ANOTHER OLYMPIC NIGHTMARE...TRAFFIC RESTRICTIONS

The impact of road closures and traffic restrictions, which will be necessary to guarantee that “members of the Olympic family”, that is to say VIPs, athletes and media can get across London to events on time is starting to cause consternation in the English capital.

Some of the restrictions, more extensive than had been thought, will be in place from June to mid September, despite the total span of the games being only 28 days.

The disruption has been disclosed in the course of a consultation launched by Transport for London. Plans for competitors and VIPs to be trouble free on their travels to and from events will involve:

• A 108-mile Olympic route network on which stopping will be banned;

• Deliveries to businesses (or private properties) on this network taking place between midnight and 6 am;

• 56 miles of Games Lanes, reserved for the sole use of Olympic traffic. With £200 fines for motorists and cyclists who use the Games Lanes, which will be marked with a white Games symbol;

• Banning right turns and some left turns on key routes including the Embankment and the Highway, east of Tower Hill;

• Bus routes being redrawn to accommodate the restrictions and ‘unaccommodate’ the public.

Some parts of London will be cut off as a result of the traffic curbs and buses being rerouted. This is causing consternation with elected officials representing the areas worst hit by the traffic disruption both from the London parliament and the assembly.

Business owners will have to set people on to work at night to receive deliveries, and of course companies making the deliveries will have to have their drivers work at night too. This may mean having to employ extra staff (at extra cost) to cover this, as daytime deliveries will still have to be made to businesses outside of the exclusion zone, and drivers can’t work night and day.

And have they thought about people living along this route? How about people who need to have their car for whatever reason?

Of course athletes need to be at the various stadia at the right times (although I thought that the knack was to build the accommodation as near as possible to where the events will be taking place), but I’m not sure why we have to have “zil lanes” for those and such as those. Why can’t they sit in traffic jams like the rest of us? I’ve always found that leaving early works very well in these matters.


Scottish Commonwealth Games organisers take note.

Pics: (1) The Greatest tickets on Earth? Do me a favour. Anyway they all seem to be going to dignitaries. Even Tom Daley's family couldn't get swimming tickets. They're all going to see the men's beach volleyball!! (2) Britannia. No wait a minute, isn't it Boris pretending he's Britannia?