LOS ANGELES (CNS) - With various efforts underway at Los Angeles International Airport to alleviate traffic, a City Council committee received its first update today on a plan to develop an organization to help the airport's thousands of employees find alternative ways to work other than driving their own vehicles.
The City Council last year passed a motion asking officials at Los Angeles World Airports to develop a strategy for an LAX transportation management organization, or TMO, serving all employers and employees engaged in the operations, management and construction at the airport.
``With over 50,000 jobs located in and around the airport, most of which are not directly employed by LAWA, the airport needs a holistic approach to mobility management that reaches employees, tenants, contractors, and nearby employers,'' the motion said.
The motion added that a TMO could develop policies and programs to encourage alternative forms of transportation, such as public transit, carpooling, vanpooling, bicycling, and walking.
Samantha Brickler, deputy executive director of project development and coordination for LAWA, told the Trade, Travel and Tourism Committee that since the motion was passed, LAWA has evaluated current rideshare programs for LAWA employees, worked with adjacent cities such as Inglewood on their rideshare programs, studied other airports' programs, surveyed LAX employers on their programs, and just issued a scope of services for a consultant to conduct a six-month study on implementing a TMO.
She said the consultant's study is underway, and that ``a big chunk of it is stakeholder inclusion and engagement, working with elected officials, working with businesses, working with employers and compiling a variety of options and recommendations.''
Officials last month broke ground on an Automated People Mover system that will carry passengers among terminals, as well connect with nearby rail lines and a planned consolidated rental car facility, with the goal of eliminating the need for rental car courtesy vehicles to enter the central terminal area and reduce the number of autos driving in and out of the airport by an estimated 3,200 each day.