West Growth Officer and National Director of Infrastructure Rachel Vandenberg describes what infrastructure work needs to be done in preparation for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, other opportunities for transportation infrastructure growth, and the importance of an integrated transit system.
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Getting ready for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles is going to be a big challenge for the region. There's a huge commitment and a great opportunity. When the city put in the bid, part of that proposal was not to invest in new arenas and venues, which actually already exist, but to invest in transportation so that when visitors come to Los Angeles, they'll be able to fly in, no car, get to the venues, get to their hotels using public transportation.
There's been a lot of investment so far. You can see it at the airport. You can see it with the new transit lines, but a lot more to be done in the next six years. We have a big challenge ahead of us as an industry to think about how with a relative shortage of engineering professionals, a shortage of contractors, to deliver on the massive infrastructure investment. We need to be creative in collaborating together as engineers and with our contractor partners. We have a great opportunity right now with the focus on transportation, with the upcoming Olympics, with the investment from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, coming from the Federal Government, partnered with the state of California's own additional investments in transportation to think of innovative ways to envision what we want our transportation network to look like in the future. And this is going to include those partnerships with other transit and transportation agencies, but also with some that may not have always been engaged—the private developers.
How do we integrate transit into planned development so that you can get it as close to the front door of people, to their to their home, to their business, to where they want to go have dinner or go to a movie. So that transit becomes easy and becomes just part of the fabric of the community. What's really key to making a transit project successful and its long term operation successful is attracting people to ride. It shouldn't be the last choice. It should be the first choice. It should be even fun, attractive, clean, safe. I mean, there are certain things that should be absolute, but we need to draw people in, so that riding the train, riding the bus, becomes easy, and easier than some other choices. When you're going to a theme park, every element is part of the adventure. We need to think about a transit system the same way how we engage people at the stations, how they know how to get where they're going, that it becomes intuitive, attractive, and people feel comfortable and eager to ride.