Morning:
3°c
How 385,000 will cycle or walk to see the Olympics
David Williams5 Mar 2009
About 385,000 spectators are expected to travel to the 2012 Olympic Games in London on foot or by cycle, under plans unveiled today.
More than 4,400 spectators will pedal on peak days, according to the Olympic Delivery Authority. A further 10,000 will walk. Experts believe it will be the largest number of people to cycle to an Olympic Games and underlines the organisers' determination that it will be a largely "car-free" event.
The ODA today confirmed it would spend at least £11.5million on improving the capital's cycle and walking network for this aim.
Another multi-million-pound fund is being created to improve the Greenway, a strip of land inside and adjacent to the Olympic Park.
The first cycle route, linking green spaces in Hackney, will run from Finsbury Park to Victoria Park, where 5,000 free bike parking spaces will be created. From here, spectators will walk across the Greenway into the Olympic Park. The second path will run for 6.3 miles from Epping Forest across Wanstead Flats to the Olympic Park.
Six other cycle routes will be upgraded, with clearer signage and demarcation for walkers and cyclists. Potholes will be filled and routes widened to cope with traffic. Dropped kerbs for wheelchair users will be added and crossings over main roads improved, the ODA document, Move, states. The area north of the Olympic Park will get 2,000 bike parking spaces, with 200 spaces to the south.
Under the £7.5million Greenway plan this 4.3-mile path and green space, on an embankment from Beckton in Newham to Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets, will be overhauled. The Greenway will give access to the Olympic Park for a fifth of spectators. Most improvements on the Greenway will remain after the Games. Mayor Boris Johnson hailed the "legacy of some fantastic new green ways of getting about the city".
Reader views (24)
A good limousine service will help you do just that: by providing the best transportation available to you, you can make sure that such life-changing events will be made as memorable as possible.
- Limo Vancouver, Vancouver, Canada, 20/10/2009 08:57
Report abuse
One of the routes on the map involves using the proposed Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf cycle bridge which only last month Boris cancelled funding for.
- Darren, London, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Their predictions about the numbers expected to attend are about as over-exaggerated as the estimated cost of the games was underestimated. They have told so many untruths they are now believing their own propaganda. The ODA are completely out of touch with the mood of the nation. Even Jowell was forced to admit we should not have bid to host the games - and all tax payers endorse that view.
- R.F., Yorks, UK, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
I though Bejing was last year. Do they know we aim to import their five million bicycles?
- Alan, Carlisle UK, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Anyone else see them constructing over a 10,000 bicycle racks ? - the thieves will be lining up to steal tthem !
- Graham, Fleet, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Why is everyone assuming they're talking about Londoners? They're saying spectators, not Londoners, let's be honest here, the way it's going only the uber rich Londoner will have any money left after shelling out for this white elephant of an Olympics combined with Gordon throwing money at the banking system and bankrupting us all.
- Bob, Cheam, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
So will this really be managed any differently to the present situation where the 2012 construction workers all arrive by foot or bike?
What a lot of them do of course is drive in and then simply park up 500m distant around the corner (eg in Homerton Rd & Hackney Marshes car park) and then they walk the last little bit to comply with the rules. That seems to suffice to keep the greenwash spinners of the ODA happy.
- Steve, Dalston, Hackney, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Just imagine the figure of the population that will not be bothering about the Olympics !
- Joe, Swanley Kent, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
10,000 Londoners will walk to the Games?
The amount this games is costing Londoners we won't have money left for the fares to anywhere, let alone entrance to the b****y events.
- Ca Metcalfe, East London/Essex, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
I am not looking forward to the forced marches that will be organised to force us all to attend the Olympics. In the first place it is fifty miles, secondly I will be in my mid 70's, thirdly my fallen arches are not up to it. and fourthly South Eastern Trains will have reduced the services so much there will be no alternative.
- Tom, Maidstone UK, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
It's more likely that no-one will bother to go to the Olympics.
Why would they?
Just cancel the games and let's gt back to normal.
- Ann Louisa, Southampton, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Two hopes of thta working - Bob Hope and No Hope
- Jeremy E, London, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Frankly I'm surprised that many people will be taking an interest.
- Steve, London, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
The Greenway! Its the top of the Northern Outfall Sewer whence half Londoners' excrement makes its way to Beckton, and it can be noisesome when the methane vents are flowing.Did anyone actually visit East London before they scribbled the bid on the back of an envelope? After hubris, nemesis.
- Michelle@Shed22.Org.Uk, London, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Traffic-free routes for cyclists are an excellent thing: the route in E10 and E11 largely exists already, however, and none of them requires the Olympics in order to take place. Yet again the barrel is desperately being scraped to try and justify the Games boondoggle. The Games budget could provide separate routes for cyclists in all our cities.
- Mdj E10, london, uk, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
This is a joke, right?
So the plan is to get a whole bunch of tourists, and West Londoners walking to East London?
- H Powell, London, UK, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
I love it a route that uses a cancelled bridge, what next Boris?
At least we now know why Newham council has left the Greenway to become a tip for the last few years, not that their cycling officer would return any emails on the subject.
These games were forced on us, we wont be cycling, we wont be walking, we wont be going... Unless it's to protest the hell on earth these games will cause for many more people than will attend.
- Steve, London, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Will they be walking or cycling becuase the transport system will,
A) finally collapse?
Or
B) the RMT will hold strikes for when it's on?
Answers on a postcard please.
- S-M Hearmon, London, UK, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Something tells me the VIP guests won't be expected to walk or cycle. So you remember that guys, when you're walking 6 miles there and 6 miles back, foot sore after a long day: you're walking so the high and the mighty don't have to!
- M Farbiash, Highgate, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Wow.
They're going to fill some potholes and repaint some lines, and they can then live up to their 'green' promises...
Meanwhile if you dare cycle in a VIP car lane you'll be fined £5000 or arrested.
- C Harrison, London, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Check out the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver and you will see quickly see hell on earth developing. Massive increases in property taxes. Vancouverites on the hook for $500 million. Plus a one billion dollar tab for games security. Frogmen and F-18 fighter jets all included in the package.
Putting up the statues on Easter island was a walk in the park compared with this. Watch for society's imminent collapse.
John, Vancouver.
- John Colenutt, Vancouver Canada, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
I checked the date in case it was April 1st. The VIPS are being placed in hotels in the west of London and Limousine motorcades will take them to the Games. The journalists have been exiled to Bloomsbury but instead of using the fast trains from St Pancras they will be escorted in motorised transport along the Embankment (last plan I heard). One early idea in planning was that most Londoners would be on their summer holidays and so not trying to travel in to work during the Games. What percentage of total ticket holders do these walkers and cyclists represent? In other words how many are taking public transport to the events. Do those living further away drive to car parks at the beginning of these walking and cycling routes?
- Daphne, London NW3, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Cannot see any other way of getting their the way Londons roads are so blocked, this time they will be blocked by people.
As a taxpayer in London I just wish they would scrap it now rather than waste another £billion or so.
- Mike, London England, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
Has any of these organisers actually walked anywhere in these proposed areas. I have unfortuanetly and all I can say it is a muggers paradise. They are asking people to walk in some of the worse crime ridden areas of the capital all I can say they are living in a fools world.
- Den, London, 20/10/2009 07:57
Report abuse
