Back to 1984
Back to 1984L.A. moved during the Olympics because drivers gave up some freedom
In the run-up to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, residents and policy makers were petrified the event would freeze the city in a two-week traffic jam. Some 6 million spectators were coming to Los Angeles and would be traveling between 24 different venues. In 1982, a group of USC researchers warned that the Olympics could bring "traffic jams of such a magnitude that the entire community could come to a standstill," as reported in The New York Times.
"There were a lot of horror stories going on," remembers Phoebus Lee, a resident of the South Bay at the time.
And then, in a surprise twist, traffic alleviation plans worked, and the streets and freeways of Los Angeles ran smoothly during the Olympics. If anything, there seemed to be less traffic.
But now, 23 years later, L.A. is in "the worst gridlock of our history," in the words of Los Angeles City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl. At this time of unprecedented congestion, could the traffic miracle of 1984 be repeated on a permanent basis?
California Transportation Commissioner Larry Zarian, who was involved in the 1984 Olympics as the vice chair for the boxing venue, remembers the time fondly and said the people of Los Angeles could reenact that traffic success if they had the will to do so. "It all was in the hands of the people," he said. "The same thing could happen today if people wanted to. There was an urgency, and today there is no urgency."
The traffic nightmare was averted during the Olympics due to years of planning and coordination, which successfully kept the L.A. transportation system "congestion free" during the 16 days of events, according to Jeanne Bonfilio, a spokesperson for the State of California Department of Transportation.
"The success was due to, first and foremost, [the fact] that the entire transportation system was in a state of readiness," according to Bonfilio.
Caltrans worked with more than 50 government agencies and private transportation planners and operators, she said. Their plan included: More car-pooling and bus-riding. Major incident response teams were on full alert, around the clock. Traffic flows on Figueroa and Flowers streets were switched to one-way. Commercial deliveries were made at night. Telephone hot lines kept the public informed. School buses were used to shuttle attendees, the press, and athletes to different sites. Employers allowed their workers to have flexible shifts or work from home. A specific traffic management plan was put into motion each day.
The result: Congestion was reduced by about 60 percent, and truck traffic was down by as much as 16 percent during peak periods, Bonfilio said.
Zarian said the plans worked because there was great public awareness about the possibility of a traffic disaster. If we had the same level of publicity and education about carpooling and using public transportation now, he said, there would be a significant change in the level of congestion in Los Angeles.
"It doesn't take very much," he said. What is required is "the will of the people to want to make a change ... and a commitment."
Even if people now were as committed to reducing traffic, Zarian and policy makers agree, congestion would not be alleviated as drastically as during the Olympics because of unalterable factors such as Southern California's massive population growth.
"The density of population and urban sprawl has dramatically increased in the last 23 years," Rosendahl said.
The Olympics were also a unique situation because many people were so afraid of the congestion they avoided going to areas near the event sites. Lee, the South Bay resident, said he made sure to avoid areas around the Coliseum, USC and UCLA. "I didn't go unless it was absolutely necessary," he said.
Still, moderate change is feasible, policy makers argued. In addition to more publicity about car-pooling and buses, Southern California needs better mass transportation, infrastructure, and funding, they said.
Policy makers can have all the grand ideas in the world, but they will never be fully enacted without the necessary funds. "Our MTA is hugely under-funded," Rosendahl said. "We're working with crumbs rather than a real pie."
Zarian proposed that a solution to Southern California's ever-growing congestion problem might be to take the oversight of the situation out of the hands of politicians and put it into the hands of transportation experts who do not have constituencies. "Politicians ought to budget, and experts ought to plan it," he said.
Published: 09/27/2007
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