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Tom Cruise turned the spotlight on the Olympics from Paris to Los Angeles this summer with a daring stunt during the closing ceremony. But their eyes should now turn to the LA Olympic Organizing Committee and Mayor Karen Bass.
In just four years, the Olympics will be held in Los Angeles. That means Mayor Bass and Olympic organizers have just four years to transform Los Angeles into a metropolis worthy of the international attention the Olympics will bring. This seems like a big challenge for a city with failed governance, rampant crime, homelessness, congestion, crumbling infrastructure, business and regulatory nightmares, and tax and budget shortfalls.
LA's solution: a “car-free” Olympics!
Mayor Karen Bass waves the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris on August 11, 2024. (Karl Lesseen/Getty Images)
Personal vehicles are prohibited from entering Olympic venues. Private parking will no longer be available. Don't even think about driving to the event. Bus and LA organizers plan to spend more than $900 million on a major overhaul of public transportation.
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Dubbed the “28 by '28 Project,'' the project was launched in January 2018 during the bid process for the 2028 Olympics to facilitate the movement of more than 1 million tourists expected for the Olympics. proposes 28 transportation projects (all without cars).
How is the Twenty-Eight by '28 project progressing, six years after it was first proposed and just four years until the Olympics?
The answer is no. I serve on the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) Board of Directors. We recently received a report from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority acknowledging that 10 of the 28 projects will miss the 28-year deadline. Of the past six years of planning, only five have been completed so far.
Bass doesn't let this dampen his enthusiasm for a car-free Olympics. She promised that L.A. would buy or rent and deploy 3,000 buses. I can't imagine the cost, not just the economic loss to Los Angeles, but also the cost to other transit agencies like OCTA and the people they serve across the country.
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This is a market-skewing diversion of a huge resource of 3,000 buses in just one city. It is fully expected that other regions, such as Orange County, will also feel the pain caused by such market-destroying forces.
The Olympic car ban pledge was never serious public policy. Private cars will continue to be the norm in Southern California for the foreseeable future. There are just over 7.5 million registered vehicles in Los Angeles County, including cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The city itself is a vast 469 square miles, a stark contrast to Paris' compact 41 square miles. This vast landscape complicates the use of public transport, as residents often require multiple transfers to reach their destination, making them less likely to choose buses or trains. .
Additionally, there are also significant safety concerns with LA's public transportation system today. It is natural for the public to be concerned about their personal safety while using the system. Just last week, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, September 25th, a gunman hijacked an LA Metro bus, held the driver at gunpoint, led police on a chase, and killed one of the passengers.
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This level of dramatic violence is certainly rare. However, persistent knife attacks on public transport, sexual assaults, homeless vagrancy and other crimes do occur. This is a transportation system that will be imposed on visitors from all over the world to achieve the vision of a car-free Olympics.
Given the city's strong car culture, lack of public transport infrastructure, long commutes that residents take for granted, and serious concerns about physical safety, locals are choosing to stay at the Olympics rather than abandon their cars. There is a high possibility that you will be absent.
As the LA Metro report freely admits, public transportation is not up to the task, leading to a potentially disastrous experience for out-of-town visitors, and that Los Angeles and Olympic organizers A very bad image will remain forever. Even if we suffer some consequences, at least Orange County had nothing to do with these bad decisions.
Los Angeles Police Department supervises the removal of a homeless encampment off the Venice Beach Boardwalk on August 5, 2024 in Venice, California. (Mark Abramson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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A car-free Olympics has always been a pipe dream for environmentalists. While this sounded good to special interests, it is nothing more than virtue signaling and self-deception on the part of liberal governments.
Reports on LA Metro's missed goals cast a harsh light of reality on such wishful thinking. Delays, rising costs due to inflation, failure to meet deadlines, and inefficient government bureaucracies cannot deliver on the empty promises of politicians. A car-free Olympics is one empty promise, at least as touted when L.A. was a candidate.
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