Rams Parade: road closures, the parade route, COVID safety

Feb. 15, 2022 3:10 PM PT

Los Angeles has had three championship sports teams in the last two years. But the Lakers and Dodgers didn’t get their victory parades because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So the Rams’ celebration on Wednesday comes with much anticipation.

Here is what you need to know:

Where is the route?

The roughly one-mile parade will kick off at 11 a.m. at the Shrine Auditorium on West Jefferson Boulevard, team officials said.

It will wind down Figueroa Street before turning onto Exposition Park Drive and landing at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum about 11:45 a.m.

A rally will be held at the Coliseum’s Olympic Plaza and Peristyle Arch from noon to 1 p.m.

What about road closures?

The 110 Freeway southbound offramp at Exposition Boulevard and the 110 northbound HOV offramp at 39th Street will both be closed starting at 7 a.m.
The Department of Transportation will close the following streets beginning at 8 a.m.:
- Jefferson Boulevard (in both directions) between Hoover Street and Figueroa Street
- Figueroa Street (in both directions) between Adams Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
- Exposition Boulevard (both directions) between Bill Robertson Lane and Figueroa Street
- Bill Robertson Lane (both directions) between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Exposition Boulevard.
The Department of Transportation will reopen city streets on a rolling basis once the parade passes through each section.

And other logistics?

Some USC entrances, bus routes and access points will be affected.
Traffic in the area is expected to be heavy. And parking will also be an issue. Some officials are urging people to take mass transit to get to the parade. Here are details from Metro.

How does the LAPD plan to respond?

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore told the department’s civilian oversight panel on Tuesday that the LAPD was prepared for Wednesday’s parade.

Moore said the LAPD and other local law enforcement agencies were working with the Rams “to ensure that it will be a safe and secure route.” The California Highway Patrol has jurisdiction along streets in Exposition Park and at the Coliseum.

Moore said bike rails and other infrastructure would be in place around the area, and police vehicles and other barriers would ensure safety.

Members of the Rams will be on double-decker buses during the parade, Moore said, and the public will have “great vantage points all along the route” regardless of the safety barriers.

Moore said uniformed officers would be “all along the parade route” — every 40 feet or so — and assisted by Department of Transportation personnel.

The LAPD also will have additional resources, including mobile field forces, staged across downtown L.A., in case unruly crowds gather again, as they did Sunday night after the Super Bowl win.

If people engage in unruly activity, “we’ll be able to take immediate action and hold them accountable,” Moore said.

The chief said the special deployments will not diminish patrols elsewhere in the city, in part thanks to the use of detectives from across the city to work special detail. Homicide detectives will not be prevented from doing their normal work, either, he said, though some property investigations may be slowed.

Much of the area will be under video surveillance, Moore said.

What about COVID safety?

Public health officials generally advise people to avoid crowds, but “there’s no avoiding crowds in a parade,” Dr. George Rutherford, a UC San Francisco professor of epidemiology, said Monday. “The safest bet is to wear a mask, if you’re going to go.”

Los Angeles County is still considered an area of high transmission for the virus, which means that under guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people may want to consider wearing masks outside whenever in sustained close contact with others — especially if they or someone in their household are not up to date on COVID-19 vaccines, are at higher risk of severe disease or are immunocompromised.

With thousands of new cases still being reported daily in L.A. County, “there are bound to be people there who are infectious,” Rutherford said. The epidemiologist said he would discourage anyone who is unvaccinated or at higher risk of severe disease from the coronavirus from heading to the parade at all.

“If you’re 80 years old and have diabetes and pulmonary disease, it’s probably one to avoid,” he said. Besides, “you guys have such a stacked team, they’ll be back next year, I’m sure.”

Because the parade is outdoors, “we know that it’s a lower-risk event. But we also anticipate that there’s a chance that people could be in fairly close proximity,” said Shira Shafir, an associate professor of epidemiology and community health science at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Read more about COVID-19 safety at the parade here.

Sources: Los Angeles Department of Transportation, USC, Rams