The notorious “horseshoe” at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is a source of great aggravation for many airport-goers. The U-shaped road’s five lanes are almost always congested, and conditions have only worsened over time despite numerous efforts to address the issue. 

A novel approach, however, could almost guarantee a traffic reduction. Congestion pricing, or charging drivers to enter traffic-heavy areas, has been previously proven to ease traffic, and if implemented at LAX, could encourage drivers to stay away from the horseshoe. UCLA professor of urban planning Michael Manville shared with Golden State that LAX is a “natural place” to showcase the effectiveness of this strategy, and that although commuters may question why they now have to pay for something that was originally free, “congestion is its own deterrent to using the road, because it charges a big cost in time.” While a formal proposal has yet to be submitted, successfully implementing this strategy could bring traffic innovation to not only LAX, but southern California as a whole.