Photo credit: Pixabay
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
As reported by ABC-7 and then The New York Times, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has promised a car-free Olympics in 2028. Will this be good for Los Angeles? Is this even possible?
I grew up in Newark, New Jersey taking the bus, but I have lived in Los Angeles since 1979 and have never taken a bus here. The buses never went from where I have lived to where I needed to go, and still don’t. Like millions of others living in the greater Los Angeles area (encompassing Los Angeles and nearby cities, Long Beach and Anaheim) when I need to get somewhere, I just get into my car and go. Many years ago, I drove with friends to a Metro station and took the Metro to Union Station downtown, where we had dinner in a trendy restaurant, and then took the Metro back to our car. We did that just to be able to say that we had been on the Metro.
I’m not certain Mayor Bass’ wishes for a car-free 2028 Olympics will become a reality. The people mover at LAX is months behind schedule and I’ll believe it’s working when I see it. I’m also not certain who will use it, since it will add another step to getting to the airport, but my guess is that we won’t have a choice. Planners insisted that the remote people mover had to be built because having a light rail station going directly to the airport would pose security issues, despite the fact that it is the way travelers get to the airport in London, Munich, Zurich, Geneva, Singapore and many other cities around the world. But that really doesn’t matter, because unless one lives along the Green Line, or maybe in Long Beach, getting to the people mover station at LAX would be a long journey with multiple transfers that would be problematic for people traveling with luggage.
This is what Metro says the system will look like in 2028. Anyone who has taken rail transit in New York City, San Francisco, London or Paris will instantly see how sketchy the Los Angeles rail system is. The Metro Purple Line from downtown Los Angeles originally planned to reach the Pacific Ocean will stop at the Veterans Hospital about a mile west of the UCLA campus where Olympic athletes will be housed. If that station isn’t complete, they won’t be able to take the subway to their venues. The only venues I can think of that will be located near Los Angeles’ rudimentary light rail system are those at the University of Southern California campus, on the Exposition Line.
Mayor Bass says that 3,000 buses will complement the light rail system. There are few electric buses in operation, so that means 3,000 noisy diesel-powered buses spewing particulate matter into our already polluted air. Particulate pollution has been associated, probably causally, with all sorts of health problems. Some see potential use of electric air taxis as a better solution to getting around during the Olympics, but no electric aircraft has been certified for flight by the Federal Aviation Administration, and I see these electric “Hindenburgs” as an untested experiments yet to be proven safe.
Even if it’s possible, will a car-free Olympics be good for Los Angeles? Only time will tell.
