91Èȱ¬

Great story, Adrian. If it wasn't for you (and most of the 91Èȱ¬) providing balanced coverage, you'd swear the UK was out to get Canada.

There are positives and negatives to the traffic solution in place. For the general public and games related traffic it is working fine. If you talk to shop owners outside of the downtown core along these Olympic lanes you will hear a different story... It is already being reported that they are experiencing a drop in business as there is nowhere for potential customers to stop. The Olympic lanes run along where there is usually meter parking, you turn into a side street and it is residence/permit only parking so these potential customers are deciding to go elsewhere.

Traffic is and will be the number area of criticism of the London games. Its quite clear from Whistler and Vancouver, with its thousands of OLYMPIC chauffeur driven white chevy jeeps and the thousands of buses and special lanes for olympic people for walking yet alone driving that to recreate that exclusivity in London is a joke. Here there are 6 lane wide freeways everywhere. Mr Seb Coe where are you going to put the private lanes in London. If you block off still more roads in Londons masas experiment off car strangulation, you may get mass riots. Use the Thames and build a canal to the games with high speed boats. That could save you!!

Having lived in Sydney for the last year I still can't get my head around how they managed to get spectators to the games as well as move the Olympic personnel around with public transport and road networks as appalling as they are. However speaking to people I understand that Sydneysiders were strongly encouraged to vacate the city for two weeks. Not sure that would work in London though.

Clearly for the vast majority of people who already use public transport in London things will probably continue to operate fairly well (as I generally experienced for the 10 years that I lived and worked there). For those who continue to inexplicably drive in central London in the peak hours it will be slow as usual. Not that different to Sydney or any other 5 million + city.

You've hit on the main stumbling block for the London though in referencing that Canadian article - the insidious British press. Clearly the mail, and perhaps the Beeb, are doing a good job at making a few enemies. It will be interesting to see how the British journos adapt to 2012 especially if they start getting a backlash from ordinary British people.

I can't believe how many Brits are being negative about the 2012 games. We should embrace the prospect of holding the Olympics. As far as transport is concerned the best bet is probably just to close London for Business during the games. It'll make sense in the long run. Who wants to go to work when you can go and watch an Olympic event live anyway?

It will be interesting to see once the games finish how many people in Vancouver continue to use public transport to get to work? Surely that would be a worthwhile legacy rather than just some more buildings with ice in them.

I think the public transport infrastructure in London will hold up to the influx of people. Few of those visiting events wll hit peak time travel and the links to the Olympic Park seem very good. There is a lot of negativity towards the London games but I think we need to look at what is being achieved already at the Olympic Park. They are ahead of schedule and what they are building will have a real practical legacy for London plus they are doing up a part of London that really does need a lift.

Got home late todayand missed the start of the Super-G. Travelling from the City to Paddington is a nightmare. Worse now that circle line stops at Edware Road. Nobody will be able to travel in from the West for the Olympic Games unless London Underground gets its act together on this. Do the Olympic team know how bad the Paddington situation is?

Your little video up there has made me one really homesick Canadian.

As is always the case, it will work pretty well, but the odd glitch will see the Press baying for blood.

The major commute to the Games will not largely be in rush hour, will it? So if not, then actually the public transport should simply show higher hours with peak-like occupancy.

What it's about is monitoring who buys the tickets, how they will get there and seeing if any mismatches of frequency to demand emerge.

As there's a campaign to try and get 100% use of public transport, I guess Bernie Ecclestone can offer Michael Schumacher as a chauffeur to the IOC, as the roads will clearly be empty??