Traffic bans and fines for car-free Glasgow 2014

Team Scotland gymnasts for the 2014 Games. Picture: SNS Group

Thousands of residents and businesses around eight venues such as Hampden Park will be issued with free parking permits, covering dozens of streets.

Several roads around venues will be closed, with a few restricted to athletes and officials’ vehicles.

Games-traffic roads include a northbound lane of the Kingston Bridge which links to the Clydeside Expressway, with other drivers facing £30 fines for using the routes.

However, unlike the network of such “games lanes” during the London Olympics in 2012, all the others in Glasgow will be on roads with adjacent lanes for other traffic.

They include a one-mile westbound section of the Clydeside Expressway, and stretches of Polmadie Road and London Road.

There will also be road closures and parking restrictions around five other venues, including no waiting on roads around the Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, which will host the diving competition.

Ticket holders for the 11-day Games, which start on 23 July, will be given free public transport, such as on trains and buses.

Up to 180,000 spectators a day will be travelling to events, with one million extra visits to Glasgow expected during the Games.

Officials hope the publication today of detailed maps showing the restrictions will answer criticism by businesses such as the Freight Transport Association (FTA) about the lack of information, needed to plan deliveries.

FTA head of policy for Scotland Chris MacRae said he was pleased to see the extra details “at long last” but his members still needed postcoded information.

He said: “Our concern remains that if more detailed information is not provided soon, preparations will have to be done in a rush, and this will hamper the efforts by freight and logistics operators who will be trying to deliver to shops, businesses and the residents of Glasgow during the Games.”

City council official George Vincent said: “Glasgow will be open for business throughout the Games, but it won’t be business as usual.”

The restrictions are aimed at protecting residents and firms from “informal spectator parking” and ensuring most athletes get to venues in no more than 20 minutes.

Glasgow 2014 transport manager John Fryer said: “We are encouraging spectators to walk, cycle, use public transport or use a park-and-ride site to get to venues.

“We are also committed to making sure the people who live, work and operate businesses in this fantastic host city are able to go about their days with minimal impact.”

Full details of restrictions are at: www.getreadyglasgow.com