Reporter Brandon R. Reynolds:  

LA Tries to Medal in a Secret Olympic Sport: Managing Traffic

You know how you leave laundry around the house and dishes in the sink? And then when you’re having company over, you clean up the place real quick and throw stuff in the closets? That’s what LA did before the ‘84 Olympics came to town.

“There was a concern just about being embarrassed by what a lot of people think is a pretty cool city having horrible traffic, terrible air pollution, and being seen as sort of dysfunctional,” says Brian Taylor, a UCLA professor of urban planning and an authority on transportation in California. He says the city knew it had to get its house in order before an international community of guests showed up.

“It was those two things: a fear of a smog alert, as it was called, and a fear of strangulating traffic,” he says, “but that fear is also what gave the little punch of investment that those engineers had long wanted.”

City engineers who had the desire (but not the funds) to solve LA’s traffic problem suddenly got a chance to do so, and thus was born the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control system (ATSAC). It’s a command center that controls traffic by use of traffic signals, sensors in the streets, and a lot of data. According to Taylor, in ‘84 it worked. Traffic was better, the air was cleaner.

Forty years later, that system is still at work. So even if you’re jammed up on the highway and feel like traffic is controlled by an unfeeling god, at least recognize that there is a traffic god, and that god has a plan that may not be clear or even convenient to you as an individual.

What started in 1984 with 118 signals around the LA Memorial Coliseum and Exposition Park has grown to more than 4,900 signals across 7,500 miles of Los Angeles streets.

And now that the city is planning for its next Olympics, in 2028, ATSAC (now called the Advanced Transportation System and Coordination Center) is growing again. 

In 2022, it moved from an actual bomb shelter four floors under City Hall to a 10th-floor command center in the Caltrans building downtown.

“But the bigger story, really,” Taylor says about the 1984 Olympics traffic jam that didn’t happen, “was the ability to get people to, over the short term, tremendously change their behavior.” Businesses closed early, drivers avoided travel.

That’s the big lesson the City of LA is taking into 2028. In short: It’s about getting you out of your car altogether.

LADOT and Metro are working on 28 projects for ‘28. The changes reflect a new priority on bikes and pedestrians and public transit. (Take a look at the map here.)

For bikes, there’s a new path connecting South LA to Inglewood, and bike-lane signals at a couple hundred intersections blinking on the command center’s big board. For buses, 71 miles of new lanes, including on Vermont Ave., Olympic Blvd., and Venice Blvd., and connecting North Hollywood to Pasadena. 

Also trains. A connector to LAX. A light rail extension to Pomona. And a D-line extension to Westwood, where Olympic Village will live. And, supposedly, air taxis … about which we have opinions.

In all, $20 billion of improvements to, as Taylor says, once again get LA ready to have company over: “I think that it takes these kinds of events to bring attention back, because of this desire to not have people over to a messy house, and not have a messy Olympics.”

So the Olympics aren’t just sporting events you may or may not be in town for. They’re catalysts for the city to evolve. 

And on those screens on the 10th floor of the Caltrans building, you can see beyond the cars and trucks of 1984, all the way to 2028 and the many other options Angelenos will have to get around their city.

The Family Throwing a Día de Los Muertos Party for All the Neighbors

Siblings Jasmine and Giovanny Maldonado started up the monthly outdoor market Mid-City Mercado in 2020 as a pop-up spot to sell bracelets, candles, and juices. Now the regular community gathering space is getting ready for their annual celebration of Dia de los Muertos.

Fence Proposal for Macarthur Park Is Latest Attempt To Restore Its Glory

LA’s MacArthur Park used to be a dump. Literally. A city dump. Until the early 20th century, when it was transformed into a tranquil sanctuary with a glittering lake and Victorian boathouse.     

But now it's better known as a hot spot for homelessness, drug trafficking, and violent crime. City leaders want to make it safer, so they’re going to do what they did to Echo Park a few years ago: put a fence around it. But this fence would be permanent. And wrought iron, not chain link.

How did we get here? KCRW’s Madeleine Brand interviews LA historian Hadley Meares about what the park has been before and could be in the future.

LA Homes Still Have Lead Paint as Funds To Fix Them Run Out

Most house paint — indoor and out — used to be made with lead in it. Then, in 1978, the US banned it because of the cognitive and developmental damage it can do, especially to children who might eat paint chips or just breathe in air with lead particles.

When a lead paint remediation program was announced in 2019, LA County said it would clean up and repaint up to 5,000 homes. But it looks like only about half that number will be completed before funds are exhausted.

"You see so many over time," contractor Michael Earlywine says of LA's many contaminated homes. "You’re just like, 'oh that house has lead, and that house for sure has lead.' A telltale sign is wood siding, wood windows, and deteriorated paint."

Looking for a vacation close to home? Win a luxurious 4-night stay at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica, complete with complimentary valet parking. Plus, enjoy dinner for two at FIG and another at SOKO for an unforgettable culinary experience. Donate at KCRW.com/give.