Could bike lanes reshape car-crazy Los Angeles?

From busy freeways to classic-car street racing, Los Angeles has long been considered the capital of American car culture. Can it change in time for the Olympics?

With nearly year-round sunny skies, some say LA is the ideal place for cycling.

"It is the perfect community for runners and cycling and outdoors, yet as a generality we are hooked on our vehicles, we are hooked on the need to have speed," said Damian Kevitt, the executive director of Streets Are For Everyone (Safe).

But until recently, it was cars - and not pedestrians or cyclists - that ruled the roads.

Spreading over 460 square miles (1,200 sq km), Los Angeles is known for its never-ending sprawl, and its traffic jams.

While cities like New York and Boston have embraced mass transit, in LA it never quite caught on - only about 7% of Angelenos take transit to work, according to Neighborhood Data for Social Change.

And while LA weather would be the envy of any Amsterdam cyclist, only about 1% bikes to work.

But with hundreds of thousands of spectators expected to attend the city for the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games, something has to be done to make getting around the city easier.

Los Angeles adopted the "Twenty-eight by '28" transport plan in 2017 to expand mass transit options before the summer Olympics. Since then, miles and miles of new bike lanes have been popping up.

"This is long overdue," Mr Kevitt said.

A cyclist who lost his leg in 2013 after a car hit him as he rode his bike in Griffith Park, Kevitt thinks more people will commute using their own bikes or rentable Metro city bikes once the streets are safer and bike lanes are more connected to each other.

LA voters in 2024 overwhelmingly supported a ballot measure to require the city to build more bike lanes and more walkable, livable spaces in Los Angeles.

But will car-loving Angelenos embrace bike culture? Some are actively fighting the changes, grumbling that bike lanes only worsen traffic for cars in the city of stars.

"What do you mean we voted for it? Not here! Not me!" said Darin Drabing, the president and CEO of Forest Lawn Cemetery, who is fighting against bike lanes near the cemetery because he thinks it will increase traffic during his commute and funerals.

"Everywhere I've seen [it] implemented, they failed," he said. "All it does is increase congestion and frustration for people."

Some do fail.

While protected bike lanes have transformed Olympic host cities like Paris and London, politicians are currently trying to rip out bike lanes in Toronto that have been a part of the city's streets for almost a decade (they are being sued by cyclists to stop that plan).

In Los Angeles County, the city of Glendale recently voted to remove some bike lanes after complaints about increased traffic.

And new protected bike lanes are creating frustration along Hollywood Boulevard, where automobile traffic is now limited to one lane in each direction for several miles. But it's also causing others to commute by bike occasionally instead of driving.

Cyclist Mimi Holt used to ride her bike in Seattle then quit riding for nearly 20 years out of fear of speeding drivers on LA's busy streets.

"In LA people drive so fast, it's so utterly terrifying," she said.

When her doctor told her she was pre-diabetic, she decided to risk the roads to get more exercise, and said since getting back on two wheels, she feels much younger.

She said she can't wait for the city's "islands of bike lanes" to be connected to one another.

"If only there was a connecting path, I would be on them all the time," Ms Holt said, adding that she would get rid of her car if cycling safely everywhere were an option in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city and the LA 2028 Olympic committee were making great progress towards a "transit first" Olympics, as she calls it, after she initially sparked controversy by championing a "car-free" Games.

But with over 100 miles (160km) of bike lanes planned, advocates worry the process is taking too long.

So far, just five of the "Twenty-eight by '28" projects have been completed and 23 are in progress - and not all of them are expected to be completed in time for the Games.

Los Angeles has already secured $900m (£717m) from the Biden administration to help mostly with rail projects. But it will take more to make the city's transit dreams come true by 2028.

Mayor Bass and other city leaders have written a letter to the Trump transition team requesting $3.2bn in federal funding for "the largest and most spectacular sporting event held in American history".

President Trump was supportive of LA's Olympic bid during his first presidency, telling officials not to forget to invite him.

Mayor Bass said they haven't had a response yet to the letter, but she said she's hopeful President-elect Trump will be supportive despite his frequent tensions with other California political leaders, such as Governor Gavin Newsom and congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

Some people, like Ms Holt, love the idea of ditching their cars, for a variety of reasons.

"I can barely afford my car. Insurance is really expensive, gas is really expensive and it's not good for the environment," Ms Holt said at a meeting to view proposed bike paths all over Los Angeles.

But while many Angelenos rely on mass transit to get to work and school, many others who live here have never taken a bus or ventured underground to the subway, which is often portrayed as crime-infested and dystopian in the media.

And many locals think the idea of a car-free Games is absurd.

"That's a wonderful dream," said Shivon Ozinga, a Burbank resident opposed to additional bike lanes near her neighborhood. She said the city is too vast, sprawling and reliant on cars to change.

"I can't imagine it happening in that short amount of time given our car culture here."

But Mayor Bass can imagine a transportation revolution and said she believes the transit changes in Los Angeles will be lasting long beyond the Olympic Games and the 2026 World Cup.

"As a bike rider, I certainly hope so," she said.