please empty your brain below

We'll get a taste for it over here in SW London much sooner - August 17th to be exact, when the London-Surrey Classic cycle race (an "Olympic taster", using the same route as the Olympic event next year) is run, with road closures for much of the day. With apparently no provision for vehicle access across the route, the closures will split the area into four - east of the route, west of the route, and the loop formed by the cycle route between Richmond and Hampton Court, itself bisected by the river.

Have people who are affected (well anyone travelling into and out of London, really) been asked / told to take annual leave during the Games month yet? We were in Sydney. No matter what we wanted to do with our precious time off we were told to take leave or lump it. Some people were asked to take unpaid leave. Lucky people got to work from home. This was true for the public and private sector, although some public employees were given the opportunity to work at the Games instead (with compulsory training in their own time).

You say London has no choice... but what if everyone simply ignored the Olympics Lane rules en masse?

Why did we want to host the O's - eh? What's the point? What's innit for us?

Hear, hear, B!

I wonder if they're still interested in my views even though I'm outside the 'extent of consultation'?

Most afternoons, traffic waiting to get onto the A12 is backed all the way up Well Street (as far as Mare Street) - and I can't imagine that the Games Lanes on the A12 will help that situation.
Is it worth pointing this out to them? It'll probably gum up the 388, but since that goes to Hackney Wick, they'll probably lop it off early anyway.

DG, this is fascinating stuff.

As you point out, the A12 - and indeed every road within a couple of miles of the Blackwall - operates above capacity for many hours every day. These zil lanes are unworkable - the whole of the east end is likely to go into grid lock.

If there is a shunt in the Blackwall, the traffic goes into gridlock in minutes. This will just create the same effect.

I have already seen the consultation for "The Highway" and objected to it.
But will anyone listen? I fear this is another sham - and that these zil lanes are going to be imposed no matter how much we say "no".

Whether London's anarchic drivers will obey these zil lane restrictions will be interesting....

We received the documents for the Highway a few weeks back. It seems likely that with the closures of the traffic crossings where we are, combined with no turns allowed at certain junctions, getting any access – vehicular and pedestrian – to where we actually live looks to be as bad as it is during Marathon day, but this will go on for several months. Annoyingly by the time we got the information several of the consultation events had already passed. And insult upon injury, none of us got any tickets at all!

The Junction redesign at the Old Ford interchange on the A12 will involve permanent traffic Signals, pedestrian controlled crossing points and a signalled "Olympic VIP" entrance into what is currently the Bow Goods Yard, this area of railway land has its own little private bridge that crosses the canal at the rear of the site and this will enable all the VIPs to whisk onto the Olympic site without having to encounter Stratford High Street, after the games the set of lights into the goods yard area from Wick Lane will be removed but all other improvements at the junction will remain, this is a scheme that Tower Hamlets Council have been keen to introduce for quite a long time and now are receiving it at zero cost to the Council, it is part of a much larger scheme that will also involve installing another set of traffic signals in Tredegar road at the junction with Fairfield road, the main aim of the scheme is to deter commuters from using the junction.

Actually (Timbo) the London-Surrey Cycle classic is scheduled for 14th August according to the brochure we received recently (the route runs along the bottom of our road in Twickenham). This is a Sunday - so a bit of a cop out in terms of measuring the likely disruption. The brochure talks of a minimum of 8 hours closure. It also talks only of pedestrian crossing points and 'no vehicle access to buildings affected'. Given that probably several million people live within the loops on this 87mile route, this is going to cause something of a stir. No escape from large parts of Twickenham, Woking, Guildford Leatherhead!

The Highway is going to be dreadful - for those of us who live on Cable Street it looks like it's going to be nigh on a 2 mile detour if we're coming in from the Limehouse Link.

Looks like the Bow flyover map you link to has been updated showing the flyover itself.
Shows one lane closed eastbound, and nothing westbound (As it's only one lane at the moment anyway). Probably not too bad really.


Rob:
I meant 14th - and indeed the real events will also be at weekends. hardly a cop-out, though: in my experience Kingston is busier at weekends than on weekdays. It will certainly affect me more than the marathon practice did last Monday, even though that went right round my office.

It will presumably be possible to escape the big (Hampton Court - Guildford - Leatherhead) loop using the A3 (which crosses the route at grade separated junctions) or M25 (J11 is inside the loop). But for the smaller loop there is no escape except, possibly, on foot.
Indeed, thye Middlesex and Surrey parts of the loop will be isolated even from each other because the Thames splits the loop in two, and the only bridges on that stretch are Kingston railway bridge and Teddington footbridge! At least on the Middlesex side there's a reasonable chance Teddington and Hampton Wick stations will be open, but on the other side, Costa station (http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/20/12/2201228_8aa80acc.jpg)is right on the route and may have to be closed if there are a lot of crowds.

Sorry, eastenders, if I've hijacked this thread - but our experience in August may give be a useful foretaste of what you will have next year.

Did you know that the main press hub for the press is Russell Square. That took me by surprise. That will mean hundreds of coaches waiting, leaving and arriving. This is due to the large amount of student accom. and hotels in the area.Chaos.

Dear oh dear. This is going to screw up the local bus services something rotten. Someone should really think about finding a local underused bus station to enable loads of buses to be turned short when they hit the inevitable congestion. Any ideas ?

P of P, hilarious.

No movement on A12 or Central line for weeks, regular London users immobile for hours on end. Thank goodness I have retired and don't need to run this O gauntlet. Maybe visit other English towns while the London jams coagulate.

Any idea how to find out when the "temporary" move of the Marshgate Land bus stop is supposed to be reversed? The Games-lane is long gone and I'm starting to worry they've forgotten about the bus stop... Also there is no sign of the Abbey Lane bus stop being reintroduced.










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