{"id":75529,"date":"2024-08-10T22:45:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-11T02:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=75529"},"modified":"2024-08-10T22:45:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-11T02:45:15","slug":"a-city-with-little-transit-la-wants-to-host-a-no-car-2028-olympic-games-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=75529","title":{"rendered":"A city with little transit, LA wants to host a ‘no-car’ 2028 Olympic games: here’s how"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\tDowntown LA skyline. Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash<\/a>\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games wrapping up, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass is in town to prepare the world for what the 2028 Olympics will look like in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

And one thing she\u2019s promising, in a big surprise to everyone\u2019s who\u2019s even heard<\/em> about the city of LA, is a \u201cno-car Games<\/a>,\u201d using public transport instead of private cars to get around.<\/p>\n

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Bass made the statement today in a press conference ahead of the Paris Olympics closing ceremony, which occurs Sunday night in Paris. Traditionally, the closing ceremony show includes a segment by the next host city, where the current host \u201cpasses the torch\u201d to the next host (but, not literally \u2013 the actual Olympic torch goes back to Greece in the interim).<\/p>\n

In advance of the show, LA Mayor Karen Bass stated this in response to a question:<\/p>\n

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We\u2019re already working to create jobs by expanding our public transportation system in order for us to have a no car games. And that\u2019s a feat in Los Angeles, because we\u2019ve always been in love with our cars, but we\u2019re already working to ensure that we can build a greener Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

LA Mayor Karen Bass<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, like her statement suggests, LA is perhaps the last<\/em> city that anyone would expect to have a no-car games.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles is a car city, and (always?) has been<\/h2>\n

Los Angeles is a city that has grown up around the car. While it was founded well before the automobile, the city only really started to grow in the early 20th century \u2013\u00a0just when the car was growing as well.<\/p>\n

However, the LA area did<\/em> have a great public transport system early on in the form of the Pacific Electric \u201cRed Car\u201d trolley system<\/a>, but that system declined in the 1950s and went defunct in 1961. It was one of the casualties of the General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy<\/a>, a nationwide plot between GM, Standard Oil, Firestone Tires, Phillips Petroleum, and Mack Trucks to buy up and dismantle public transit systems across the country and push cars instead.<\/p>\n

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Pacific Electric \u201cRed Car\u201d in Santa Ana, 1940s. Photo courtesy of Orange County Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This contributed to the sprawl, lack of public transit, car domination, and high emissions of American life today, and in the end, GM was fined $5,000 for their participation (and the story of these real-life cartoon villains was told in the slapstick cartoon comedy movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?<\/a><\/em> which was, oddly, based on a true story).<\/p>\n

And so, for the last half century, the car has reigned supreme in LA, and the city has been built with that in mind. It\u2019s how everyone has to get around, and it means the roads are choked with cars essentially all the time.<\/p>\n

Whether you live in the area or not, if you know anything at all about LA, you know about the traffic.<\/p>\n

But LA is also the largest city and metro area in California, a state known for its environmentalist spirit. So it\u2019s looking to change that, but it\u2019s got a big job ahead of it.<\/p>\n

Paris will be a tough act to follow<\/h2>\n

Paris, which is hosting the current games which end tomorrow, has claimed these Olympics are the \u201cgreenest games ever<\/a>.\u201d Paris used existing facilities to reduce new construction, reduced HVAC use, served up sustainable food options to athletes, spent billions to clean up the Seine for the first time in over a century, and even had an electrically-lit Olympic torch rather than the traditional gas-fueled one.<\/p>\n

Another aspect of Paris\u2019 \u201cgreen\u201d metrics is that nearly every Olympic venue is reachable by public transit. The Paris metro is one of the world\u2019s best subway systems<\/a>, and as the most-visited city on Earth, Paris knows how to get people around.<\/p>\n

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No-car day on the Champs-Elysees, 2015. Photo by Jameson Dow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And in terms of its \u201cno-car\u201d cred, Paris for many years has had periodic \u201ccar-free\u201d days<\/a> in the capital, allowing the streets to be taken over by pedestrians, cyclists, and even perhaps for a quick game of soccer (I\u2019ve seen it myself!). The city even says it\u2019s going to ban cars from the city center entirely<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s quite some competition there if LA wants to one-up Paris in terms of transportation.<\/p>\n

Can car-focused LA pull off a green, \u201cno-car\u201d Olympics?<\/h2>\n

It sounds impossible, but LA does have a plan to improve its public transit, with an eye towards making it easier to get around the city by 2028.<\/p>\n

Contrary to popular belief, LA does<\/em> have public transit. In addition to buses, the city does have a metro light rail system<\/a> with reasonable coverage, though stops are not nearly as dense, or as connected to the suburbs, as in a city like Paris. So LA doesn\u2019t have to start from scratch \u2013 it just has to convince people to use the system that exists, and fill in the gaps to make it more useful for everyone, and make it possible to go car-free.<\/p>\n

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