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.
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| 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 London
to 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.
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| 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 UK
an 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?
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| 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
This article was written by the team at www.alternativeroutefinance.co.uk
