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Los Angeles is in a 4-year sprint to deliver a car-free 2028 Olympics

11 Comments
By Jay L Zagorsky

With the Olympic torch extinguished in Paris, all eyes are turning to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics.

The host city has promised that the next Summer Games will be “car-free.”

For people who know Los Angeles, this seems overly optimistic. The car remains king in LA, despite growing public transit options.

When LA hosted the Games in 1932, it had an extensive public transportation system, with buses and an extensive network of electric streetcars. Today, the trolleys are long gone; riders say city buses don’t come on schedule, and bus stops are dirty. What happened?

This question fascinates me because I am a business professor who studies why society abandons and then sometimes returns to certain technologies, such as vinyl records, landline phones and metal coins. The demise of electric streetcars in Los Angeles and attempts to bring them back today vividly demonstrate the costs and challenges of such revivals.

Riding the Red and Yellow Cars

Transportation is a critical priority in any city, but especially so in Los Angeles, which has been a sprawling metropolis from the start.

In the early 1900s, railroad magnate Henry Huntington, who owned vast tracts of land around LA, started subdividing his holdings into small plots and building homes. In order to attract buyers, he also built a trolley system that whisked residents from outlying areas to jobs and shopping downtown.

By the 1930s, Los Angeles had a vibrant public transportation network, with over 1,000 miles of electric streetcar routes, operated by two companies: Pacific Electric Railway, with its “Red Cars,” and Los Angeles Railway, with its “Yellow Cars.”

The system wasn’t perfect by any means. Many people felt that streetcars were inconvenient and also unhealthy when they were jammed with riders. Moreover, streetcars were slow because they had to share the road with automobiles. As auto usage climbed and roads became congested, travel times increased.

Nonetheless, many Angelenos rode the streetcars – especially during World War II, when gasoline was rationed and automobile plants shifted to producing military vehicles.

Demise of public transit

The end of the war marked the end of the line for streetcars. The war effort had transformed oil, tire and car companies into behemoths, and these industries needed new buyers for goods from the massive factories they had built for military production. Civilians and returning soldiers were tired of rationing and war privations, and they wanted to spend money on goods such as cars.

After years of heavy usage during the war, Los Angeles’ streetcar system needed an expensive capital upgrade. But in the mid-1940s, most of the system was sold to a company called National City Lines, which was partly owned by the carmaker General Motors, the oil companies Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum, and the Firestone tire company.

These powerful forces had no incentive to maintain or improve the old electric streetcar system. National City ripped up tracks and replaced the streetcars with buses that were built by General Motors, used Firestone tires and ran on gasoline.

There is a long-running academic debate over whether self-serving corporate interests purposely killed LA’s streetcar system. Some researchers argue that the system would have died on its own, like many other streetcar networks around the world.

The controversy even spilled over into pop culture in the 1988 movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” which came down firmly on the conspiracy side.

What’s undisputed is that, starting in the mid-1940s, powerful social forces transformed Los Angeles so that commuters had only two choices: drive or take a public bus. As a result, LA became so choked with traffic that it often took hours to cross the city.

In 1990, the Los Angeles Times reported that people were putting refrigerators, desks and televisions in their cars to cope with getting stuck in horrendous traffic. A swath of movies, from “Falling Down” to “Clueless” to “La La Land,” have featured the next-level challenge of driving in LA.

Traffic was also a concern when LA hosted the 1984 Summer Games, but the Games went off smoothly. Organizers convinced over 1 million people to ride buses, and they got many trucks to drive during off-peak hours. The 2028 games, however, will have roughly 50% more athletes competing, which means thousands more coaches, family, friends and spectators. So simply dusting off plans from 40 years ago won’t work.

Olympic transportation plans

Today, Los Angeles is slowly rebuilding a more robust public transportation system. In addition to buses, it now has six light-rail lines – the new name for electric streetcars – and two subways. Many follow the same routes that electric trolleys once traveled. Rebuilding this network is costing the public billions, since the old system was completely dismantled.

Three key improvements are planned for the Olympics. First, LA’s airport terminals will be connected to the rail system. Second, the Los Angeles organizing committee is planning heavily on using buses to move people. It will do this by reassigning some lanes away from cars and making them available for 3,000 more buses, which will be borrowed from other locales.

Finally, there are plans to permanently increase bicycle lanes around the city. However, one major initiative, a bike path along the Los Angeles River, is still under an environmental review that may not be completed by 2028.

Car-free for 17 days

I expect that organizers will pull off a car-free Olympics, simply by making driving and parking conditions so awful during the Games that people are forced to take public transportation to sports venues around the city. After the Games end, however, most of LA is likely to quickly revert to its car-centric ways.

As Casey Wasserman, chair of the LA 2028 organizing committee, recently put it: “The unique thing about Olympic Games is for 17 days you can fix a lot of problems when you can set the rules – for traffic, for fans, for commerce – than you do on a normal day in Los Angeles.”

Jay L Zagorsky is an Associate Professor, Markets, Public Policy, and Law, Boston University.

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.

© The Conversation

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

11 Comments
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Car free is great, but will there be massive amounts of parking on the outskirts of the car free zone? My guess is they just shrug their shoulders at that point.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

It will never work. LA has the worst and most congested highway on the plant and it seems that every 20 years they add a new lane hoping it will ease traffic congestion, when I was a kid it was 3 lanes and now they’re at 5 and traffic is worsening, stopping cars from traveling for 17 days would devastate the economy further than it’s already going through and what about crime, the 52k homeless roaming the streets of that city. Newsom is so out, don’t think they can make it in 4 years.

Where will the tourists shop? Everything is closing down, businesses are moving out, that LA even got the Olympics, that in itself is a shocker, LA has changed a lot since 1984 and not for the better.

https://x.com/picturesfoider/status/1827303385499889911?s=46&t=YGWP_lcRZjddiWlx4QxURQ

https://x.com/timecaptales/status/1827706243261100304?s=46&t=YGWP_lcRZjddiWlx4QxURQ

2 ( +3 / -1 )

August is traditionally a holiday period in France and lots of Parisians left the capital, many renting out their homes, to avoid the crowds and traffic during the Olympics. I expect a lot of people in LA will do the same and simply avoid the area and the restrictions for two weeks. The extra bus and cycle lanes are popping up across the G7. They are unpopular when they squeeze traffic into fewer roads. Fines for driving in bus lanes have been lucrative for local authorities. The cycle lanes aren't much use for many but should be popular with youngsters on electric scooters, if they are allowed on them. The lengthy period of construction has hammered affected retail, some places closing due to lack of access. There has also been a reduction in parking spaces and a shift to app-based parking payment. This has further reduced footfall to town centre retail and hospitality, and led to people parking in suburban streets. 20mph limits may be extending journeys and increasing emissions. But fines for going over 20mph are useful for local authorities. We live in interesting times.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Car free is great, but will there be massive amounts of parking on the outskirts of the car free zone? My guess is they just shrug their shoulders at that point.

The city won't be car fee. Only the Olympic events.

It will never work. LA has the worst and most congested highway on the planet 

For the 1984 Olympics the city put on lots of extra busses and restricted commercial trucking to nights. For two weeks businesses adjusted. Business that normally closed at night had to keep their loading docks open and staffed. Fuel deliveries all went at night. UPS had to make big adjustments to its work schedule. It worked out fine.

Where will the tourists shop? Everything is closing down, businesses are moving out, 

Lolololol !!! LA is where we go to shop. And San Gabriel. They have everything for sale. Stuff Parisians can only dream of is for sale in LA. Every ethnic group imaginable has their downtown, their Little Tokyo, Little Manila, Koreatown, the Armenian district in Glendale, etc.

LA pulled off the 1984 Summer Games in style and ended up money ahead in the end. LA has all the venues ready to go. Many were built for the 1932 games and restored and modernized for the 1984 Summer Games. LA doesn't need to build all new infrastructure for a Summer Games. LA might be the most Olympic ready city in the world.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

t will never work. LA has the worst and most congested highway on the plant and it seems that every 20 years they add a new lane hoping it will ease traffic congestion, when I was a kid it was 3 lanes and now they’re at 5 and traffic is worsening, stopping cars from traveling for 17 days would devastate the economy further than it’s already going through and what about crime, the 52k homeless roaming the streets of that city. Newsom is so out, don’t think they can make it in 4 years.

As an LA native, I definitely have high hopes for the city on most things, but local traffic isn't one of them. I do agree with you. This "car-free" Olympics idea might work in other parts of the US, but LA ain't one of them for the same reason. As far as I can remember growing up in LA, and even now, Angelinos have mostly relied on cars. You can see it most everywhere. But don't take my word for it, just google the local LA news/traffic reports and you will get your facts. Also, good luck on their speedy train project between LA and Vegas. There's always been some political and budget problems halting the project.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

so without cars and without homeless as well?

how abt Skid Row-will be new potemkin village than?

Guess your banned Russians will have to sell their cheap counterfeit trainers on the street!

Russians using the term “potemkin village”….

Irony thy name is least man.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Guess your banned Russians will have to sell their cheap counterfeit trainers on the street! 

Russians using the term “potemkin village”….

Irony thy name is least man.

What? Seriously, what are you talking about?

The city won't be car fee. Only the Olympic events.

People will still have to commute, so what will they do? Take the RTD, Red and Blue line? Where will they stay?

For the 1984 Olympics the city put on lots of extra busses and restricted commercial trucking to nights. For two weeks businesses adjusted. Business that normally closed at night had to keep their loading docks open and staffed. Fuel deliveries all went at night. UPS had to make big adjustments to its work schedule. It worked out fine. 

Ok, stay with me, I went to the LA 1984 Olympics, it was a very different time back then a gallon of gas was about $1.25 And we had 4 lanes on the Freeway except the 5 and now, we have 5 lanes, so that means they will make a 6th lane? 

Lolololol !!! LA is where we go to shop. And San Gabriel.

What shops are open and not closed? Seriously? Well, I guess criminals will have a field day if that's the case. So people will have to commute to those areas where crime is rising at an alarming rate.

They have everything for sale. Stuff Parisians can only dream of is for sale in LA. Every ethnic group imaginable has their downtown, their Little Tokyo, Little Manila, Koreatown, the Armenian district in Glendale, etc. 

Glendale and Pasadena are more doable, the rest, you couldn't pay me to go down to the hood.

LA pulled off the 1984 Summer Games in style and ended up money ahead in the end. LA has all the venues ready to go. Many were built for the 1932 games and restored and modernized for the 1984 Summer Games. LA doesn't need to build all new infrastructure for a Summer Games. LA might be the most Olympic ready city in the world.

OK, you keep going back to 1984. It will be 2028 when the next game arrives, and I will say it again: how does that tool Newsom think he can make this work? They would have to triple the amount of police just to give the people a bit of confidence. France was bad enough, but LA?? And then there is the homeless population that continues to grow out of control.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

During the covid pandemic and lockdowns, the LA air became clear and clean.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

During the covid pandemic and lockdowns, the LA air became clear and clean.

It was clean before that and has been for decades once the strict emissions standards were implemented. of course, during Covid it was cleaner, but that was pretty much everywhere on the planet, look at the air quality during the lockdown, it was never so clean in almost 100 years.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Olympics are a great time to be a tourist. Companies have employees work from home. Tourist spots staff up. And realistically, unless you're right by a venue you're hard pressed to know if the games are even going on. It's usually less crowded at stuff because the games are pulling people away from stuff and all the office workers are away.

Unless one of you is a civil engineer most of these comments come off as uninformed.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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