London 2012 - Olympics To Cause Road Nightmare

Slowly but surely, spectators are descending into London to marvel at the ever-pressing Olympic games. A buzz of excitement has slowly been hitting the streets as more and more fans from all over the world turn our capital into even more of a cosmopolitan paradise. One concern, however, which has been echoing throughout, is congestion on the roads.

Gridlocked London

There is no point in sugar-coating it – London is not the easiest place to be a vehicle owner. Simply walk around the capital and you’re bound to spot a few drivers behind the wheel desperately crooning their heads to find an empty parking space. With more and more people filtering into the city – are we ready for the sudden increased population, or will our roads be in a state of permanent semi-gridlock?

In 2005, during the bidding process, the Olympic Committee visited Londonto scope out these issues and see whether this concrete jungle could cope.

“There we no delays, quite simply” said bid committee boss Sir Keith Mills.

The fleet of vehicles filled with delegates was followed with a Bond-esque approach, GPS and CCTV tracked them for every movement to ensure no delays were present.

“Whenever they approached red traffic lights, we turned them green” Sir Mills added.

Sir Keith Mills Talks

Nothing is being left to chance with the coming games; the organisers are pushing for efficiency. Over 50 roads are planned to be wholly or partly closed-off during the events, traffic lights are to be effectively ‘turned off’ and a fair few of Big Towns side roads are to be conserved for athletes, VIPs and IOC members so they can get from their rather dapper Mayfair hotels to the stadium in, apparently, under 20-minutes.

Further to this, we will see nearly 60 crossings for the pedestrian to be made ‘out-of-action’ and just over 40 bus stops, closed. A planned action, dubbed ‘Traffic Light Phasing’ will be put into place and around 30-miles of special lanes (now to be called ‘The Olympic Route Network’) will be reserved for those of apparent importance, operating from 7.00am to 7.00pm.

The big question being whispered around the country is, and rightly so, is all this planning, effort and money-loss worth it? The cost to the capitals economy is estimated to be, well, enormous. The answer to this questions remains to be seen, road congestion itself is estimated by some to cost the UKan impressive £8 billion a year,

Figures can be misleading of course, a good example being the Governments current suggestion that our motorways may see an increase to 80mph to bring them on par with the a majority of other nations. The organisation ‘No to 80’ is already predicting, if this increase should go ahead, will cost over £1 billion a year, £62.4 million in road casualty costs, £180.4 million in carbon costs and £766.6 million to be from the petrol-pumps. Ignoring the carbon costs for a second, if the people at No to 80 are correct, the only strange statistic is why the Government hasn’t implemented this already – because £766.6 million at the pumps comes in at a champagne-glass-clinking £460million for the treasuries coffers in duties and VAT – what Chancellor is going to say no to that?

Fat Cats?

Debates will undoubtedly come into action with the Olympic Games. Greater London Authority member John Biggs has gone on-record, stating ‘giving priority to Olympic traffic by changing traffic light timing will clearly cause a massive problems.’ Maybe the vision, and soon-to-be reality, of fat cat Olympic sponsors and promoters lauding over their exclusive lanes whilst ‘ordinary’ locals suffer journeys that will be ‘three or four times longer than normal’ will be the smoking gun in reforming the way London drives.   

Have your say on the debate in the comments section below.
This article was written by the team at www.alternativeroutefinance.co.uk