Detroit may be known historically as the car capital of the United States, but Los Angeles is quickly gaining ground with about 7.8 million registered cars in 2023.
That’s why Mayor Karen Bass has said she would like the 2028 Olympics to be almost car-free, with attendees taking public transit to the main sporting venues across the county.
The question is whether a city where cars are king can handle taking only cars and buses to the games. Residents interviewed say they’re skeptical, even as the local agencies gear up with transit expansion projects.
LA Metro has started working on a plan it calls the “Twenty-Eight by ‘28” initiative: 28 public transportation projects that are to be finished by 2028 in preparation for this event. Upgrades range from extending transit lines, adding bike lanes, connecting existing lines and improving freeways and interchanges.
Projects like the Rail to Rail /Pedestrian Bike Path in South L.A. will allow for new bike paths connecting to existing train stations, which in turn will be connected to venues, schools and job sites.
On the Eastside and in the San Gabriel Valley area, the Gold Line Foothill extension will extend the A line which will reach out to connect residents as far as Claremont and Montclair all the way back central to Union Station. The A-line already connects residents of Arcadia, Monrovia and Pasadena, to name a few.
Albert Ho, the media relations director of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Project, said the upgrade is crucial to help residents go to the games.
“This transit network is going to take them to all these games,” he said.
South El Monte resident Mauricio Martinez is thankful for the buses that get him to and from Cal State LA for his daily commute but worries that adding more car lanes and buses could potentially exacerbate the traffic. Martinez said safety and cleanliness are additional concerns, given some “sketchy” people and foul odors on public transit — and that the city may not want to expose too many of its tourists to all of that.
South Central resident Mar Garcia also uses public transportation to get to school and other parts of Los Angeles but is skeptical about how much public transportation could improve in four years, especially since buses already get crowded as it is.
“The buses [get] really crowded so people couldn’t fit and just had to wait for the next one,” Garcia said. “I feel like with the Olympics happening in LA, [traffic] is going to get even worse, because, you know, there’s going to be more tourists, more transplants circulating in and out.”
