chrisl137

The walk across the Vicksburg bridge to the old Lot C/future ITF West is spectacular when planes are landing. They're *really* close. But getting to the rental car lots is more than twice as far as Lot C, and could be a lot farther depending on the terminal and flavor of rental car, and not nearly as interesting.

beagus

I appreciate the information from everyone. I haven't been to LAX since before covid, so I don't have experience with the current level of chaos. If it were just me, I'd walk; the issue is my friend with mobility issues. I'll be going from Terminal 2 to Hertz. If it's not as bad as pre-covid, then could the hotel shuttle to the Renaissance be a worthwhile option - meaning not as packed as the car rental shuttle?
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chrisl137

Your best bet is a continuation of what you've already done: have multiple options (done), and decide when you see how busy the shuttles are. There's a reasonable chance that either of the shuttles will be fine, and you could just eyeball them and take the first one that looks easy to deal with. The worst case is that you see them both, decide they're a pain, and decide to walk, but if you're even slightly off-peak there's a pretty decent chance that the Hertz shuttle won't be crowded.

Having multiple options is always the best way to deal with LAX, because things can change without warning. E.g. the traffic light metering traffic from Century and Vicksburg breaks and adds an hour to the time it takes to get from Sepulveda to T2 by anything but foot, or two of the new LAXit buses catch fire and they take the whole fleet out of service and it takes 4 hours to get backup buses into service.

One factor that will cut down on people in the Hertz shuttle is that there just aren't that many cars - all the rental companies, including Hertz, dumped cars as fast as they could when the pandemic stretched out and they haven't been able to replace them yet. I don't rent cars at LAX, but did at BOS recently where they have a consolidated rental car shuttle, and that was much less crowded than normal. You'll be dealing with one for just a single company, so it could be pretty empty.

beagus

This many options/ wait-and-see approach is a great idea and what I will do. I appreciate the information. Funny that you mention Boston. I just flew in and out of there last week and that rental car shuttle is the reason for this post. It was packed and I was alone, so I was fine to do it (everyone was masked) with only my small backpack. However, it would have been a nightmare to navigate with my friend with mobility issues and luggage. Then I remembered how chaotic LAX is....

I now feel confident with my options, so thank you all.

dhuey

BTW, as you'll see at LAX when you go, the construction project for the train line to a new rental car facility is well on its way. Maybe in a couple of years the slow grind through the horseshoe at the terminals will be a thing of the past.

chrisl137

There are not enough "hahahahaha's" available for my keyboard to type to respond appropriately to that. With the new T0 and T9 in the works and the other renovations going on, they'll just increase traffic until the horseshoe, ITF-W, and ITF-E are all equally miserable, or the bottleneck will move out slightly and prompt another decade of roadway redesign and construction...

I've gone through LAX regularly for the past year, even at the depths of the pandemic, and it's spooky to not see any vehicles in the horseshoe in the middle of the day, and only a few people wandering about. But it sure makes for an easy trip to fly somewhere.

dhuey

What I mean is that if you're flying in and renting a car, you'll simply hop on the train to the rental car center. No more waiting and waiting and waiting for the Avis bus, and then the slog through the horseshoe.

I recall with no fondness the years when our daughters were very young, and we had to wait on that skinny concrete island for the Avis bus. Barely any space there, and we had all the crap you need for traveling with young kids. The whole time you're trying to keep the kids alive, with vehicles passing by a few feet away on both sides. All part of why LAX is my least favorite big airport.

chrisl137

They did make the islands wider and closed off some of the entries/exits when they rearranged the traffic, but then they made up for it by adding those huge bollards so to move along the islands at all you still have to go around the outside of them into the street because the middle is packed with full luggage carts.

As far as the slog through the horseshoe, I gave that up long ago. If there's traffic I just get out at 1 and walk across. It's fine if you're one person with just a carry-on, but a family with small kids or a bunch of big luggage for a long trip would be like having to get through 3 levels of frogger.

dhuey

This will all be a non-issue for us when normal service resumes from Oakland to Long Beach. Even though LAX is much closer to my in-laws in Manhattan Beach, LGB is by far faster and more convenient.

chrisl137

ONT is like that for me- five miles farther than LAX, but way easier to travel through.

beagus

I guess the travel gods were smiling on me, because the Hertz bus came around almost immediately and was only a third full! It didn't not pick up anyone else after we got on at terminal 2. Thanks again for all your help. Having a few options was great.

Soccerra

Anyone have a more current update as to how easy the walk is? Specifically in evening hours (safety and length). Becuase of some circumstance we might only have about an hour to get from Hertz to the airplane at Terminal 7 (Carry-On only, Precheck etc). So thinking we might need to hoof it if the shuttles are not reliable. Or Uber from Hertz Drop off.

TWA884

An alternative would be to walk to the new LAX economy parking facility and take one of their buses to the airport. LAX buses use the dedicated bus lane inside the airport and do not get stuck in traffic as the private shuttle buses do.

Need

Don't know about Hertz Shuttle, but Hertz is a short walk to the new LAX Economy Parking building. The LAX pink shuttle is quite reliable. You just need to walk 10 min to catch a shuttle there. And I also think the Hertz shuttles should be back to normal. This thread was started back in 2020 when everything related to travel was bad. I don't book Hertz but Avis shuttles were running non-stop at LAX. There are so many of them.

bzcat

Hertz shuttle are back to normal operation at LAX but as already mentioned, they get stuck in traffic, unlike the LAX shuttle.

Traffic is highly dependent on time of day... Check Google Maps to see how bad the traffic is inside the loop. If everything is green, just take the Hertz shuttle. If it is red, consider walking to the Economy parking garage and take the LAX shuttle as suggested above.

Or you can take the Hertz shuttle and jump out at T1 and walk to T7 if traffic is bad. You can probably tell how bad it will be based on how long it takes to just get to T1.