LA’s mayor says 2028 will be ‘no-car Games’ despite city’s notorious traffic

The Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, has said the 2028 Olympics will be a “no-car Games” as the city prepares to host the event in four years’ time.

Bass and Casey Wasserman, the chairman of the LA 2028 organizing committee, highlighted some of the planning that has already been completed. Bass was preemptive about the city’s notorious traffic, addressing the issue in her opening remarks at a press conference in Paris on Saturday.

“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.”

Bass said public transportation will be the only way to access the city’s Olympic venues. Her plan to address traffic includes using 3,000 buses borrowed from other US cities, and asking businesses to allow their employees to work from home during the Games.

It will be the third time Los Angeles hosts the Olympics – the city was also the venue for the Games in 1932 and 1984. Bass said that widespread concern over traffic before the 1984 Games proved to be unwarranted.

“Angelinos were terrified that we were going to have terrible, terrible traffic, and we were shocked that we didn’t,” Bass said. “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.”

Tom Bradley, who was mayor of Los Angeles in 1984, had local businesses stagger their workforce hours to reduce the number of cars on the road. Bass said she wants the city to go even further in 2028, with non-essential workers permitted to work remotely during the Games.

“Part of having a no-car Olympics means getting people not to drive,” Bass said.

Paris has been lauded for how accessible the Games have been, with nearly every venue reachable by Metro, train, tram or bus. Los Angeles has bus and light rail systems but only two subway lines, public transit that pales in scope compared with recent host cities such as Paris, London and Tokyo.

Bass admits she does not yet have a commitment from LA businesses to allow their employees to work from home during the Games.

“I think the way that it should work is to meet with the city’s major employers and to talk about staggering work hours, which is something that was done 40 years ago when we had no technical cellphones and personal computers,” Bass said. “I think, frankly, it is not going to be difficult this time.”

Bass also said that she intends to improve the lives of unhoused people before 2028. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority said in June there were 45,252 unhoused in the city in 2024. Paris organizers relocated thousands of unhoused people ahead of these Games. Bass said she is working at both the government level and with the private sector to address the issue.

“We are going to get Angelenos housed. That is what we have been doing, and we’re going to continue to do that,” Bass said. “We will get people housed. We will get them off the street. We will get them into temporary housing, address the reason why they were unhoused and get them into permanent housing.”

Wasserman spoke about the political climate in the US as the country approaches a charged presidential election. He noted that three different sitting presidents have supported Los Angeles’ effort, dating back to Barack Obama’s letter backing the city before its winning bid in 2017.

“I just want to remind people, this is about the red, white and blue,” Wasserman said. “This is not about the red and blue. We all march behind the same flag, the same name, the same anthem, and this is something that’s going to bring our country together.”