Briefing: Delivering London 2012: Meeting the transport challenge

Abstract

Upgrading London's transport network to allow for nearly a million more journeys every day during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games was an unprecedented challenge. This article provides an overview of the requirements together with a summary of the key roles and responsibilities, the transport plans produced for each games, the main transport projects undertaken and the successful outcome. It then introduces four detailed papers which explain in more detail how London 2012's transport solution was successfully delivered.

Accessibility as a Key Management Component of the Paralympics

“…While the legacy from London 2012 are beginning to emerge (legacy requires time!) access both venues and transport can benefit greatly with the London Games said to have 'set the standard' for future Paralympics games and made the host city significantly more accessible (Bamford, 2016;Bamford & Dehe, 2016;McNevin, 2014;Naish & Mason, 2014;Sumner, 2012aSumner, , 2012bWaboso, 2014). Yet, there are cautionary notes about the extent beyond the games precincts, volunteer experiences sport participation generally, and removing transport barriers, where the soft legacy considerations of the material improvement of people with disabilities' independence remain largely unchanged (Ahmed, 2013;Bamford & Dehe, 2016;Brittain, 2016;Bush, Silk, Porter, & Howe, 2013;Christiansen, 2013;Darcy, Dickson, & Benson, 2014;Evans, 2015, p. p.32;Grey-Thompson, 2013).…”

The pursuit of satisfaction: Variation in satisfaction with bus transit service among riders with encumbrances and riders with disabilities using a large-scale survey from London, UK

“…Since we wished to study satisfaction with a typical bus journey, to avoid short connecting trips or excessively long trips, we excluded respondents with travel times below 10 minutes and above 70 minutes, reducing the dataset to 43,552 entries. Moreover, because of the 2012 Summer Olympic games and the influx of tourists and athletes, as well as the added traffic in London (Sumner, 2012), we removed respondents from 25 July until 14 August 2012 inclusive. Finally, we removed entries with incomplete, partial, or 'do not know' answers leaving 28,375 respondents.…”