From busy highways to classic car street racing, Los Angeles has long been considered the capital of American car culture. Can it change in time for the Olympics?
With sunny skies almost year-round, some say LA is the perfect place to ride a bike.
“It’s a perfect community for runners, cyclists and outdoor activities, but in general we’re attached to our vehicles, we’re attached to the need for speed,” said Damian Kevitt, CEO of Streets for All (Safe).
But until recently, cars – not pedestrians or cyclists – ruled the roads.
Spanning 460 square miles (1,200 square kilometers), Los Angeles is known for its endless sprawl and traffic jams.
While cities like New York and Boston embraced mass transit, it never took off in LA—only about 7% of Angelenos take public transit to work, according to Neighborhood Data for Social Change.
And while any Amsterdam cyclist might envy LA’s weather, only about 1% cycle to work.
But with hundreds of thousands of spectators expected to visit the city for the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics, something has to be done to make getting around the city easier.
In 2017, Los Angeles adopted the “Twenty-Eight to ’28” transportation plan to expand mass transit options ahead of the Summer Olympics. Since then, kilometers and kilometers of new bike paths have sprung up.
“This is long overdue,” Mr Kevitt said.
A cyclist who lost his leg in 2013 after being hit by a car while cycling in Griffith Park, Kevitt thinks more people will commute to work on their own bikes or rented Metro city bikes when streets are safer and bike lanes better connected to each other .
In 2024, LA voters overwhelmingly supported a ballot measure requiring the city to build more bike lanes and more pedestrian and livable spaces in Los Angeles.
But will car-loving Angelenos embrace bike culture? Some are actively fighting the changes, grumbling that bike lanes only make traffic worse for cars in the city of stars.
“What do you mean we voted for it? Not here! Not me!” said Darin Drabing, president and CEO of Forest Lawn Cemetery, who is fighting bike lanes near the cemetery because he thinks it will increase traffic during his commute and funeral.
“I saw everywhere [it] implemented, they have failed,” he said. “All it does is increase congestion and frustration for people.”
Some fail.
While protected bike lanes have transformed Olympic host cities like Paris and London, politicians are currently trying to destroy bike lanes in Toronto that have been part of city streets for nearly a decade (cyclists are suing them to stop the plan).
In Los Angeles County, the city of Glendale recently voted to remove some bike lanes after complaints about increased traffic.
And new protected bike lanes create frustration along Hollywood Boulevard, where car traffic is now limited to one lane in each direction for several miles. But it also causes others to occasionally cycle instead of drive.
Cyclist Mimi Holt used to ride her bike in Seattle, then stopped riding for nearly 20 years because of the fear of speeding drivers on LA’s busy streets.
“In LA, people drive so fast it’s downright scary,” she said.
When her doctor told her she was pre-diabetic, she decided to hit the roads to get more exercise and said she feels much younger since getting back on two wheels.
She said she can’t wait for the city’s “islands of bike lanes” to connect with each other.
“If only there was a merging lane, I’d be on them all the time,” Ms. Holt said, adding that she would get rid of her car if safe bicycling everywhere were an option in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city and the LA 2028 Olympic Committee are making great progress toward what she calls a “transit-first” Olympics after initially courting controversy by advocating for a “car-free” Games.
But with more than 100 miles (160 km) of bike lanes planned, advocates worry the process is taking too long.
So far, only five “Twenty-Eight to ’28” projects have been completed, with 23 underway – and not all are expected to be completed in time for the Games.
Los Angeles has already secured $900m (£717m) from the Biden administration to help mainly with rail projects. But more will be needed to make the city’s traffic dreams come true by 2028.
Mayor Bass and other city leaders wrote a letter to Trump’s transition team asking for $3.2 billion in federal funding for “the largest and most spectacular sporting event held in American history.”
President Trump supported LA’s bid for the Olympics during his first term as president, telling officials not to forget to invite him.
Mayor Bass said they have not yet received a response to the letter, but said she hopes President-elect Trump will show support despite his frequent tensions with other California political leaders, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
Some people, like Ms. Holt, like the idea of giving up their cars, for a variety of reasons.
“I can barely afford my car. Insurance is very expensive, gas is very expensive and it’s not good for the environment,” Ms. Holt said at a meeting looking at proposed bike lanes throughout Los Angeles.
But while many Angelenos rely on mass transit to get to work and school, many others who live here have never taken a bus or ventured on the subway to the subway, which is often portrayed in the media as crime-ridden and dystopia.
And many locals think that the idea of the Games without cars is absurd.
“It’s a beautiful dream,” said Shivon Ozinga, a Burbank resident who opposes additional bike lanes near her neighborhood. She said that the city is too big, spread out and is changing with cars.
“I can’t imagine that happening in such a short amount of time given our car culture here.”
But Mayor Bass can envision a transportation revolution and said she believes the changes to Los Angeles traffic will last long after the Olympics and the 2026 World Cup.
“As a bike rider, I certainly hope so,” she said.
