By most accounts, U.S. World Cup host cities and transportation agencies successfully handled record volumes of travelers this summer. “I was very proud of how we saw our transit systems operate across the country in response to the historic level crowds,” Henrika Buchanan, transit and rail market sector leader for infrastructure design firm HNTB, told Smart Cities Dive.
More than 26 public transit agencies across 11 cities coordinated with city, state and federal officials to prepare for and manage the influx of soccer fans. The Federal Transit Administration made over $100 million available to U.S. host cities to expand transit options around stadiums where events took place.
“Three years ago, we were already coordinating internally around how we help our clients in different cities who were tasked with being prepared for the World Cup,” Buchanan said.
Serving visitors and local residents
Preparation required more than adding buses and trains. It involved getting visitors to and from airports, hotels, fan events and stadiums. “These were really regional connectivity events,” she said. Transit agencies in Atlanta, Los Angeles and other cities deployed transit ambassadors to help international and out-of-town visitors use local transportation options.
Buchanan singled out Kansas City, Missouri, for establishing a common control center, where decision-makers from multiple agencies and organizations came together to deal with the unexpected.
Amid the frenzy of the matches, residents had to get to their jobs, health care and grocery stores. “You don't want the event to be so disruptive that those people don't have the mobility that they need,” Buchanan said.
Sound Transit opened the final 7-mile segment of its light rail line across Lake Washington in Seattle on March 28. LA Metro opened an extension of its D Line subway on May 8. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority added capacity on its Broad Street Line and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority staged about 30 buses to respond to any rail service disruptions on match days.
LA plans for “no-car” Olympic Games
The 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles will be the nation’s next mega-event. LA28, the organizing committee, projects total attendance to be from 10 million to 15 million spectators. Los Angeles expects to welcome about 5 million visitors, according to MSN.
LA Metro began preparing in 2017 with the Twenty-Eight by ’28 Initiative, a series of bus, rail, station, roadway, bike and pedestrian projects. About 40% have been completed, and the rest are in progress, according to the transit agency. These projects weren’t one-offs for the Olympics: They represent long-term investments to improve transportation in the LA region, according to LA Metro.
Arup, a global engineering consulting firm, is on board to help LA organizers, Senior Consultant Kaitlin Coari, who worked with the New York New Jersey Host Committee for the World Cup, told Smart Cities Dive. “We saw a lot of success around that … which will be something we definitely take forward in LA as well,” she said.
“Major events are a catalyst of creating long-term, sustainable change in cities,” Coari said. Arup is working with LA Metro and the LA28 Host Committee on venue access planning, crowd modeling and traffic management services.
Olympic events will be scattered among multiple cities and areas of Southern California. “You have to have a high level of awareness of the totality” to ensure that an issue in one part of the city or county doesn’t create issues elsewhere, she said.
Security, health and safety are also concerns, Coari said. This summer, temperatures across the LA region ran about 5 to 10 degrees above average, according to local news station KTLA5. That could require shade management, she said.
The Paralympic games, to be held in August following the Olympic games, “will require a different operational plan, different staffing,” Coari said. Accessible transportation, from airports to buses to on-site venues, will be needed to accommodate the paralympic athletes.
LA Mayor Karen Bass, who is up for re-election, declared in 2024 that she wants to field a “no-car Games” when LA hosts the 2028 Olympics. “It's a real opportunity to use momentum over these next two years to change that [car-centric] behavior,” Coari said.
Opening ceremonies will take place July 14, 2028 in Los Angeles. In addition to Southern California, some events will take place in Columbus, Ohio; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; New York City; St. Louis; Nashville, Tennessee; San Diego and San José, California.
