News outlets covering Los Angeles’ pledge to host a transit-first Olympic Games spoke to experts from the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at UCLA Luskin. In addition to the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics, the city will be home to the World Cup in 2026 and the Super Bowl in 2027, creating a unique incentive to propel public transportation in new directions, ITS Deputy Director Juan Matute told The Guardian. “I think people are going to say: This is the time to pull off the band-aid to make public transportation more viable,” he said. Given L.A.’s sprawl and the massive influx of visitors, people will have no choice but to rely on public transit, though there is still much to be done before Los Angeles meets its expansion goals, Jacob Wasserman, research program manager at ITS, told the Spanish-language news service EFE. This year’s UCLA Lake Arrowhead Symposium will delve into the transit challenges and opportunities created by these mega-events.