Will London's Zil Lanes spark a revolution?

摘要

London is set to be in a state of semi-permanent gridlock if the pessimists are correct as to the Olympics and Paralympics effect on traffic flows of the increased traffic and the Olympic family "Zil lanes". As spectators descend on the capital, it may be that London's traffic will continue to flow relatively freely as the already-existing Congestion Charge and the cost and difficulty of parking in central London continues to make the capital's roads more or less self-regulating. But what is clear is that the organisers of the Olympics are extremely nervous about the issue, nervous enough to have fiddled the selection process by rigging traffic lights to ensure that when members of the International Olympic Committee visited London in 2005 when the capital was just one of the bidders for the 2012 Games, there were no delays. Quite simply, said bid committee boss Sir Keith Mills, the fleet of delegates was followed by GPS and over CCTV for every inch of their journey across the city and whenever they approached red traffic lights "we turned them green".