LA Olympic venues only accessible by public transportation

US

By JENNA FRYER

PARIS (AP) — Traffic. What will you do about notorious gridlocked Los Angeles traffic? That’s the one burning question repeatedly posed to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as she prepares to receive the Olympic flag ahead of the 2028 Summer Games.

“A no-car Games,” Bass said Saturday.

Huh?

Bass and Casey Wasserman, chairman of the LA 2028 organizing committee, highlighted some of the planning already completed before Paris organizers hand the Games over to them during Sunday’s closing ceremony. Bass was preemptive about the traffic, addressing it in her opening remarks.

FILE- Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaks at a reception at the U.S. Chief of Mission Residence to commemorate the opening of the 2024 Summer Olympics and celebrate the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games, to be held in Los Angeles, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris. As the Olympics close in Paris, Los Angeles will take the torch. The city will become the third city to host the games three times as it adds 2028 to the locally legendary years of 1932 and 1984.(AP Photo/David Goldman, File) 

“We’re already working to create jobs by expanding our public transportation system in order for us to have a no-car Games,” she said. “And that’s a feat for Los Angeles, as we’ve always been in love with our cars. We’re working to ensure that we can build a greener Los Angeles.”

Working from home, that is.

Bass said public transportation will be the only way to access the Los Angeles venues, and her plan to address traffic snarls consists of both using 3,000 buses that will be borrowed from all over the country and asking businesses to allow their employees to work from home during the 17-day period.

It will be the third time Los Angeles will host the Olympics, and Bass noted that widespread panic over traffic ahead of the 1984 Games proved needless.

“Angelenos were terrified that we were going to have terrible, terrible traffic, and we were shocked that we didn’t,” Bass said. “But I will tell you, in 1984, we didn’t have any of the technology that we do today. We learned in COVID that you can work remotely.”

Tom Bradley, mayor of Los Angeles in 1984, had local businesses stagger their workforce hours to reduce the number of cars on the road. Bass likes that approach but wants to go even further, with nonessential workers permitted to work remotely during the Games.

“Part of having a no-car Olympics means getting people not to drive,” Bass said.

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