LA28: Racing to Beat the Traffic
Buses, trains, rideshares and other public options are part of LA28’s “transit-first” plan to beat the city’s nightmarish traffic. Will it work?
1.7 million.
9 million.
5,100.
These numbers may seem random, but they are significant to LA28 organizers. They represent, respectively, the growth in the population of Los Angeles since the city hosted the 1984 Olympics; the increase over the 1984 baseline in projected ticket sales for the 2028 Games; and the approximate number of buses organizers are planning to use to get athletes, vendors, spectators, and more to venues around the city.
Buses, including electric school buses, are one pillar of a multipronged “transit-first” strategy that LA28 organizers are deploying both to circumvent the city’s nightmarish traffic and to achieve its sustainability goals. “There are challenges with traffic in Los Angeles that everyone knows about,” says Matt Brown, chief of planning and programming for LA28. “When you layer the safety and security standards for the Games on top of that, how you get athletes, medical staff, spectators, press, and everyone else to and from venues has to look a lot different.”
In addition to buses, organizers of LA28 are working with city officials on various measures to move people from place to place, including extending metro lines, securing dedicated highway lanes, and building multiple park-and-ride hubs around LA. Other aspects of the plan include limiting on-site parking at certain venues, partnering with rideshare operators, and even potentially offering water-taxi service. “It’s not just about getting people around,” says Brown, who has coordinated logistics for the London 2012 Olympics, World Expo 2020 in Dubai, and other major global events. “It’s about doing so in a way that is environmentally friendly and causes as little disturbance to the residents and surrounding community as possible.”
It’s an ambitious plan that won’t be without hurdles. For starters, traffic is unpredictable. It’s not hard to imagine an accident or breakdown snarling traffic for miles. It also doesn’t help that the Games will be spread out over seven different cities and 49 venues around Southern California. Some sites are easily accessed using existing public-transportation systems. Others will require a combination of trains, buses, and other connections. “There’s going to be a New England-like population density to LA over a short period of time, but without the existing mass transit infrastructure,” says Ken Bloom, a senior client partner in the Global Infrastructure, Construction, and Services practice at Korn Ferry.
With less than two years to go before the opening ceremonies, Brown and his team are testing routes, training drivers, and undertaking scenario-planning for every possible contingency—everything from a bus breaking down in extreme heat and stranding passengers to masses of people complaining about costs, as they did during the World Cup in New York earlier this year. In fact, a team from LA28 went on a fact-finding mission to the World Cup to observe how organizers of that event designed and executed its public-transportation plan.
Of course, the hardest part of LA28’s transit-first plan is convincing people to leave their cars at home. David Craig, a principal in Professional search business at Korn Ferry for the Industrial practice, sees the success of Florida’s privately owned high-speed public-rail service—which was launched in 2018 and changed residents’ driving habits—as a potential model for LA28’s public-transportation infrastructure. To be sure, if one of the goals of LA28 is to leave the city’s communities in better, more sustainable condition, Craig says the transit-first strategy, if it comes off seamlessly, could be a boon for the city’s notorious traffic. “Wouldn’t it be great if public-transportation habits residents form during the Games remain after they are over?” Craig asks.
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