Three years to go, 10 million people to convince
As the countdown to LA28 begins, so does the city’s transit-building race. But will LA ride?
By Samantha Lee
Dec. 17, 2024
LOS ANGELES – Harlan Fitzgerald, 19, a born and bred New Yorker, has been riding the subway since she was 11. It was the best - and only - way she could get around the big city.
Now she attends USC while working at the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office. To get there, she commutes from school on the Metro three times a week. Using public transport helps her get to know a new city. Also, it is cheaper and faster.
“I just can't find it reasonable to put that kind of money into cars when I know a very viable option is in front of me,” she said.
Fitzgerald symbolizes Metro riders’ needs: affordable daily transportation. The big question now, and as the city gears up for the 2028 Olympics: do the other thousands or even millions of L.A. residents want Metro?
What’s beyond question: Metro is being built out.
In 2008, two-thirds of Los Angeles County voters approved Measure R, a half-cent sales tax increase to underwrite new public transit projects and speed up those already in the works. In 2016, about 70% of voters approved Measure M, another half-cent sales tax, to further fund Metro programs.
Then, in 2017, Los Angeles was awarded the 2028 Summer Olympics – part of a historic package deal that saw Paris get 2024.
Shortly after, in 2018, then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti launched the $26.2 billion project – tied to Measures M and R – ‘Twenty-eight by ‘28’, to see parts of the Metro system hugely expanded by the July 14, 2028 start of opening ceremony.
The 1984 Games are vividly remembered by many in Southern California for the traffic – or lack thereof – and how easy it was to get around on the freeways for those two weeks. This time, to accommodate a bigger and much more populous Games, planners have a different but equally ambitious goal:
“LA28 will be a transit-first Games,” said Kim Parker Gordon, a spokesperson for the L.A. Olympic and Paralympic Games, “which means that spectators will be encouraged to take public transportation to get to the myriad of world class venues where the Games will be held.”
Public parking will not be available at most events, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has said. Games venues are set to sprawl across SoCal, from Pasadena to Inglewood, to Long Beach.
When the Summer Games arrive – for a third time – there will – for the first time – be a transit line to LAX. There also, officials say, will be line extensions through San Gabriel Valley and Beverly Hills.
The Games will come and go. Then Los Angeles will be left with miles of new Metro lines and dozens if not hundreds of carts. And this question:
Will people ride?
The issue then will likely be the same as it is now: crime on the Metro, poor upkeep of infrastructure and an overriding commitment in the Southern California basin to the automobile.
Crime on the Metro is up. In April, a 67-year-old woman was stabbed to death on a train in Studio City. In September, a Metro bus was hijacked and a 48-year-old man was shot dead.
Between March and April of 2024, as KCBS data reported, there was a 16% increase in violent crime – from assault to homicide – at Metro stations, buses and trains.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles remains a city of drivers.
Ten out of the 25 highest traffic volume areas daily are highways in Los Angeles, the Federal Highway Administration said, counting over 3 million cars a day.
For comparison, according to Metro, only 800,000 people ride the bus and rail a day.
Standing at the gas station, filling his Honda SUV, L.A. native Alberto Barjas, 34, said that he would like to take the Metro, but it needs to have better established routes. Despite living by a Metro station, he only rides twice a month.
Barajas works full-time as a teacher at John Marshall High School. Getting there on the Metro would require three different buses and almost an hour. In a car, it’s 15 minutes up Route 2.
“It’s just much easier to live in Los Angeles in a car,” he said.
It is also much easier to just ignore it. According to an LABarometer survey from USC, ridership is down 11% from the pre-pandemic statistic of 35%.
Angel Chavez, 19, a student at Santa Monica College, said the lack of consistent human presence on the Metro makes it “eerie and unsafe”.
“The No. 1 root cause is that people don’t take it,” he said.
Catcher Salazar, a 20-year-old biological science researcher, grew up taking public transport in Washington. He said the Metro in D.C. is “a lot cleaner and safer”.
He added, “I didn’t feel like I had to watch my back all the time.”
“I think the reason people don't take the Metro in L.A. is because - I hate to say it - homeless people and people on drugs pose a danger to riders,” he said. “Because of that, and the stories people hear, there's this stigma that the Metro is dirty, dangerous, or for people who can't afford a car.”
Salazar takes the Metro when convenient - mostly in and out of Downtown LA. Though he doesn’t feel unsafe, he recognizes that danger exists for others. “I don't mind because I'm a guy. I guess if I were a girl,” he said, “there would probably be a way higher risk.”
As a young female taking the train alone through Downtown LA, Fitzgerald makes an effort to be extra aware of her surroundings. She finds Metro riders very different from those in New York.
“I notice a lot of people who seem to be wandering, for lack of a better term,” she said, “They are rarely clean. They are mostly unhoused. They seem a little bit mentally unstable. They often carry a lot of miscellaneous objects, and they are aggressive.”
Chavez said he feels outnumbered by homeless people on the Metro, most of whom, he noticed, shelter on carts overnight: “It’s super annoying to me. The smell is horrendous. Oh my gosh, it is so bad.”
He added, “All these crackheads, all these substance abusers, it’s just really annoying. You can tell how uncomfortable and unsafe everyone feels.”
One Friday evening, in a crowded cart on her way home, a man sitting next to Fitzgerald kicked her in the face. “It was out of nowhere,” she said, “I managed to dodge it, but the train doors weren't opening up at the next stop so I couldn’t get off.”
“It doesn’t always work well,” said Wesley Wise, 25, a faculty member and doctoral student in Mathematics at USC. “The trains need to come more frequently. The connections need to be better timed. A lot of things infrastructure and safety-wise are not there for people to find the Metro reliable enough to choose it over driving.”
All the same, Wise said more people should give the Metro a chance. He rides every day.
“I usually figure the people having a bad time are having a worse time than I am, so I just leave them be,” he said. “Plus, it’s just simpler. I don't like driving in traffic.”