The Olympic impact: Transforming host cities for good
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The very first Olympics event I was aware of was the Moscow Olympics. It was 1980, and the Cold War was going strong. The US and many other countries boycotted the event, protesting the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. While this gave a political backdrop to the Games, the event, after all, was about sports. For me, it was also about the crowd: the Moscow Olympics had more than 5,000 athletes and hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Over the years, I have seen those numbers get bigger and bigger for each Olympic Games. More than 10,000 athletes and 20,000 – 25,000 officials as well as millions of spectators all come together to make the Olympics the spectacle it is. The exception was the Tokyo Olympics, which was moved from 2020 to 2021 and conducted without foreign spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the Olympics before that one — hosted by Rio de Janeiro in 2016 — hosted 11,303 athletes and sold 7.5 million tickets. During the London 2012 Olympic Games, over 8.8 million tickets were sold, and 17.5 million spectators visited England during the Olympics. While the event is all about sports and competition, having worked in traffic innovation for almost two decades, I have become more interested in the way cities change by hosting the Olympics. During such large events, when more people come into the city, it changes the typical traffic patterns. The visitors would be going to the stadiums, hotels, railway stations and sightseeing. This creates more traffic demand, and tech is essential to manage all of it.TomTom has successfully assisted host cities in traffic management during such large-scale events. At the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, we monitored 200 travel corridors in real time. We created a matrix of the destinations between the soccer teams’ hotels and the stadiums, and when they drove from the airport to the hotel and to the stadium, we tracked them and ensured that they moved fast and reached the destination on time to keep the event running smoothly. We didn't want to keep thousands of fans waiting because the team got stuck in traffic!
We also worked with the London city government during the 2012 Olympics, and we are now working with PTV Group in Paris for the upcoming games.
I have seen first-hand how hard it is to set up the infrastructure and transportation for such a huge crowd. But with careful planning and investments, it's possible to not only ensure a smooth event but also leave the city better than before. As the Olympics is set to take place in Paris in a few weeks, let’s see how the French capital is preparing itself.Bienvenue à Paris!
At least 10 million people are expected to go to Paris between July 26 and August 11. And Paris is already known for bad traffic, so the challenge will be monumental. The TomTom Traffic Index 2023, which analyzed 387 cities in 55 countries, ranked Paris 16th globally in terms of the time it takes to drive 10 km – 26 min and 30sec on average! And during rush hours on a regular weekday, it takes one hour and six minutes to drive 10 km in the French capital. Put the increase in the volume of commuters, Olympic Games attendees and the notorious traffic conditions together and you have absolute chaos.
But I would say Paris is now on a path to transformation.Five years ago, Paris was a car centric city and traffic was hell during rush hours. Now they have split the lanes among public transit, bikes and cars. A group of new rapid transit lines called Grand Paris Express are being built to connect Paris with surrounding areas. This is also an effort to make the city more liveable and accessible for residents and visitors long after the Olympics.
Parisian authorities are looking at the Olympics as a chance to accelerate its plan to become a greener, more pedestrian-friendly city. They have reduced the speed limits and increased bike lanes inside the city, and they’re now prioritizing public transport.
In fact, this is the first time in Olympics history that all sporting events will be accessible via public transportation. Thousands of bikes and bike racks have been introduced, and 50 km (30 miles) of new bike paths, called Olympilanes, will link various parts of the city to the sports venues.
When it comes to knowing what not to do, Paris only needs to look across the English Channel!
Like Paris, London also has great public transport. But during the Olympics, host cities may limit traffic on certain lanes. They can reserve VIP lanes for Olympic guests, so the team buses can use those exclusively. This is what happened in London: they restricted traffic to certain lanes for the Olympics. But this made more problems for regular commuters. To make it easier for daily commuters, the city advised people to use public transport and only make trips if necessary. It's about trimming the demand down so transport systems can cope. That is the proactive measure that must be initiated by the city government.
The London way
When London hosted the Olympics in 2012, over £6.5 billion ($8.2 billion) was invested in enhancing the city's transportation system. This resulted in more trains, additional lines, improved platforms and stations and a more accessible bus network. The International Olympics committee claims that in 2042, London will still be using the trains purchased for the Olympic Games. The state-of-the-art traffic modelling tools rolled out for the Olympic Games continue to be implemented today as well.
For the duration of the Games, TomTom provided all the tools the city needed for their traffic management: like live traffic information and route monitoring -specifically for important corridors. We measured the traffic demand with TomTom Origin Destination (O/D) Analysis and monitored live traffic on a predefined set of routes. This helped the city authorities understand the traffic situation when the athletes/teams were moving to the stadiums and ensure individual events went ahead as planned.
Another crucial tool was TomTom Junction Analytics, which helps us see the exact delay time in each direction, how many people are going straight, left or right, so that the authorities can take informed decisions, like changing the schedule of the traffic lights.
Additionally, if you can predict an event, and can communicate it through social media, or radio, or even TV, people can change their travel plans — AI (Artificial Intelligence) is quite useful in making such predictions. So, if the government communicates that there is a chance of 10% higher traffic, then 10% of commuters may decide not to drive, and you can avoid the congestion.
Olympics as a catalyst for change
In 2016, Rio de Janeiro underwent a transformation when it hosted the Olympics, as the city was determined that the Games must serve as a catalyst for its development.For instance, around 143 km (89 miles) of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines and roads were added to the existing network. Rio also introduced Light Rail — blending various means of transport in the Center and Port Region — which continues to ease the traffic in the city to date. Also, the BRT System — a high-capacity bus-based transit system with dedicated lanes, traffic signal priority, off-board fare collection and enhanced stations — now operates on three exclusive bus corridors, after having been expanded during the Olympics.Similar developments took place in Tokyo, even though the Japanese capital already had efficient transport connectivity. Tokyo aimed for a "carbon-neutral Games" by using less energy, reducing emissions and embracing renewables. Public transport and eco-friendly vehicles were promoted for the same. These steps have reportedly inspired Tokyo residents to push for a greener, more sustainable city.
The train lines which were extended to provide improved connectivity to various Olympic venues still benefit residents and visitors. Smart/digital transportation initiatives like Tokyo Mobility Vision and Toei Bus Information System, which improved traffic management and public transit, are still in use. Elevators, ramps and improved signage installed at various metro and train stations for the Olympics still provide accessibility for all passengers.Building a legacy
I'm excited that sustainability is getting a much-needed boost from the Games. The IOC has mandated that from 2030, all Olympic Games are to be climate positive, aligning with the Paris Agreement. This makes reducing carbon emissions a priority.
In major cities, sustainability is closely tied to decarbonization and directly affects how we travel in cities. It is about having more bikes, more electric cars and buses and fewer combustion engine vehicles. We need to make our cities greener and design them to give more space for people and bikes and less space for cars. I would rather see people out and about in the city center rather than having a big parking lot in the middle of the city! The entire world is facing this problem, and we need to learn to manage the necessary transformation. Cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam are already doing it well. And it is Paris’ turn now.
If you think about it, the evolution of host cities during the Olympics is almost magical – turning a tough task into a big win, that leaves a lasting benefit. It’s a lot of hard work, but if done right, it makes the city a much more sustainable, liveable and free-flowing – like lead turning into gold.
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