No Cars in Los Angeles in 2028!

A surprising announcement as the Olympic flag prepares to cross the Atlantic to reach Los Angeles.

The organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will pass the torch to those of Los Angeles 2028 during the closing ceremony tonight. A passing of the torch with a sense of duty fulfilled, as these games have generated tremendous public enthusiasm. The celebration was meant to be beautiful; it was fantastic!

Of course, traffic in and around Paris will remain the main downside of these Olympics. Wanting to penalize the naughty car drivers, the City Hall of Paris has implemented a series of pretentious and foolish measures, such as dangerous Olympic lanes and incomprehensible color-coded traffic restrictions. In short, nothing was done right, but at least the smooth running of the events was not impacted thanks to the dedication of the thousands of volunteers who guided spectators who were sometimes lost in this mobility chaos.

The Los Angeles 2028 delegation present in Paris took the time to analyze the Parisian mess and came up with a straightforward and radical solution. No cars in the city during the Olympics, but a public transport offering of an unprecedented scale.

Los Angeles dares to go car-free

Public transport and soft mobility options will be the only means to access the venues in Los Angeles, and for this, 3,000 buses will be borrowed from across the country to enable spectators to move around. All businesses in the city are also politely invited, before being compelled, to allow their employees to work from home during the 17-day period.

While Paris benefits from a very dense metro and tram network, Los Angeles has a decent bus network but only two underground metro lines and four tram lines. Overall, public transport that pales in comparison to that of major cities such as Paris, London, and New York.

No one can be pleased, of course, with a world where freedoms of movement are restricted. But these Olympic Games in Paris have proven that it is possible to make efforts for a unique occasion for a few days. So, if this experience of Los Angeles is successful, why not consider car-free periods? Not these ridiculous car-free days that bring nothing to the environment and cost a fortune in implementation and supervision, but real breathing spaces of a few days.

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