Understanding the London 2012 transport success story

Contrary to prior expectations, London's transport system was practically flawless during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The system ran better than ever, with commuters and visitors alike praising the smooth and timely service provided. But just what exactly ensured it was a success story, not a failure, during those two weeks of intense international scrutiny?

In the same way that we typically run enquiries into why things go wrong, it’s equally, if not more, useful to understand why things went right. Thankfully, Transport for London (TfL) has recognised that a crucial part of the Games legacy is to understand the positive lessons we can learn from what went right, or even better, than anticipated. The first of their analysis outputs has been released and this article summarises their findings about what actually happened during the Games. The report is a fascinating read, it’s findings are not necessarily what you’d expect, and provoke serious thought about behaviour change policies.

It didn’t happen by chance

Recognition must go to TfL, the ODA, LOCOG and numerous other organisations for the monumental effort that went into ensuring travellers in the capital only had good experiences. This includes:

• £6.5bn investment in transport improvements (encompassing all modes)
• extra public transport services, including around a 10% increase in capacity at key Tube stations, and additional National Rail services
• a major Travel Demand Management (TDM) programme which included the Get Ahead of the Games multi-media advertising campaign, extensive (and detailed) information provision, and one-to-one advice given to businesses.

The four R’s

TfL targeted four types of change: reduce, re-time, re-route, and re-mode. In all, approximately 77% of Londoners made at least some type of change.

Importantly, the level of change was much greater where it needed to be. For example,  Canary Wharf saw a reduction of 27% in morning peak use of the station. This reduction reflects the combined impact of all four types of change:

1.    reducing travel by taking leave or working from home;
2.    travelling earlier before peak times;
3.    opting to take alternative routes;
4.    using a different mode of transport.

There was a positive effect on sustainable modes

Although the overall extent of mode shift was relatively small, throughout the Games many people did try alternative modes on at least one occasion. On an average day 4% of commuter journeys were re-moded, and during the Games period as a whole 12% of commuters changed modes on at least one occasion. The most popular alternative modes were walking and cycling.

Cycling increased substantially during the Games, seeing a 34% increase in cycling on major roads. TfL estimate that Barclays Cycle Hire usage increased by 43% during the Olympics.

The impact on walking is harder to appraise, but TfL estimate that there was an 8-9% increase in pedestrian flows based on numbers of people crossing the Thames during the Games.

A lesson learnt

The stickiness of travel behaviour should not be underestimated. Even in the face of an event as huge as the Games, people will still generally only make changes to their daily habits if they’re easy to accommodate

As outlined above, we know that the majority of Londoners made some, albeit small, changes during the games. Yet, at major hot spots the effects were quite substantial meaning visitors enjoyed a smooth running transport system.

What this shows us is that, rather than encouraging widespread, large-scale changes in travel behaviour, it is far more effective to encourage smaller changes, which, when occurring collectively will have a greater impact i.e at the hotspots.
The end result though was a triumph and although there won’t be another Olympic Games to contend with, there will be other major events, the planning of which can benefit from this knowledge.

Headline facts

There were 6.5 million ticketed and 2 million unticketed spectators attending Olympic events, plus 2.7 million ticketed and 0.5 million unticketed spectators during the Paralympics

• 101 million Tube journeys were made during the Olympic and Paralympic Games a 28% increase
• the overall reduction in background travel was 5%
• there was a 19% reduction in morning peak usage of commuter Tube stations, and a 27% reduction in the morning peak at Canary Wharf
• traffic on roads in Central London was down 7%
• cycling on major roads was up 20%
• the average number of cycle hire’s using Boris Bikes was 40,575 per day, up 43% during the Olympics and 30% during the Paralympics
• on an average weekday during the Games a third of people changed their travel in some way: 20% reduced their travel; 13% retimed; 6% re-routed; and 4% changed modes (note that some made multiple changes)
• overall, it is estimated that 77% of the London population made some kind of change to their travel during the Olympic Games

Source: Travel in London Report 5, Transport for London