Can Los Angeles Electrify the 2028 Olympics?
The host city promised a climate-friendly, “transit-first” Summer Games. Getting there will demand a big build-out of EV infrastructure — and a lot of buses.
A new electric bus is plugged into a charger at the BC Transit Victoria Transit Depot in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on Thursday, July 3, 2025.
Photographer: James MacDonald/BloombergThe last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympic Games, in 1984, organizers came up with a plan to shuttle athletes and spectators around the sprawling metro on a special fleet of buses running express routes between venues. Improbably, this pop-up bus rapid transit system worked pretty well — normally traffic-clogged freeways flowed freely.
For the 2028 Summer Games, a similar project is ramping up: LA Metro, the regional transit agency, plans to launch the “Games Enhanced Transit Service” — a kind of parallel public transportation system. Organizers hope to field 1,747 extra buses, running routes connecting Olympic and Paralympic Games venues, in order to move an estimated 15 million visitors.