Could bike lanes reshape car-crazy Los Angeles?

From busy freeways to classic-car street racing, Los Angeles has long been considered the capital of American car culture. Can there be a change in the timing of the Olympics?

With sunny skies almost year-round, some say LA is the ideal place for bicycling.

“This is a perfect community for runners and cyclists and the outdoors, yet in general we’re tied to our vehicles, we’re tied to the need for speed,” said Damian Kiewitt, executive director of Streets Are for Everyone (SAFE). Has happened.” ,

But until recently, cars ruled the roads – not pedestrians or cyclists.

Spread over 460 square miles (1,200 square km), Los Angeles is known for its never-ending expansion and traffic jams.

While cities like New York and Boston have adopted mass transit, it never took hold in LA – only 7% of Angelenos take transit to work, According to neighborhood data for social change,

And while LA’s weather would be the envy of any Amsterdam cyclist, only 1% bike to work.

But with millions of visitors expected to visit the city for the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games, something needs to be done to make it easier to get around the city.

Los Angeles adopted the “Twenty-Eight by ’28” transportation plan in 2017 to expand mass transit options ahead of the Summer Olympics. Since then, miles of new bike lanes have been emerging.

“This is long overdue,” Mr. Kiewitt said.

A cyclist who lost his leg when he was hit by a car while riding his bike in Griffith Park in 2013, Kiewitt thinks more people will own or rent bikes as roads become safer and bike lanes become more connected to each other. Will travel using metro city bike. Other.

In 2024, LA voters overwhelmingly supported a ballot measure requiring the city to create more bike lanes and more walkable, livable spaces in Los Angeles.

But will car-loving Angelenos embrace bike culture? Some people are actively fighting against the changes, complaining that bike lanes make traffic worse for cars in the City of Stars.

“What do you mean we voted for it? Not here! Not me!” said Darrin Drebing, president and CEO of Forest Lawn Cemetery, who is fighting against the bike lane near the cemetery because he thinks it will increase traffic during commutes and funerals.

“Wherever I’ve seen it implemented, they’ve failed,” he said. “All this adds to overcrowding and frustration for people.”

Some fail.

While protected bike lanes have transformed Olympic host cities like Paris and London, politicians are currently trying to eliminate the bike lanes in Toronto that have been part of the city’s streets for nearly a decade (to stop that plan. They are being sued by cyclists).

In Los Angeles County, the city of Glendale recently voted to remove some bike lanes after complaints of increased traffic.

And new protected bike lanes are causing frustration on Hollywood Boulevard, where automobile traffic is now limited to one lane in each direction for several miles. But due to this, other people also sometimes start traveling by bike instead of driving.

Cyclist Mimi Holt used to ride her bike in Seattle, but she quit bicycling for nearly 20 years because of her fear of speeding drivers on LA’s busy streets.

“People drive so fast in L.A., it’s scary,” he said.

When her doctor told her she was pre-diabetic, she decided to venture out onto the streets to get more exercise, and said she felt much younger since getting back on two wheels.

She said she can’t wait for the city’s “islands of bike lanes” to be connected to each other.

“If there were access routes, I would be on them all the time,” Ms Holt said. He said he would get rid of his car if bicycling safely everywhere in Los Angeles were an option.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city and the LA 2028 Olympic Committee are making great progress toward a “transit first” Olympics, as she calls it, as she initially courted controversy by advocating for a “car-free” Games. Had made it stand.

But with more than 100 miles (160 km) of bike lanes planned, advocates worry the process is taking too long.

So far, only five of the “twenty-eight by ’28” projects have been completed and 23 are in progress – and not all of them are expected to be completed in time for the games.

Los Angeles has already secured $900 million (£717 million) from the Biden administration to help with rail projects. But realizing the city’s transit dreams by 2028 will take much longer.

Mayor Bass and other city leaders have written a letter to the Trump transition team requesting $3.2 billion in federal funding for “the largest and most spectacular sporting event held in American history.”

President Trump was supportive of LA’s Olympic bid during his first presidency, and had asked officials not to forget to invite him.

Mayor Bass said she has not yet received a response to the letter, but said she is hopeful President-elect Trump will support her despite continued tensions with other California political leaders such as Governor Gavin Newsom and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi .

Some people, like Ms. Holt, like the idea of ​​giving up their cars for a number of reasons.

“I can barely afford my car. Insurance is really expensive, gas is really expensive and it’s not good for the environment,” Ms. Holt said at a meeting to look at proposed bike paths 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 had access to an underground subway, often portrayed in the media as crime-ridden and dystopian. is depicted.

And many locals think the idea of ​​a car-free Games is absurd.

“It’s a wonderful dream,” said Burbank resident Shivon Ozinga, who opposes additional bike lanes near her neighborhood. He said the city is huge, vast and dependent on cars for change.

“Given the car culture we have here I can’t imagine that happening in such a short period of time.”

But Mayor Bass can envision a transportation revolution and said he believes the transit transformation in Los Angeles will last long after the Olympic Games and the 2026 World Cup.

“As a biker, I certainly hope so,” she said.