With no parking provision for private cars, around 80% of the 11 million ticket holders for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are expected to travel to the venues by underground and overground railways.
The rest will have to rely on the city’s roads and pavements – by using buses, taxis, bikes and their own two feet.
Boosting junction capacity
To help avoid gridlock around the Olympic Park – particularly during the 30 days of the games – a complex five-year programme was undertaken to identify and improve the public transport capacity of over 100 road junctions in and around the site. The work is reported in the latest issue (165 ES2) of the ICE Engineering Sustainability journal.
£20 million from ODA
According to Arup transport planners Alison Vicat and Chris Rooney, strategic modelling and detailed traffic assessments identified 30 road junctions around the perimeter of the Olympic Park and 75 junctions in the surrounding areas that needed improvement. The UK Olympic Development Authority (ODA) agreed to contribute £20 million towards this.
Improving signals to cycle lanes
Individual improvement schemes, from signal optimisation to walking and cycling improvements, were then reviewed and progressed through the 'Olympic Park transport and environmental schemes' (Optems) group. The group included the ODA, all local planning and highway authorities, Transport for London and the Olympic Park Legacy Company.
The successful outcome of the project was due to a, ‘holistic and integrated approach which built in the desires and needs of multiple stakeholders’, says issue editor Stephanie Glendinning of Newcastle University.
More about London 2012 transport
For more information please contact the ICE Proceedings editor Simon Fullalove on +44 (0)20 7665 2448, or email editor@ice.org.uk