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Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by LAX traffic? (…quickly raises hand…) LAX Airport is not known for its traffic efficiency, driven by its lack of any meaningful public transport connecting the airport to the city. In 2026, the LAX APM (Automated People Mover) will be introduced to help alleviate traffic for departures and arrivals around the airport and provide easy connections to other services (rental cars, LA Metro, long-term parking, etc.).
From personal experience, I know that LAX has some of the worst traffic in the world – on multiple occasions I’ve had to walk from the Ralph’s on Sepulveda to Terminal 7 (marked on the Google Maps below!) with my large roller bag – a 1.3 mile trek along the side of a highway – due to complete standstill traffic leading up to the terminals. The LAX APM will be a welcome addition prior to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which will see millions of travelers.
For other maps on airports, see posts on Fraport-owned Airports in Greece and the ORD Expansion!
See the interactive Google Map at the bottom of the post!
Three key facts about this map
LAX was rated the worst airport in the world in 2019 – primarily due to congestion in getting to/from the airport itself
In the popular travel publication Foders, LAX was rated the “worst airport in the world” for a litany of reasons, most of which being getting to and from the airport itself. Quoting the article directly:
Thanks to the improbably stupid design of its catastrophic horseshoe motor-loop, it regularly requires 30 minutes to travel the short mile from the outskirts of the airport to most of its terminals. And because Los Angeles was built as a city beholden to the automobile, there is no other way to arrive or depart from this maddening complex of suffering but through the interminable traffic.
The LAX APM will hope to divert much of this traffic congesting the roadways and direct it towards long-term parking, rental car facilities, ride sharing, or other more-efficient pick-up/drop-off locations.
LAX APM will carry 30 million+ people in its first year of operations
There is obvious pent-up demand for a solutions like the LAX APM – and the forecast shows: the system will carry 30 million+ people and save 42 million+ vehicle miles in its first year of operation. This represents an immense time and environmental savings.
LAX APM will connect entirely new buildings
As LAX expands, the LAX APM will connect net new buildings to the airport.
- Rental Car Facility – officially called “LAX Consolidated Rental Car Facility” will house all the rental car operations of the airport. It is the largest rental car facility in the world, and the 2nd-largest concrete building in the US behind the Pentagon
- Terminal 9 – as LAX expands, there are plans to level the current regional satellite terminal on the southeast end of the airport and replace it with a shiny new Terminal 9, complete with its own LAX APM stop which would conveneintly already be along the currently-planned route. Construction on this will hopefully be completed by the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
Additional links and sources
Have you ever been caught in LAX traffic before?
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