L.A. mayor: Public transportation only way to go to 2028 Games

Residents of car-dependent Los Angeles -- and visitors -- will be asked to go without their wheels when the city hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Karen Bass, the city's mayor, told reporters in Paris on Saturday that a plan is in place to improve public transit and to ask businesses to shift to a remote workforce during the Games.

"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."

Spectators will be able to access the venues, spread across Southern California, by public transportation only. To supplement the region's existing public transportation, the city also intends to borrow 3,000 buses from transit systems nationwide.

With the extensive transportation system in Paris, residents and spectators have been able to travel around the city relatively traffic-free.

When Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Olympics, Tom Bradley -- then the city's mayor -- asked businesses to stagger hours to get some cars of the road. Bass said the preparation for 2028 can go much further.

"Angelinos were terrified that we were going to have terrible, terrible traffic, and we were shocked that we didn't," Bass said of the 1984 Games. "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."

She continued:

"I think the workforce, probably around the world, certainly around our country, is grappling with remote work now," Bass said. "So I do think that there might be some employers that we could say, ‘Could you be remote for 17 days?' It's going to be a lot easier because we did go through COVID, so people will have some reference point in recent history as to how you could do that."

--Field Level Media