UC Irvine Institute of Transportation Studies

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Transportation System Management plan employed during the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. The Summer Olympics presented Los Angeles area transportation planners with an unprecedented challenge: to manage the circulation of an expected 1.2 million  visitors, 6 millions spectators, and nearly 25,000 athletes, media, and Olympic family within a regional transportation system which had reached capacity in many areas. Owing to the lack of both funds and time, capital improvements to meet the anticipated increase were not feasible. Rather, Los Angeles transportation planners had no choice but to develop and implement the most ambitious transportation management program ever attempted.

Caltrans District 7, in conjunction with several local transportation agencies and the Los Angeles Olympics Organizing Committee, invested two years of effort in the development of a viable and effective traffic management plan for the 1984 Summer Olympics. From a traffic management perspective, the Los Angeles Summer Olympics were an unqualified success. With few exceptions, major traffic problems failed to materialize, and, for the first time in the recent history of the Olympics, not one group of spectators got stranded and missed an event.

The Los Angeles Olympics provided a unique opportunity to test the effectiveness of transportation system management under extreme conditions. The apparent success of the experiment merits close analysis, both in order to identify what worked and what did not, and to determine whether lessons learned from the experience can provide guidelines for future transportation policy decisions.