IN LONDON, completing a 12-mile journey in 42 minutes seems optimistic. Yet this is how long the London 2012 bid team has estimated that it will take athletes and officials to travel by road from the Olympic Village to Wembley Stadium.
Despite the provision of special Olympic Lanes along which only those directly involved in the Games can drive, the estimates seem unrealistic.
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Last week, The Times put them to the test. Half-term week seemed to be an appropriate time to carry out the exercise, with the school run eliminated.
The first route tried was from Stratford, the proposed East London venue for the Olympic Village, to Wembley, the football venue. The first three miles went well, but by Bishopsgate the traffic was bumper-to-bumper. Fifteen minutes later, by now three minutes over the forty-two alotted for the entire journey, St Pancras was still in the rear-view mirror. Once Paddington, in West London, was passed, the traffic began to move again, but it was too little, too late. The journey had taken an hour and 26 minutes.
The 42-minute official estimate of the 11-mile journey to Wimbledon seemed even less likely. Journey’s end was reached after an hour and 18 minutes. Reaching the Dome in the bid’s 11-minute estimate would have been met but for roadworks at the Blackwall Tunnel. These should have been completed by 2012.
Of the routes tested by The Times, only one came close to meeting the bid team’s estimate. Mike Lee, of London 2012, said: “They are not journeys you can do today in the estimated times. You have to remember that what we have to do is show the International Olympic Committee we have a four-week transport plan for August 2012, not for next week.”