From gondolas to hydrogen hubs to “festival routes,” transportation and environmental advocates hope to create legacy infrastructure that will serve the citizens of Los Angeles long after the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics are over and carbon emissions targets for the state of California.
Comparing LA’s experience with the 1984 Olympics to the upcoming ones, Metro planning director Ray Sosa noted that, unlike in 1984, the city now has multiple rail lines. “We have a concept mobility plan for the Games for 3 million people who need travel,” he told attendees at CoMotion LA, a mobility conference held in the city’s Little Tokyo district Nov. 12-14.
A network of about 100 kilometers of priority bus lanes is expected to remain after the Games are over, he added. Thus, sidewalk improvements will be expected to facilitate first-mile to last-mile walking and biking options.
The World Series champion Dodgers’ victory parade earlier this month could be a warm-up to “get people used to the traffic,” said Sam Morrissey, vice president of transportation with LA 28. He noted that members of the L.A. 28 spent time in Paris during this year’s Olympics. There, public transportation “wasn’t perfect, some trains broke down, but you could get off” and get on easily, he said.
Marcel Porras, deputy head of Metro’s innovation office, noted that “there was a lot of temporary guidance in Paris,” including digital identification in apps. One lesson learned was that not all apps worked consistently across all types of phones, he said. Another was that the bike parking stations were often full.
Also, in preparation for the Paralympics and to better serve differently-abled Angelenos afterward, “ADA compliance is not the ceiling, it’s the floor” for goals, he said.
Romain Erny, head of business sectors and aftercare at Choose Paris Region, added that all 25 Olympic facilities in Paris are no more than 400 meters from a metro stop. In addition, the city now has over 60 miles of permanent bike lanes as a result of the Games.
The nonprofit Move LA hopes to emulate that with a planned 22-mile mobility corridor consisting of “Festival Trails” that would connect 14 Olympic sites and create 11 neighborhood centers. Corridor segments include an estimated $143 million, 5.5-mile system of bike and walking paths through downtown LA called the Rail to Rail/River Active Transportation Corridor, a 425 bus rapid transit corridor million dollars and 12.4 miles and potentially make Grand Avenue in downtown LA a pedestrian-only street.
In the long term, segments of the corridor could allow for 20,000 units of affordable housing, while reducing deaths at intersections as part of the federal Complete Streets vision, said Eli Lipmen, executive director of Move LA.
Metro’s head of program management, Tim Lindholm, said key transit projects will open next year in time for the Games: the rail-to-rail active transit corridor; the connector to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), a light rail extension in the San Gabriel Valley to Pomona, and the first three stations of the D Line (formerly the Purple Line) next year. The rest of the D line, which extends to Beverly Hills, should open in 2026 and 2027, he told attendees at ENR’s LA Infrastructure Forum on Nov. 18.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation is looking to coordinated traffic signals, accessible sidewalks, curbs and ramps and a mobility platform informed by multiple data providers such as electric bikes, taxis and eventually autonomous vehicles, said CEO Laura Rubio- dogwood “Paris unapologetically made sure the streets were car-free” for the Olympics, he noted. “We are looking for key brokers for a similar approach.”
His staff is also consulting with disability advisors to improve orientation and accessibility for both Paralympic athletes and Angelenos with disabilities, he added.
As part of LAX’s $30 billion capital program, a “large portion” of the work to untangle the “spaghetti bowl” of roads and ramps will be done by 2028, said Michael Christensen, chief development officer for Los Angeles World Airports. The trains are being tested for automated passenger transport and are expected to enter service in 2026. A digital transformation is also taking place: “We’re connecting for 5G” and developing apps for commuters, he added.
He said LAX, through his The multiple award task order contract program has awarded nearly $2 billion to local and historically disadvantaged contractors and expects to award an additional $6 billion early next year.
About $1 billion of that work will consist of “basic repairs” to airport facilities, he added, noting that a “shiny, shiny terminal” doesn’t matter if the water or electricity doesn’t it works “We’ll fix the basics.”
up in the air
Another mobility project that some expect to be ready by 2028 but has sparked controversy and a lawsuit is a proposed 1.2-mile gondola system connecting Union Station to Dodger Stadium. The system could handle about 5,000 people per hour per direction and take up to 3,000 cars off the road during Dodger games and other events, proponents say.
David Grannis, project director for Zero Emissions Transit, told CoMotion attendees that Metro accepted an unsolicited proposal and is in the midst of state environmental reviews and community information meetings. “We hope to be shopping in 2026,” Grannis said.
In August, a Superior Court judge rejected a lawsuit by a group led by the Los Angeles Parks Alliance that said the city, not Metro, should have conducted environmental reviews for the air transit project fast from Los Angeles (LA ART).
Jon Mauch, director of sales for Leitner-Poma of America, which provides cable cars for aerial trams, said gondola construction has been “booming in the last 20 years,” with systems now up and running in South America and Europe.
In Burnaby, Canada, a proposed 1.6-mile gondola is in the final stages of business case planning, said Holly Foxcroft, principal planner for Translink, Vancouver’s transit agency. As with the proposed LA ART, the cable car would solve the problem of navigating steep slopes and extend over the existing transit system. “It would cost less to operate, 40%, than buses,” he added.
