The Public Transportation Revolution of the Los Angeles Olympics
The Olympic Games improve the way we travel
By A Bocheng
In August 2017, the International Olympic Committee officially announced Los Angeles as the host city for the 2028 Olympic Games. The same year, Mayor Eric Garcetti began his second term in office with the disruptive Twenty-eight by '28 plan to build 28 new transportation infrastructures for the forthcoming games. As Mayor Garcetti nears the end of his final term, the time has come to the midpoint. Is this plan a real improvement in Los Angeles transportation, or is it an unfinished political legacy?
2028 will be the third time Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics, following 1932 and 1984. Due to the legacy of the previous two games, Los Angeles will not be spending much money on new venues, unlike the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 and the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018. Today, the most significant problem related to hosting the 2028 Olympics is solving the traffic problems in Los Angeles.
The Rise and Fall : The 1932 Los Angeles Olympics
In the early 20th century, Southern California had an extensive private rail network with over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of track operated by the Pacific Electric (Red Car) and the Los Angeles Railway (Yellow Car). But that soon changed.
"The 1920s brought two important changes to Southern California: private cars became cheaper and were purchased in large numbers, and the region experienced tremendous population growth," said Ethan Elkind, author of Railtown: The Fight for the Los Angeles Metro the Future of the City.
The development of highways was accelerated by Los Angeles hosting the Olympics in 1932. Over the next few decades, increasing traffic congestion led to increased public support for the return of rail transit. Beginning in the 1970s, various factors, including environmental concerns, population growth and gasoline prices, led to calls for public transportation other than buses. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA, now known as Metro) began using revenue from a voter-approved sales tax increase to build the initial rail lines in the 1980s.
Commuter bus at the entrance of Memorial Stadium for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
The Beginning of Reinventing: The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
By the 1984 Olympics, Los Angeles was notorious for traffic jams. Twenty-seven years had passed since the last trams closed; and it was six years before the subway's Blue Line opened. The glory of the highway era had morphed into congestion and haze.
"What if we don't have a bus system? We'll create one ourselves!" said Mark Thompson, a former LA84 organizing committee member who worked on preparing for the Los Angeles Olympics. In an extraordinary regional cooperation effort, the organizing committee borrowed 550 buses from local agencies to create a temporary transportation system consisting of site-to-site shuttles, express buses and park-and-ride lots.
"The real challenge came on 'Black Friday.'" It was the first Friday after the games opened, and in addition to having 19 venues in operation simultaneously, the Los Angeles Dodgers had a playoff game that night.. "There were over 700 buses on standby simultaneously, and we were very concerned about the athletes being stuck in traffic. Fortunately, we pulled through, " Thompson said.
The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics prompted a reflection on the lack of public transportation in Los Angeles, and the A-Line finally opened on Jul 14, 1990, some 27 years after the last streetcar line closed.
Easier travel: Los Angeles 2028 Olympics
A standard method of predicting the number of passenger trips likely to occur is the number of event tickets sold compared to the resident population. Using this metric, the last time the United States hosted the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, it was estimated that the transportation system had to be prepared for four times the number of trips compared to usual.
The growth in passenger traffic in Los Angeles is likely to be similar. As a result, transportation planners face a significant challenge: how to build on existing infrastructure and obtain investment in new infrastructure to accommodate the increased number of passengers.
"I would come to Los Angeles for a meeting every few months before the pandemic, so I was impressed with the terrible conditions here," said Will Fang, a businessman from China, who had just set foot in Los Angeles for the first time since the pandemic. Compared to his last visit here more than two years ago, he says the state of public transportation is still terrible. "They need to connect the subway to the airport, like New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, which would be more tourist-friendly," Fang said.
Fang's issues are also central to the Twenty-eight by '28 plan. On Oct 7, Metro Line K will open, connecting the C Line to Inglewood to the north, with plans to join the line to LAX in 2024. When the line opens, visitors to LAX can take the subway from LAX to Sofi stadium, Downtown, Hollywood and USC, as well as the core of UCLA's Olympic venues.
Marian Rana, a resident of Inglewood, believes that "the completion of Sofi Stadium has boosted the passion for sports in Inglewood. In the future, the arrival of the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics leaves Inglewood needing a metro to connect to the rest of Los Angeles. "
Sofi Stadium is in Inglewood, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and USC Media Center are in South Los Angeles, Athletes' Village is in UCLA and Rose Bowl is in Pasadena. The challenge was making it easy for visitors to connect to each game venue using public transportation. Another key initiative of the Twenty-eight by '28 program is dedicated to solving this problem.
The oldest subway line, the A Line, connects Long Beach to Downtown. In contrast, the E Line connects Santa Monica and USC to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and other game venues directly Downtown, where they currently end at the Seventh Street Subway Center. Union Station and the L Line to Pasadena also have complex interchanges with Metro Center. The new Project Area Connector helps solve the hassle of transferring to Pasadena from USC without a transfer.
This work was initially scheduled to be completed in 2020. During construction, the closure of stations in the Little Tokyo/Arts District caused difficulties for a long time for surrounding residents to take transit. Because the Little Tokyo/Arts District station will be moved underground and across the street, two plain, single-story brick buildings will have to be demolished. One of these structures has existed since at least 1898 and has played an essential role in the cultural life of the Little Tokyo community for decades.
Fortunately, the renovation is complete, and testing is expected to occur by the end of 2022. "I've been told that in the 1940s, we had the most advanced public transportation system in the country," said Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, director of the Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors. "For some strange reason, we abandoned it, and you are part of the history that brings it back. We thank the community and all the stakeholders who have been patient during this time, and we look forward to them joining us in celebrating."
The Little Tokyo Station under construction
"Los Angeles is an amazing place with amazing people," said Nicole Hoffert, president of the Los Angeles 28 Coordinating Committee, at a news conference following a mid-September meeting with the International Olympic Committee." It includes modern stadiums and iconic venues used during the 1932 and 1984 Olympics. The Olympics are infused with Los Angeles' DNA and positively impact the next generation.
The Los Angeles mayoral election is just around the corner, and it's clear that the next six years and whether these projects can be implemented is a top concern. Mayor Garcetti believes that every Los Angeleno welcomes the Games.
Neither of the current Los Angeles mayoral candidates, Karen Bass and Rick Caruso, have commented on transportation policies related to the Olympics. Still, they have both stated their support for the Games.
Looking back, Los Angeles has changed the way the city gets around with every Olympics it has hosted. In a smarter 2028, Los Angeles looks to leave its most valuable legacy as an Olympic city with a transportation revolution.
