming past on each side. If your kid were to dart off in either direction, it might be tragic (wonder if that's ever happened).
#12
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I wished they had posted a photo of Mike Lyman's restaurant at the old LAX. When we were very little, it was such a fun place to go and watch the planes.
http://i1.wp.com/www.martinturnbull....k-building.jpg
http://i1.wp.com/www.martinturnbull....k-building.jpg
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Is anyone aware of any long-term plan for LAX, similar to the one SFO had a little over a decade ago? The most pressing need I see is for an airport train that would connect the terminals with a new car rental facility, parking lots and the Green Line station.
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Last edited by ajGoes; Dec 13, 2015 at 4:00 pm Reason: Un-FLW the URL
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