Parcel delivery drivers in London have already started to experience delays and disruptionsahead of the 2012 Olympic Games, which opens this evening, with road and lane closures adding to
journey times and distances, and with the Olympic torch relay and a demonstration planned by Londontaxi drivers this afternoon expected to add to the challenges.Even without significant increases in road traffic volumes, the Games lanes and Olympic RouteNetwork (ORN) now in place throughout London, coupled with the re-phasing of traffic lights, meandeliveries have been taking longer than usual.
One driver from DPD yesterday told CEP-Research that it was not only east London around the mainOlympic Park that was affected, but also other parts of London where events were taking place – forexample in northwest London close to Lord’s Cricket Ground, the venue for the archerycompetition.
“I don’t think the volume of traffic has increased – in fact it seems to be lower. But there area lot of roads that we can’t turn down, or turns that you can’t make, which means you have to gothe long way around in order to get where you want to go,” he said. “And you can’t park in a lot ofplaces, so you have to park up a long way away and go the rest of the journey on foot.”
The ORN went live on Wednesday and will remain in place until 14 August, during which timebetween 6am and midnight there is no stopping or loading along its entire 170-km length, and someroutes are closed to general traffic.
Transport for London (TfL) said the ORN ‘Games Lanes’ would operate flexibly and will remainopen to general traffic if the number of vehicles carrying athletes, officials and the world’smedia are low, and journey time reliability targets are being met. Roadside electronic messagesigns will state whether the Games Lanes are being enforced.
Physical changes to the road network, including changes to junctions and banned turns, meantthat “journey times on key routes into and around central London, the ORN and Games venues willtake longer then usual”, the organisation said.
DPD said it had invested €1.6 million in measures to minimise disruptions resulting from theLondon 2012 Olympics, including extended parcel delivery and collection times, additional routes,vehicles and staff, and supporting drivers with assistants that will complete the final part of thejourney to the delivery destination on foot, where necessary.
However, the DPD driver told CEP-Research that he had not seen any sign of the drivingassistants yet, at least not in northwest London. “There has been talk about that, but it hasn’thappened yet. I wish it would – it would be nice to have an assistant!” he commented.
TfL has begun publishing a twice-daily road and traffic update on its website, which warned ofadditional road closures this weekend in London due to the Olympic Cycling Road Race, starting andfinishing on The Mall in central London. Meanwhile, the Freight Transport Associationhas launched a free ‘app’ for users of iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices, which includes thelatest news, traffic updates, details of Games Lanes and Olympic and Paralympic Route Networks,information on delivery arrangements, a calendar of dates showing the expected congestion on eachday of the Games, and a list of venues. It also has links to related sites including TfL and LondonOrganising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and useful contact details.
