Website Created to Communicate Traffic Changes During the Olympics

The city of Rio has introduced a website to communicate changes to their transportation system, which will occur before and during the Olympic Games. The website Olympic City has been created to inform both residents and visitors of road closures and specific routes that have been created for officials, athletes and the athletes families.

More significant changes will occur on the days where the marathon, cycling,, triathlon and race walking events are held. The city has made changes to how they will handle and respond to traffic accidents and have adjusted school holidays to work around the Olympic schedule.

Mayor Eduardo Paes told Globoesporte that they want residents to continue to use their cars during the games, but hopefully at a reduced level, “We do not want the locals to leave the city, but to enjoy the Olympic atmosphere, to prepare for the games and use their cars less. We must have the understanding that the Olympics will have a fantastic dimension, but we have a number of contingencies.”

The site will be much like the Get Ahead of the Games website, which was used during the London Olympics in 2012. London has been praised by many for how they handled the transportation challenges that inevitably come with hosting such an event.

Unlike Rio the city did use scare tactics to try to convince residents to not use their cars while the games were in progress.

Interestingly the fines that were given out for using restricted roads is heftier in Rio than it was in London. At the 2012 games people were fined £200, approximately $287 USD with today’s currency value, whereas in Rio the fines will be 1500 Brazilian Real, which equates to approximately $440 USD.