Karen Bass Promotes ‘Car-Free’ Olympics in Los Angeles, But There’s a Problem

Rush hour is almost gone, there is less traffic on the highways, and there is not as much stop and go traffic on surface roads.

Longtime Southern Californians remember the 1984 Summer Olympics as a driving paradise. Businesses switched to staggered schedules. Many people left town for weeks.

Now, as the world’s biggest sporting event returns after four years, Mayor Karen Bass wants to go a step further.

“Games without cars,” she said.

Focusing on something she discussed with The Times in April, Bass told reporters at the 2024 Paris Olympics that she envisions expanding public transportation to the point where fans could take trains and buses to dozens of sports venues, from Crypto.com Arena in downtown to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood to the beaches of Santa Monica.

“It’s an achievement in Los Angeles — we’ve always loved our cars,” she said at a news conference Saturday, adding that people “will have to use public transportation to get everywhere.”

The 2028 Summer Olympics Organizing Committee — the private group tasked with organizing the games — likes to say it is planning a “transit-first” Games. Some venues will have adequate parking, while others won’t. Organizers say no one will be told they can’t drive to the competition, but public transportation may be an easier option.

The Olympics are expected to bring a huge number of visitors to the area in 2028. Bass, city staff and LA28 executives have made multiple trips to France, eager to see what officials here are doing well. Or not doing so well.

Paris is dealing with the influx of thousands of athletes, tens of thousands of coaches and officials and an estimated 15 million people expected to pass through during the Olympics and Paralympics, which end in early September.

The French capital relies heavily on its well-established and efficient metro system. Metro cars pass by every few minutes with bright pink signs telling passengers where to get off for short rides to various stadiums and arenas.

A woman drives her car along the Champs-Elysees a few days before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris.

(Wally Scalig/Los Angeles Times)

However, Parisians complained of traffic congestion, with a journey that should have taken twenty minutes stretching to more than an hour. Security measures required the closure of several roads.

For 2028, Bass plans to meet with major employers across Southern California to discuss the possibility of re-regulating work hours, a strategy that Mayor Tom Bradley used so effectively nearly 40 years ago.

These are different times — filled with cellphones, laptops and Wi-Fi — so Bass also wants as many people as possible to work from home, just as they did during the pandemic lockdown.

“Businesses have learned from Covid that we have essential workers, people who have to come to work,” she added. “There may be some employers that we might say, ‘Can you work remotely for 17 days?’”

Southern California can’t compete with Paris on public transportation. Not with the current state of its bus and rail system. Not with the vast geographic footprint that would allow the Olympics to be held in Long Beach, Carson, the San Fernando Valley, and Temecula.

LA28 is considering a variety of strategies to avoid traffic jams and long waits for passengers.

SoFi Resort, which is hosting the opening ceremony and swimming, may allow fans to park in its spacious parking lots. The same goes for Dodger Stadium and the Rose Bowl, which have not been named as venues for the event but are expected to be added soon.

Other locations, such as the Riviera Golf and Country Club and the Coliseum Athletics Stadium, will not have on-site parking.

More than 3,000 buses will be brought to Los Angeles from across the country to help transport fans, connecting venues with temporary parking lots, Bass said.

Planners have estimated the total cost of the project at more than $1 billion. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced last month that he had secured an initial $200 million in federal funding for the bus-leasing program, with more expected.

Overall, the LA28 committee estimates the Games will cost around $7 billion — a figure that is likely to rise over the next four years. Organizers have pledged to balance their budget through IOC contributions, corporate sponsorships, ticket sales and other revenue sources.

Dealing with traffic in the summer of 2028 will require cooperation between cities and at every level of government, Bass said. The day before the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics, she pointed to 1984 to express confidence that Los Angeles can handle what lies ahead.

“Los Angeles residents were afraid we were going to have terrible traffic, but we were shocked that we didn’t have it,” Bass said.