Can Los Angeles secure a car-free city for the 2028 Olympics?

After taking the baton for Paris 2024, Los Angeles embarked on a four-year journey to secure the Olympic Games movie, but to do so he has to face his biggest challenge yet: Is a car-free city possible by 2028?

Despite the challenge of avoiding the erosion of roads or traffic jams, part of the common picture of life in Los Angeles, the mayor of the next Olympic venue, Democrat Karen Bass, has promised that she will take on the enormous task of carrying. some Olympic Games. in the “car-free” city.

However, for a population of more than 3.8 million and a public transportation system in development, the private car constitutes an indispensable tool for moving between neighborhoods and towns that, in recent years, have absorbed the entertainment mecca.

So how will Bass achieve his goal, if at all?

The revival of public transport

The city has been preparing for years for the sports marathon that will come in the coming years: the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Super Bowl They add more pressure for public transport to expand its horizons and become a real alternative.

Part of this challenge lies in making sure that, in the next four years, “a population that has grown up with cars and has always depended on them will start using public transport or bicycles,” said the transit advisory analyst that Ian Lowell.

And it is not easy. Like other American cities, Los Angeles was built that way the car is the most efficient and fastest wayso many people “will choose to use it” to move from one location to another, the director of the Research Program at the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at the University of California tells EFE. Jacob Wasserman.

Due to the large attendance expected for these events, “There must be a way to get there other than driving your own car.“Because there won’t be enough parking or some parking lots will be closed for security, he added.

Therefore, “transportation planners view the Olympics as opportunity to expand the rail systemWasserman said.

The historic change in 1984

Los Angeles is as a precedent the example of the Olympic Games. since 1984held during the full development of the metropolis, already known for its massive traffic jams.

At that time, “there was no rail system in Los Angeles,” so great efforts had to be made to ensure that the city could absorb the masses, especially at the points where the competitions were held.

The mayor then, the Democrat Tom Bradley (1973-1993), implemented a robust overnight bus system to temporarily transport people from one place to another.

Much has changed in Los Angeles since its last Games, as the metropolis now has a more extensive train and subway network. Since 1984, Public transportation is expanding to connect large parts of the region to several locationsand many lines are being expanded for the Olympic Games.

An example of this is the metro line Dwhich plans to connect one of the city’s busiest areas to the Olympic Village of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) by 2027.

However, much remains to be done and the extension of the public transport network continues to be a challenge for this metropolis, as “The areas are separated in different parts of the city“and it’s hard to combine them, Wasserman said.

Bass’s promise to emulate Bradley’s model involved, however, another challenge: his re-election to the mayor’s office to attend the inauguration of the third Olympic Games. to be hosted by Los Angeles, after those in 1932 and 1984.

Bass assumed his mandate in 2022 and until the 2026 election his position is secure. When his term ends, he has to undergo a re-election process that if he loses, will mean that his promise of a car-free city will not be fulfilled?