LONDON - THE team in charge of the London 2012 Olympics is planning a radical car ban for all of the Games' major venues across Britain, in an attempt to achieve a permanent shift in people's travel habits.
The Transport Plan discloses that the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) wants to make the Games a testing ground for a radical shift in transport planning, to be extended to all major cultural and sporting events.
'We have a very aggressive programme to make it the greenest Games in modern times,' ODA transport director Hugh Sumner told The Times of London.
'We want to leave both a hard legacy in terms of infrastructure and a living legacy in the way people think about transport and about how they travel to sports and cultural events.'
The ODA is trying to deter spectators from using cars for part of their journey.
Aside from a small number of disabled people, all of the expected eight million spectators will be forced to take public transport, walk or use a bicycle, said The Times yesterday.
On the busiest days during the Games, some 800,000 people will converge on events in places such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Cardiff.
Everyone who books a ticket for any event during the 2012 Olympics will receive a personalised itinerary which will indicate how to get from his or her home to the venue. On the day of the event, live travel information will be sent to ticket holders via their cellphones.
To boost usage of public transport, all ticket holders bound for an event in London will receive a travel card allowing them to travel throughout the capital. Those from outside the city will be given discounted train tickets from any station to London.
'There will need to be traffic controls around competition venues. We will make it very plain to people that there isn't going to be parking,' said Mr Sumner. 'We want to accelerate the shift to public transport and cycling that we have seen in London in recent years.'
London's radical plan comes as pollution concerns threaten to overshadow next year's Beijing Olympics.
Beijing is expected to invest more than 25 billion yuan (S$5 billion) this year in pollution control and has unveiled five new metro lines to ease traffic during the Games. With no on-site public parking allowed, spectators will be forced to use public transport.
The new travel plan for the London Games and the investment in new rail lines were welcomed by the RAC Foundation for Motoring, which advocates greener transport.
But Mr Edmund King, the foundation's director, warned that making the London Games an experiment in mass movement without cars would deter many families from travelling to the Olympics.
'Many people will want to take their children to the Games to inspire them. But the prospect of lugging toddlers, prams and a picnic on and off buses and trains will make many abandon hope of being there to witness this historic event,' he told The Times.
'The organisers should guard against being overzealous and too politically correct in their transport aspirations.'
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, WASHINGTON POST
Beefing up transport
THE transport plan for the 2012 London Olympics describes the Games as the 'country's largest peacetime logistical operation'. Long-term improvements that Londoners can enjoy before, during and after the event include:
Rail
Railway lines, trains and stations are being upgraded to cope with the Games traffic. The centrepiece will be the High Speed 1 rail link between London's St Pancras station and mainland Europe that will start operating next month.
Buses
The iBus initiative is being implemented for London. The key benefit will be improved real-time bus service information.
Cycling and travelling on foot
A network of cycling lanes and walking routes will be built, linking the Olympic Park and other venues to the wider London networks.
Source: The official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games ( www.london2012.com )
