LOS ANGELES – LAX-it struggled in its opening week and faced a flurry of criticisms on social media. Video shows large crowds waiting in line while others were tweeting about wait times of more than an hour.

"Sometimes it’s hard to take those blistering tweets and everything. Keep them coming though. We want to hear. We want to gauge where there are deficiencies," said Michael Christensen, Deputy Director of Operations and Maintenance at LAX.  

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He gave LAX-it a B-minus during its first week. 

Christensen recognizes the challenges, especially during peak times, but he said they worked with rideshare companies on this project for the past year.

"We tested that against our computer models. We checked it out against the other airports that are doing a similar thing and it looked like it was gonna fit," he said.

But when it didn’t, Christensen said the expansion was their contingency plan and it was quickly implemented. The airport apologized and made some changes.   

The biggest was expanding the pickup lot by 50 percent, adding more lanes and shuttles. 

Lyft was moved into the expanded area next door, taking over the Park ’n’ Fly Lot — a premium parking area that had been there for 50 years. 

Uber got Lyft’s former pickup lanes, and taxi services also picked up additional space. 

"It has done a phenomenal job relieving traffic in the Central Terminal Area," Christensen said. 

We decided to see if the recent changes to LAX-it were making a difference. 

ITI went to the airport on a Sunday night, which is the busiest time of week for the second busiest airport in the United States. As soon as passengers exit baggage claim, they can walk to the LAX-it lot or look for the green signs, where shuttles arrive every 3-5 minutes.  

We opted for the shuttle from Terminal 3. On our way, we noticed the lower level seemed much emptier, even though it still allows for curbside pickups from Uber and Lyft’s Black Car services.

It took about 14 minutes on the shuttle to arrive at the LAX-it lot, which is what LAX said it would. Our next step was to order an Uber. 

At the pickup lot, we met Sarah and Will Schwab—who were coming back from Chicago.

"We came into terminal 7, so it was only like a five-minute walk over here, so that part wasn’t bad," Sarah said.

Once you request a ride, you get a pin code to give to the driver and there are several workers to help guide you to the proper line.

For Sarah and Will, this was their first time actually using LAX-it, but Will said he’s noticed less traffic in and around the airport.

"I’ve driven to the airport since this has been a thing and it was like way easier to drive to the airport, so that was nice," Will said.

After waiting less than five minutes, the two were on their way home to Inglewood. 

We had a similar experience as well, spending about five minutes in line.

So, with 13.5 minutes from baggage claim to the lot and a little over 5 minutes to get an Uber, it took less than 20 minutes from curb to car...a significant improvement from the hour-long waits from just a week earlier. 

But with the holidays fast-approaching…LAX-it's real test appears to be around the corner.  

For more details on LAX-it, click here.

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