Los Angeles is asking fans and neighbors to help crack one of the city’s most stubborn rituals of summer: game-day gridlock around Dodger Stadium. The Department of Transportation has launched a Dodger Stadium transportation study to gather public feedback and model a slate of potential fixes, ranging from a 1.2-mile aerial gondola to stepped walking routes and expanded shuttle service. City officials say the work is expected to yield short- and long-term recommendations this fall after outreach and data collection.
How To Weigh In
LADOT has opened an online survey and will collect responses through Monday, July 13; participants will be entered to win a $50 gift card, according to LADOT. Staffers also plan to show up in person, setting up at pop-up events at Echo Park Lake on June 26, the Park-to-Park open-streets event on July 10, and the LA Lotus Festival on July 11 to gather comments and answer questions.
Where The Gondola Stands
The new outreach is partly a response to the high-profile Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit proposal, a privately led, 1.2-mile gondola pitched as a way to ferry ticket holders from Union Station to Dodger Stadium. Metro recertified the project’s environmental documents in December 2025 even as the City Council and neighborhood groups pushed back, according to NBC Los Angeles.
Experts And Neighbors Split On Benefits
Analyses filed in the project’s CEQA record include a UCLA Mobility Lab assessment that found the gondola would likely shave less than 1% off traffic on a sold-out game night, a statistic critics have seized on; the lab’s work appears in the project filings on CEQAnet. Local opposition groups argue the line would uproot trees and alter park views, while supporters counter that the cable cars would provide zero-emission trips and high hourly capacity, according to statements from advocacy groups such as Stop the Gondola.
Alternatives On The Table
LADOT’s study will also examine how to scale up shuttle service, smooth connections at Union Station and make pedestrian routes up the roughly 300-foot Chavez Ravine climb more usable. Those ideas could move more people without building new towers. The Dodger Stadium Express already operates before games, and buses from Union Station run roughly every 10 minutes, while the stadium offers about 16,000 parking spaces and draws roughly 50,000 fans per game on average, context reported by LAist.
Legal And Political Roadblocks
The gondola project has already run into court challenges and political resistance. A Court of Appeal ordered Metro to set aside earlier approvals before the agency reanalyzed and recertified the amended environmental impact report, and the City Council voted to formally oppose the gondola in late 2025, according to California State Parks. That tangle of litigation, agency reviews and neighborhood concern means any large transportation change, whether new towers or wider bus service, will need coordinated approvals across multiple agencies.
What’s Next
LADOT says it will publish recommendations after modeling and community outreach wrap up this fall, and the department is urging anyone who cares about neighborhood impacts, transit equity or park protections to weigh in. California State Parks has posted a draft General Plan Amendment for Los Angeles State Historic Park and is asking for written feedback by July 22 on the California State Parks website, while LADOT’s survey remains open through July 13.
