Do you think there should be a mass protest to block the Olympic lanes during the Olympics, those specially set aside for Athletes and special guests, as a protest against the way in which Olympic tickets were distributed in favour of the wealthy and the sheer number of tickets given to VIPs and Sponsors?
That is the question, interested in hearing the responses.
not really, the roads and transport system will be gridlock anyway.
yes.yes.yes.yes! great idea. 
Why bother?
There have been so many tickets held back for the “great and the good” that, added to competitors, trainers, physio’s, bag carriers, Olympics officials (from how many countries?) blaggers and hangers on they will create their own grid lock without encouragement.
In honesty, I think it will be less of a problem than Thames Water/TfL/et al manage on a week by week basis.
The idea of watching athletics in a stadium is tedious beyond belief to me.
I will go and see the free events as an excuse for a rideout though- apparently the cyclists will be looping Boxhill etc.
Blocking the lanes will be counter-productive as we’ll still need to get to work but yes Kaos, do it if you like, why not- just to wind them up.
Feck off Kaos, my grandad was a sailor.
His aunt was socially unacceptable on account of her equine tendancies.
Didn`t stop me being a good person.
Same goes for the olympics.
Maybe a mass streaking? :hehe:
with all this talk, its a mass debate:laugh:
I would rather showcase our country to the rest of the world and make them the best olympic games. We need to be positive about our great country!
We should call you Ernesto 
See, I kinda want to say yes…but think that lots of the above comments are right.
a) there’ll be gridlock anyway
b) it’s shooting the tourist industry/the country’s reputation in the foot
c) I really don’t care about athletics etc
But…I wonder if it’s worth occupying the lanes in a replication of what will happen come the Olympics to point up the crap planning?
I couldn’t get the stoopid map thingies to work on my puter, so I don’t know if we’d end up getting done for being in bus lanes if we did this or not.
But I’m guessing the main point of a protest would be to make it clear that dedicated lanes won’t solve the Olympic transport situation and are unfair to the rest of the road-using population?
I think the lanes probably will work, as long as people avoid occupying them. Many of the athletes are situated at the Olympic stadium in purpose built housing so probably not that many of them using the lanes anyway, it will mostly be the VIPs and Sponsors using the lanes.
A protest wouldn’t be about how bad the transport system is, we are one of the most densely populated capitals in the western world any congestion is expected.
Such a protest would be about ordinary people standing up to a Government that has spent billions on an Olympic Games, billions that ordinary people have paid in, simply to offer the tickets in such a manner as to exclude vast numbers of the population. in favour of those with wealth and those who they consider VIPs.
lessismore, you should get your reading glasses and check my statements carefully, I am neither endorsing nor suggesting that there should be a protest, just asking whether people think there should be in light of the way in which the Olympics have been organised.
Kaos
The “reading glasses” comment was a bit un necessary. I think most would take Lissismore’s comment as a NO, but feel free to carry out your own protest if you think that’ appropriate.
It wasn’t meant as anything more then a jest oldguy. I have said on this board before, I am not interested in making this a better place to live for people who don’t deserve it.
I just wondered if people had considered it as a form of protest.
OG it’s ok Kaos is right I should have read his post properly and not blindly applied his previously expressed revolutionary tendancies to this vexed question of Olympic lane closures. Some truth in what you say too kaos as I think I am just programmed to skim read your posts and not take in the full meaning- maybe could be years of conditioning from reading your legal treatise of the past? 
combined maybe with my issues with the current font/background contrast thing. But fine if you are just asking the question then yes my answer is ‘no’ as in ‘no point’ IMO. :blink:
Where is the option for “I don’t care?”
I think there are better things to protest about. Yes, tickets have not been distributed fairly and many have gone to people involved in the sporting industry - but given that it’s too late to change that - then I feel it’s a more productive and positive thing to get behind the Olympics and our athletes and give them our full support. Hosting the Olympics is an opportunity for London and the improved facilities will hopefully also benefit the commuity as well afterwards.
I am not sure it is too late.
If there was a consensus on blocking the Olympics lanes, and it was felt that the threat was very real and on such a magnitude as to be impossible to stop, the Government would find a way to redistribute the many thousands of tickets given over to special interests to forestall the protest.
While there are better things to protest about Hels, our ability to protest those things effectively is almost non-existent. The impact people can have is very limited. This is an opportunity for people to protest something effectively, because of the limited time span and difficulties already surrounding congestion and the Olympics.
Pick the battles you have a chance of winning.
You not going to win any battle fighting for the NHS, because the impact you can have to change the Government’s mind is extremely limited, combined with the fact that there is no consensus on the issue, amongst any group of people.
But you won’t have a consensus on this - there are many people who would happily block those lanes to protest about them being there in the first place but who don’t give a monkeys about the ticket distribution.
Just block em.
The thing that psses me off is all these queue jumpers taking the pss. Why on earth should Olympics officials get special lanes?
Well the consensus here is anger at the way the Olympics have been organised.
Whether your beef is the way the tickets have been allocated, the use of special lanes for VIPs etc etc.
The personal reasons people would find to drive them to do it, would be their own, but the consensus is the feeling of unhappiness with the way it has been done overall.
