Getty ImagesFrom busy freeways to classic car street racing, Los Angeles has long been considered the capital of American car culture. Could it change in time for the Olympics?
With nearly year-round sunny skies, some say LA is the perfect place to bike.
“It's the perfect community for runners, cyclists and the outdoors, but in general we're addicted to our vehicles, we're addicted to the need to have speed,” said Damian Kevitt, executive director of Streets Are For Everyone (Safe).
But until recently, cars — not pedestrians or cyclists — ruled the roads.
Spread over 460 square miles (1,200 sq km), Los Angeles is known for its endless sprawl and traffic jams.
While cities like New York and Boston have embraced mass transit, Los Angeles has never taken off—only about 7 percent of Angelenos use public transit to get to work. according to Neighborhood Data for Social Change.
And while the weather in Los Angeles would be the envy of any cyclist in Amsterdam, only about 1% cycle to work.
But with hundreds of thousands of spectators expected to visit the city for the 2026 World Cup. and the 2028 Olympics, something needs to be done to make it easier to get around the city.
Los Angeles adopted the Twenty-Eight to 28 Transportation Plan in 2017 to expand mass transit options ahead of the Summer Olympics. Since then, miles and miles of new bike lanes have sprung up.
“This is long overdue,” Mr Kevitt said.
A bicyclist who lost his leg in 2013 after being hit by a car while riding his bike in Griffith Park, Kevitt believes more people will ride their own bikes or rent Metro bikes once the streets are paved. -safe and bike lanes are more connected than any other.
Los Angeles voters in 2024. overwhelmingly supported a ballot measure requiring the city to build more bike lanes and more walkable 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 car traffic worse 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 has fought against bike lanes near the cemetery because he believes it will increase traffic during his commute and funerals.
“Everywhere I've seen (this) implemented, they've 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 rip up Toronto's bike lanes, which have been part of the city's streets for nearly a decade (they're being sued by cyclists to stop the plan).
In Los Angeles County, the city of Glendale recently voted to eliminate some bike lanes after complaints about increased traffic.
And the 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 prompts others to occasionally bike instead of driving.
Cyclist Mimi Holt used to ride her bike in Seattle, then stopped riding for nearly 20 years for fear of speeding drivers on the busy streets of Los Angeles.
“In L.A., people drive so fast, it's so terrifying,” she said.
When her doctor told her she was pre-diabetic, she decided to venture out on the roads to get more exercise, and said since getting back on two wheels she feels much younger.
She said she can't wait for the city's “islands of bike lanes” to be connected to each other.
“If only there was a connecting road, I'd be on them all the time,” Ms. Holt said, adding that she would get rid of her car if cycling safely everywhere was an option in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Committee. are making big strides toward a “transit-first” Olympics, as she calls them, after initially causing 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 of the Twenty-Eight to '28 projects have been completed, and 23 are underway — 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 mostly with rail projects. But it will take more to make the city's transit dreams come true by 2028.
Mayor Bass and other city leaders wrote a letter to Trump's transition team requesting $3.2 billion in federal funding for “the largest and most spectacular sporting event held in American history.”
President Trump supported Los Angeles' Olympic bid during his first presidency, telling officials to remember to invite him.
Mayor Bass said they have not yet received a response to the letter, but said he hopes President-elect Trump will support it despite his frequent tensions with other California political leaders, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
Getty ImagesSome people, like Ms. Holt, like the idea of giving up their cars for a variety of reasons.
“I can barely afford the 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 lanes in 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 underground to the subway, which is often portrayed as teeming from crime and dystopian in the media.
And many locals think the idea of a Games without cars is absurd.
“It's a wonderful dream,” said Shivonne Ozinga, a Burbank resident who opposes additional bike lanes near her neighborhood. She said the city was too huge, spread out and reliant on cars for a change.
“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 he believes transit changes in Los Angeles will last long after the Olympics and the 2026 World Cup.
“As a motorcyclist, I certainly hope so,” she said.