To be totally dreading the Olympics because I live in London

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I just am! Yesterday, I went to London Bridge to get to work and there was a practice for the Olympics and the whole station was in chaos and it was really shambolic. Last week I went to St James Park and most of it and the Mall was closed. It's going to add ages on to my journey. We have been told to cycle to work if we can but the bus lanes are to be closed so the VIP cars can use them and as i am sure anyone who cycles in central London will agree, this is going to cause lots of problems. Am sure the games themselves will be brilliant but it's the trying to get about in London bit I am dreading.

Yanbu, the cycling is going all over London and my road will be closed off a lot for this cr@p. They have filled in the potholes for the athleyes/cyclists on the roads. Shame they couldn't do this for long suffering commuters. The whole thing is an expensive con for the benefit of big corporates.

Gosh I'm grumpy aren't I?:o

From the otherwise, a spectators point of view I have attended all of the London prepares events and a couple of the trial runs in and around Stratford and I was really impressed by the organisation on site and around the stations. Loads of people but everything ran pretty smoothly-I am going to three events and am super excited I have to get to central London for work three days a week sure the tube will be chaos hut it's only for a few weeks.

I was at London Bridge yesterday too - not during the rush hour thank goodness, so no queues, but was a bit at all the youths in fluorescent vests and barriers stopping me from making my usual shortcuts.

I am very thankful that I won't be at work over the summer, though I live in zone 1 and go into central London often, especially with DS during the school holidays. I have to admit, despite the disruption, I'm looking forward to a lot of the events, I have tickets to some sports events and also a lot of the cultural stuff too. My nearest buses go on an Olympic route so will be closed/diverted, so there will be a fair bit of disruption, but at least for most things it won't matter if my journey takes a bit longer.

Nancy66 a lot of the events take place outside of the Olympic Park though - there are sports events going on in Greenwich, Wembley, around Westminster etc, plus the big screen events in Hyde Park, Trafalgar Sq and Victoria Park.

Nancy there are special lanes for Olympic transport, road closures, bus diversions, special train arrangement, etc. It'll massively affect all of London!

Then you obviously don't live "in London" either then Nancy :)

More than the travel disruptions piss me off about the olympics. All these officials and nobodies being given BMW's at tax payers expense etc... Just like to state I know of 3 of those handout BMW's that have been wrote off by the "officials" driving them already.

i do live in London - and I doubt the Olympics will affect me.

I keep hearing this, but I keep thinking "It will all be fine". I'm in West London, zone 2.

DP's employer has pretty much put them all on half weeks during the Olympics - he works in Holborn which is tricky transport wise on a good day.

My drive to work is down the A4, which has the Olympic Lane both ways - but I go against the traffic so I'm thinking it will all be fine.

I think it's going to be a bit like the Millennium Bug, but everyone is telling me otherwise though & laughing at me for being a naive muppet .

Its the Olympics lanes that bother me because that is going to force the buses out of some of the bus lanes into the general traffic flow.

I live in central london and we have olympics routes around where I work so I think it will be a traffic nightmare around where I am.

However, I'm not too bothered I think there will be a good atmosphere and I will get there when I get there IYSWIM.

It is going to be a disaster and the arrogance of naming the website getaheadofthegames.com instead of gridlock.com or something more appropriate is flabbergasting.

London is going to be run as a dictatorship by the IOC for the period of the Olympics. The roads will be gridlocked and, apparently, the main stations will be so crowded they expect 1 hour plus waits to get to platforms. Meanwhile the IOC, sponsors, politicos, hangers on etc will sail by in their chauffeur driven Mercs and Beamers to watch all the blue riband events.

I suggest a protest where all drivers use the Zil lanes to make it the same for all. On the other hand, I suspect they will have the power to jail people for traffic infringements using some terrorism law.

Was at London Bridge yesterday, complete cattle pen world. I didn't feel like I was a citizen in my own city. Its going to be awful.

YANBU

but look on the bright side - its only for 3 weeks, once in a lifetime.

I'm going back to work on 6th August after maternity leave so I will only have a week of commuting disruption but I'm dreading it. I live in zone 6 and get the met/circle line to farringdon and its supposed to be horrendously busy. We have been told that we can work from home if it is too difficult to commute but as I'm just coming back from mat leave I haven't really got any work I can do from home (yet). I think it will be worse in the evening rush hour than the morning but I have to get back to pick up the DCs from the CM by a certain time. DH is affected too as he works in the centre of Maidenhead and all the rowing is there.

I am excited about it though!

I think people are causing such a fuss. The Olympics time will be very busy but so it would have been for Atlanta, Sydney, Beijing and everywhere else that it has ever been held, London is no different. London has also had the Olympics before and it's worked (all be it when it was less populated than now).

I would be super excited to live there right now. I love big events and the buzz is contagious. I would try to use the tube as little as possible because I hate getting crushed but I'd survive it and I'd be soooo excited to be part of it.

As for the cars that turn lights green. If it is true I think it's a good idea. We are on show to the whole world. Londoners moan about the Olympics enough without important people from around the world moaning too. They might be people who influence London a great deal in the future.

I don't understand people saying things haven't been thought through. Do you honestly think the organisers are sitting twiddling their thumbs. Of course it's has been thought through. Also what more is there to think through. Of course it will be really busy. That's life at a big event.

For those working in London it might be an inconvenience and it might take longer to get to work but it's not for long and I know lots of people whose employers are allowing more working from home etc. There are other options like cycling, the river etc which may end up being quicker. I would love to be there for the whole thing and I am really excited to come down for the day for one event I'm seeing. I am being sensible in allowing myself lots of time to get across London and I'm sure it'll be fine in the end.

As for the delivery of tickets, now don't get me started on that!

but look on the bright side - its only for 3 weeks, once in a lifetime

The bill will last a lifetime....more corporate profit, public loss.

oh YADNBU - it's going to be hell!!!! So, the 'test' yesterday at the overground station at London bridge was a mess (not even the underground, I can accept I have to walk once I get to London but I need to get in/out of the capital every day), and particularly, it seemed the one way system into the station assumes you know which train you need, and which platform. There were separate 'lanes' at London Bridge for platforms 1 & 2 and then another for 3-6 and again, separate lanes for the other platforms. However, you had to join a lane before you see any platform information signs. On a normal day, most commuters know which platform they need for which train, I can't believe the tourists/British people who don't commute every day coming in for one event will automatically know which platform they need.

If you pick the wrong lane, you can't change until you get on the platform, and then the assumption is you will use the footbridge, great if you are mobile, but anyone in a wheelchair/limited mobility/pushing a buggy will struggle with the stairs.

The test was carnage and that was without extra tourists, many of them not speaking English.

The reserved car lanes are crossing London because the Olympic officials have insisted in staying in hotels in Mayfair, so need lanes to get them to/from the Olympic sites, they rejected hotels around Canery Wharf which would at least mean the amount of London being disrupted was reduced. Apparently anyone caught cycling in the lanes will be issued with an on the spot fine of £130, if this isn't paid straight away, bikes will be confiscated.

Oh, and to 'ease congestion outside the overground stations' many "Boris Bike" stations are being closed for the games, surely this is the point when they should be coming into their own? I hope that decision is overturned.

I don't get why people are excited. What about? Unless you are one of the lucky few, you will be watching on TV, same as if the games were in Beijing. And they are going to play music throughout to "get people in the mood". Living in Wimbledon, can't wait for my kids to be kept up by loud music pumping out of the grounds.

If they had allowed Londoners who were being hugely inconvenienced some preferable access to local events, I could understand. But, as someone upthread said, we will be second class citizens in our own city, with no benefit in return.

Yanbu ... I live approx 1 mile from the Olympic stadium and 1/2 mile from excel. All of the roads around me are Olympic route networks. All of the street parking has turned to no parking or special permits (which is ok as I have underground parking), the whole area has been besieged by Olympic officials and Olympic teams- all of the hotels are full, and I regularly fly from city airport and all of the prices have rocketed up over summer. Oh yeah and my local station is now a 'red' station which means you have to expect to wait 1/2 hour to board a train at peak times. Brilliant

Fuck what a bunch of miseries - I am looking forward to it

It's not going to be fine. Even if you only live relatively near to London rather than in London. I'm on the South Coast and we have a half hourly train service to London. Many people commute there to work. This week the train company that serves our area has invited passengers to avoid London Bridge and Victoria stations during the Olympics. Which might be sensible if our trains served anywhere other than London Bridge and Victoria.

I get excited about any olympics - I have watched them all since I was a small child. I remember a memorable holiday in cornwall shortly after my DPs split up where it rained for 2 weeks. We were in a static caravan which (fortunately for my mum) had a tv and we watched the LA olympics for the whole holiday.

My 5 yr olds are very excited about it all and we are going to watch the torch relay when it comes near to us. Why wouldn't you be excited about a major sporting event that is on our doorstep for the first time in (most of) our lifetimes. I know the majority of people haven't got tickets and I agree that there should have been some priority given to Londoners but personally I am looking forward to seeing London showcased by the venues that have been chosen/built even it is on tv.

Fuck what a bunch of miseries - I am looking forward to it

In the words of Mrs Brown - "that's nice".

YANBU

I live in London, although thank goodness have moved out of Bethnal Green, it would have been hell living there during the Olympic. I don't want the Olympics, I don't want to pay for the Olympics. I don't want to have to walk to and from work (in the bloody rain) and not see my DD for days on end as I have hours added to my journey.

Already noticed more tourists (stopping in front of me on escalators, and playing chicken on Oxford Street)

Transport infrastructure meltdown me thinks.

Nancy66 - I certainly hope you are right but the games haven't even started and already I am feeling the impact.

Oh and the fines for cycling in the lanes will be even when the lanes are not in use by officials, many parts of London are congested enough without taking whole lanes out.

I do think the whole thing has been thought out, however, it's been thought out from the point of view of what's best for the organisers and getting people to/from the games, with little or no thought to the millions of people who move round the city every day anyway. London isn't primarily a tourist destination, it's not primarily a 'government' city (like Washington), it's primarily a place for making money.

Several banks are taking serious consideration to starting their disater recovery plans, all major banking instiutions have warehouses outside the capital with computers/desks for everyone. These are normally empty, only to be used in the case of a terrorist attack on the City - plans are to bus people out to them and then carry on working/trading from there. I know people working in IT in 2 of the 'big name' banks are considering rolling the plans out. This means, at board level, the assumption is the effect of the Olympics on London's ability to work will be the same as a terrorist attack. We have chosen to do this to ourselves. To our part of the country that makes the money.

I will never understand why the UK bid had to be London. London doesn't need the 'boost' of the Olympics. A scottish Olympics would have made much more sense.

DD lives near ExCel - they've had the Olympic cars drifting around there, and queuing up alongside me at traffic lights - no Olympic lanes there though, so maybe that makes a difference.

The taxpayer is not paying for people to be driven around - it's being sponsored by BMW.

Guaranteed to cause some chaos, but still a really exciting event - I think the atmosphere in London is really gearing up for a spectacular summer. Just hope the weather plays ball!