An addiction to Olympic "transport chaos" fears was demonstrated splendidly this week with a great howl of horror over a crack in the M4, which promptly disappeared the following day - the howl and the crack alike. The main effect of this brief spasm on me was to underline my view that anyone who fails to avoid driving in or around London if they can possibly get around the place some other way must be either very stubborn or slightly mad.
On Wednesday I rode the Heathrow Express, which whips you from Paddington to the largest airport serving London in just 15 minutes. True, it isn't cheap: £34 for an adult return ticket. But as I whizzed down the track, chatting with two of my daughters and reading a book, the very idea of covering the same distance by car held no appeal at all.
Like all Londoners I'm now thoroughly familiar with TfL's poster campaign to persuade us to find different public transport routes around the city during Games time, to consider walking instead of taking the bus or tube, and to generally "get ahead of the games." The GLA recently published an Olympic and Paralympic transport legacy action plan (pdf), complied in collaboration with the six Olympic boroughs.
In its foreword, Boris Johnson stresses the need to "learn valuable lessons from the unique challenges we will overcome during this unprecedented period." Will these lessons include that London would be healthier, wealthier and happier if its became far less attached to the private motor car?
The Guardian on London
Olympics: aerial pictures shed light on opening ceremony
Olympic security recruitment 'totally chaotic'
Olympics: 3,500 troops to boost security - video
London residents lose Olympic missiles case - video
Olympic legacy: security and towpath protests
Olympic legacy: hi-tech hub is hive of speculation
Olympic arrivals may face M4 diversions as viaduct repairs overrun
Olympics Tube crush rehearsal round-up
Olympics is a corporate lockdown – why not a Games for all?
The social enterprise behind the Olympics
Olympic organisers drawing up wet weather contingency plans
London legacy: affording double-digital Hackney
Olympics: from transport to population, how has London changed?
One in four London children overcrowded
Is London's rough sleeping strategy working?
The culture of Tube graffiti is dying
Mark Twain museum joins calls to save Kensal Rise library
V&A Museum gets go-ahead for £41m underground extension
London blogosphere
From the very fine Brixton blog:
Councillors have approved a plan under which some social housing tenants will be given short-term "flexible tenancies," prompting criticism from unions and tenants' representatives that the decision would "destroy the concept of social housing."
Essentially, the council is implementing a government measure it opposed. For more detail, read on.
Coming up
I'm cautiously encouraged by Mayor Johnson's desire to have a greater role in London's education system, though much depends on what precisely that role would be. His deputy for education and culture will be asked about that on Tuesday. The rest of the London Assembly's public business is listed here. I'll be mostly immersed in the Olympics, and so will an awful lot of you...
