When the 1984 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles, nothing astonished the locals more than the transportation. Millions of people got where they needed to go, on time, using 550 borrowed buses, simple demand management policies like staggered work schedules, and effective messaging calling for a unified Olympic-spirit effort. One year ago, I wrote about what that success might look like for 2028 in a region that holds even more promise: LA has spent the past four decades making the continent's most ambitious public transportation investments that now serve the second-highest transit ridership in the country. Not only have we done a "car-free" games once — well, twice, if you count 1932 — LA is extremely well-positioned to do it again.
So what a moment for LA's megaevent organizers to step forward with a statement affirming their commitment to an equitable transportation strategy and a plan to guarantee the safety for everyone in LA to move around the city without cars, games or not.
Yesterday's announcement is perhaps the least surprising move that LA28 has made yet. It's something I predicted way back in December as I watched the language drift from "car-free" to "transit-first." And, as I also guessed might happen, Uber and LA28 are trying their best to argue that this isn't about cars:
LA28 is committed to hosting a transit-first Games, and Uber will provide comprehensive rideshare solutions including cars, bikes, and scooters to support multi-modal journeys to and from LA28 venues and mobility hubs.
But if these games are still meant to be "transit-first" — why not announce a transit partner, first? At a Sun Valley, Idaho conference known as "summer camp for billionaires," LA28 chair Casey Wasserman was asked exactly that in an interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin. (Note, as always, that these "exclusives" are always given to NBC, the IOC's official media partner, although this is not disclosed anywhere in the interview.) "Here you are doing a deal with Uber, not public transportation," Boorstin says. "What does it say about the complication of operating in my hometown of Los Angeles, which is a car city?"
Wasserman gave his boilerplate disclaimer: "There's lots more public transportation in LA than there ever has been, and that will be a primary source." Great. But then he downplayed the role of transit, like he's been doing for months. "Because it's a car city, we have to be appropriate for what our city allows for and embraces," he says. "In some use cases, Uber is now a new version of public transportation not from a cost perspective, but from a shared-use perspective. And that's an important part of our delivery."
It might be hard for someone who has never used public transportation to understand — going halfsies on the jet to Sun Valley doesn't count — but despite Uber's best efforts to replicate and privatize the exact same services while spending billions to undermine more effective taxpayer-funded solutions, Uber will never be public transportation. From a "shared-use perspective," everything that LA28 says Uber offers is already operated by Metro at a lower price point, from shared rides to shared bikes — all easily scaled for megaevent crowds. (In the funniest twist ever, if the Metro Bike contract is ever worked out, it might be operated during the games by Uber's rival, Lyft.) But if the "shared-use perspective" was truly of "primary" importance to LA28, Metro would be a headlining sponsor, right up there with Delta Air Lines, in the same way LA's World Cup host committee had the sense to make Metro its official public transit provider. Let's be real: these events simply won't happen without them.
LA28's sponsor announcements are not just out of touch with reality — they keep undercutting the work of the transportation planners presenting actual solutions for getting people to the venues. People will still take transit to the games, obviously; it's the smartest way to go. But if we look at the lessons learned from 1984, what made getting around so easy was as much about logistics as it was about consistent, drumbeat-level communication to everyone else: here's how it goes, and if we all do this together, it'll turn out great. Bit by bit, LA28 has also managed to erode away that sense of collective action. One year ago, saying "car-free" games evoked a very specific goal for the region: a lofty but completely achievable vision. And yesterday, that vision died. 🔥
🚇 Meanwhile Metro ridership continues to surge, with 30 straight months of year-over-year growth, and more people taking buses and trains on the weekend than they did before the pandemic — largely because they're taking transit to events CAN YOU BELIEVE IT
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