Olympic size problems

[Steve]

John, made this a new thread as I took the other one about French taxes a bit off track there...

The fine I like is the one for driving into an Olympic Lane...£130 a time!

I tried yesterday to stay out of them for practice..but found it pretty impossible.

Some roads are now quite amusing, like Marylebone Road. The left lane is a bus lane and the right lane an Olympic one.

Driving through Knightsbridge there was a white line in the middle of the road. Is that the left lane is a bus lane or the right one Olympic? It seems to depend where you are.

Several times I found myself driving in lanes that would carry a £130 fine - sent automatically from CCTV footage.

Steve

[Bob]

Yes, Steve.

So, the people that own the roads - the taxpayers of London and the UK - will be "allowed" (generous, aren't they?) to use just one third of the width of the Marylebone Road. This is a MAJOR east-west artery. Ond 2/3 of it is closed to the people that own and maintain it.

So, just how many Official Olympic Vehicles will there be? What will constitute an Official Olympic Vehicle? Will it just be the cars run by the Sponsors??? I heard a government minister claiming that the corporate sponsors had paid some huge proportion of the costs of the games. To justify their totally over the top preferential treatment, of course. But the Sponsors have actually spent quite a lot of money on advertising campaigns (which is what a "sponsorship" is in reality). And they're getting lots of margeting opportunities out of it that justify the expense. So why are they treated like royalty on top?

And, surely there cannot be enough "Olympic Royalty" to justify closing London to those that actually have a right to use the roads. I'm actually expecting to see virtually empty Olympic lanes denied to Londoners.

I'm also rather disappointed at the terrible way that these Olympic Lanes are signed. What will their hours of operation be, for instance. It really isn't clear.

But then, that bus lane along the Marylebone Road was installed by Ken Livingstone on the pretext that there were going to be horrendous road works for the Channel Tunnel rail link. At Kings Cross - about four miles away. So, just how did that really justify a 24/7 bus lane so far from the congestion??? As far as I can see, the very few buses that use it just make it useless for the other permitted users (bikers - yeah! - and wealthy people in taxis). So a third of the road is gone for vehicles that all too often only have the driver on board...

I, personally, can't wait for the Olympics to be history...

Bob

[Steve]

Bob,

Then there is parking... A number of areas I went through yesterday were parking for Olympic vehicles only!

Around Park Lane was the worst. All bays were suspended and marked for Olympic use - and this is now, way before it kicks off.

We were going to go to the Hard Rock cafe for lunch but although every street was empty of parked cars, every space was suspended.. So we went to Giraffe on the South Bank.

It is amazing that the entire parking system at Westfield Stratford was closed weeks ago, and remains so for months. Not for Olympic use either..just because they are aiming to make it impossible for normal folks to drive to any Olympic venue.

Steve

[Frenchman]

At least all roadworks are suspended for the duration.
Are the Olympic Lanes just for the use of buses ferrying officials and competitors around?

[Steve]

John,

My understanding of the Olympics is that the athletes live on site, in an Olympic village.

The media has been pretty vocal about who will use these lanes and what they will travel in and where they will live etc.

Here is an example story from the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...atients-suffer

Steve