Leyoo Ajeokun
Los Angeles 2028 organisers said spectators at the Olympic would take public transportation to venues in a bid to encourage remote working and curtail associated city gridlock traffic problems.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said 2028 chiefs want the LA Olympics to be โThe No Car Gamesโ by investing in public transportation and encouraging Angelenos to adopt pandemic-style remote-working for the duration of the event.
โThe โNo Car Gamesโ means that you will have to take public transportation to get to all of the venues,โ Bass told a press conference ahead of Sundayโs Paris Olympics closing ceremony. โIn order to do that we have been building out our transportation system.โ
The plan would require borrowing more than 3,000 buses from other parts of the United States, she added.
Bass was adamant however that Los Angelesโs traffic, where rush hour congestion can lead to car journeys of just a few miles taking an hour or more, would not be a problem, citing the history of the 1984 Olympics in the city.
โIn 1984 Angelenos were terrified that we were going to have terrible, terrible traffic,โ she said. โAnd we were shocked that we didnโt. And in 1984 we didnโt have any of the technology that we do today.โ
She added that city officials 40 years ago encouraged employers to stagger shifts or allowed workers to work remotely to great success.
โI think we can do that again,โ Bass said. โSo part of having a no-car Olympics means getting people not to drive, but also using public transportation to get to the games.
โWe certainly learned from Covid that you have essential workers, people that must come to work.
โBut if you limit it to that, itโs going to be a lot easier because we did go through Covid. So people will have some reference point in recent history as to how you can do that.โ
Bass said the city would also aim to house Los Angelesโs estimated 75,500 homeless population before the Olympics.
Asked if Los Angeles would follow Parisโs example by moving several thousand homeless people in the build-up to the Olympics to locations outside the city, Bass replied: โWe are going to get Angelenos housed.
โThat is what we have been doing and weโre going to continue to do that. We will get people housed, we will get them off the street.
โWe will get them into temporary housing, we will address the reasons why they were unhoused and get them into permanent housing.โ
Sundayโs closing ceremony in Paris will mark the formal start of the countdown to the Los Angeles Olympics, with the city offering a preview of what to expect in 2028 as the curtain comes down in the French capital.
โI think authentically LA is what youโll see in tomorrowโs closing ceremonies as a first step,โ LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said.
โWe donโt have an Eiffel Tower, weโve got the Hollywood sign. Weโve got incredible venues. Weโve got incredible geography and weโre going to showcase that both physically and in the way we show up, which I think people will get a sense of of tomorrow.โ