With Los Angeles preparing to take the Olympic torch from Paris for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, the Southern California city is working on ambitious plans to make the event even more special than the last.
One major change could have long-lasting positive ramifications for the City of Angels, and Mayor Karen Bass detailed the ambitious plan in a statement.
"We're already working to create jobs by expanding our public transportation system in order for us to have a no car games," Bass said in a press conference, per Reuters. "And that's a feat in Los Angeles, because we've always been in love with our cars, but we're already working to ensure that we can build a greener Los Angeles."
"The no car Games means that you will have to take public transportation to get to all of the venues," Bass added, per the news service.
It's a welcome announcement for a city typically known for its large car volumes and regular traffic jams. The Paris Games showed that having major venues linked by public transport is possible, but that was mostly thanks to an extensive and heavily used subway network, something that is smaller and not so developed in LA, as the Time Out Los Angeles website pointed out.
Los Angeles once had a trolley system that connected the city, but pressure from the automobile industry hastened its decline, and it was put out of commission in 1963, according to the Southern California Railway Museum. Today, the city has a public transit system that includes subways, buses, light rail, and shuttles.
Still, the love affair with dirty fuel-powered cars has also made the city notorious for being the supposed birthplace of the modern freeway system, as Reuters observed.
But the arrival of the games could make Los Angeles a world leader in public transport connections again. For a state known for a number of green credentials — such as boasting the highest number of electric car registrations in the United States according to the U.S. Department of Energy — it appears the project would welcome support from residents.
In addition to improvements to local rail and bus systems, Bass said the city will loan 3,000 buses to help ease traffic congestion.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "the largest sources of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions include passenger cars, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, and light-duty trucks, including sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, and minivans."
With that in mind, reducing the number of these vehicles on the roads will help cut the production of planet-warming gas pollution from the tailpipes of these machines, which also contribute to poor air quality and increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses.
As the global spotlight will be on LA in 2028, it will want to set a good example for how cleaner, greener urban transportation can be achieved in a relatively short timescale, thanks to careful planning and preparation. Residents of the city, the state, and the United States as a whole should feel the benefit for years to come.
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