Note: This post was originally published on Streetsblog’s sister site, Santa Monica Next.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass made international headlines when she promised that the 2028 Olympics would be car-free. Since Santa Monica will host the beach volleyball portion of the games, we thought we could help our beachside city do its part to achieve that goal. Below are some long-term and short-term ideas the city should pursue to prepare for a car-free Olympics.
The good news for Santa Monica is that it is way ahead of Los Angeles in providing multimodal options, including safe spaces for walking and biking. The key to a car-free Olympics will be to expand existing options and simplify and speed up access and use of existing bus and rail systems.
And it goes without saying that these improvements will benefit the city every day, not just for a few weeks every four years.
So let’s start by making the buses and trains better. Santa Monica should act quickly and give E-Line (Expo Line) trains priority over signals. If the temporary stadium is to be built just north of the pier, making the downtown station easy to access and increasing train capacity is a must.
A positive side effect for visitors arriving by Metro light rail is that they are also close to two major shopping and entertainment attractions: the Promenade/Santa Monica Place and the Pier.
Also, buses should be given priority on Santa Monica’s main streets, if not permanently, then at least during the games. Many people will be coming from the south of the city (South Bay, Long Beach, even some of the beach towns in Orange County), so Olympic Boulevard and PCH should be timed so that this trip is easier and faster by bus than by car. Bonus points if the city gets creative and partners with one of those beach towns and Metro to create a parking lot and rapid bus service into the city so those cars aren’t tied into the local grid.
With the Olympic Village in Westwood, with the D Line subway station set to open in 2028, Santa Monica should expect there to be a steady demand for transportation from the greater UCLA area to the beach area. Very high-quality connectivity to the D Line should be a top priority, both in terms of bus frequency and speed/dedicated lanes. The city should be included in the discussions between Metro and LADOT, as many trips that begin in Westwood will end in Santa Monica.
While giving buses the right of way at traffic lights is great, the city should use that attention to finally connect to the bus lanes on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. If that proves too much of a hassle politically, there’s more room on the parallel Santa Monica Boulevard.
Paris had great success in increasing bicycle traffic to the sights by painting the bike lanes leading to the Olympic destinations bright pink. It’s a good and inexpensive idea, and Santa Monica should work with LA and Long Beach to create a universal color palette that directs cyclists to the Olympic hotspots.
It’s only five miles from Westwood to the pier, a distance most people can easily manage by bike – assuming (and that’s a big if) there’s a safe, convenient bike path.
Perhaps a bike path combined with numerous bike sharing options, like in Paris. The city of Los Angeles and Metro have received a federal grant to expand bike sharing westward. So perhaps the Olympics would be a good time for Santa Monica to rethink the city’s bike sharing offer and significantly expand it.
But where will people ride? From Westwood? The heavy lifting will be outside the city limits, but perhaps Santa Monica can work with LA to create some sort of Olympic bike lane logo, including:
- Protected bike lanes on Broadway connect the approved protected bike lanes on Ohio Avenue in LA City
- The E (Expo) Line bike path – give it a new coat of paint, add some pop-ups
- Both Broadway and Expo could feed into a main bike lane on Colorado Avenue (the city is currently building a new protected bike lane there), which needs a seamless connection to the volleyball stadium.
- A parallel route could serve the California Incline and potentially improve and expand California Avenue’s basic bike lanes.
Back to transit: NASCAR has included transit passes in the cost of race tickets at certain races. over two decades. Therefore, it should be a no-brainer (and in fact, Metro is already planning to) integrate TAP cards into Olympic tickets. To ensure that visitors can board buses and trains easily and quickly, I would also integrate them into hotel rooms.
And finally, let’s not forget that the Santa Monica Olympics are not only great for the tourism industry; for the residents, it’s also an opportunity to celebrate winning the lottery…They live in Santa Monica, one of the greatest small towns in the world. For this reason, the city should make it easy for its residents to participate in the games and celebrate in their own neighborhood. So, those who do not want to mingle with the city’s visitors can celebrate in their own neighborhood.
It goes without saying that DTSM Inc. will program the boardwalk and the Pier Corporation will do the same. But that alone is not enough. The city should work with its neighborhood groups to organize Olympic parties, screenings and other special events in all Santa Monica neighborhoods.
Not many Santa Monica residents will be able to attend actual sporting events, so the city should bring the Olympics to where the people are. Like many cities around the world, Santa Monica should have at least a few public viewing locations. Maybe something like a farmers market-type street closure with a big electronic screen broadcasting the games. Where? Maybe in Tongva Park, the 17 Street E Line park-and-ride lot, Santa Monica College, Goose Egg Park — or use the comments to suggest where you’d like to see the games.
I’m sure there are many more great ideas we’ve missed. Let us know what you think and we’ll include it in a follow-up article soon. You can respond in the comments, on social media, or by emailing [email protected].
Streetsblog LA editor Joe Linton edited and contributed to this article.
