London Drivers Will Be Asked To Stay Off Roads During Summer Games

With British transportation chiefs predicting "large scale congestion" during the Summer Games, motorists "will be warned" to avoid central London and Olympic venue areas, according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. A "deluge of athletes, officials and media" are expected in the Olympic city in mid-July. Drivers "will also be told to avoid" the area around the 109-mile Olympic Route Network. This will make large areas of London "an effective no-go area" for six weeks beginning in mid-July. A series of "specific changes to the road system in and around London are unveiled," including the reopening of the "much criticised" M4 bus lane as a Games lane. When the media begins to arrive, traffic flow in the busy Kingsway tunnel will be reversed to "assist movements" at the media hotel hub in Bloomsbury (GUARDIAN, 6/11).