Olympic Buses Transporting Athletes Gets Lost for Hours - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.
As some athletes began arriving at Heathrow airport for the countdown of the 2012 Olympic games, all was running smoothly until they boarded the bus to take them to the Olympic Village.
For several buses, what should have been a 24 mile ride turned into a 3 1/2 to 4 hour journey, lost through the City of London.
Apparently, the bus drivers hired to drive the coaches are unfamiliar with the routes around London and the GPS systems installed are complicated.
To make matters worse, the Village site where all the athletes will be staying was not programmed into the GPS.
United States' Kerron Clement who will be competing in the 400 meter hurdles tweeted, “Athletes are sleepy, hungry and need to pee. Could we get to the Olympic Village please?”
London has created special driving lanes on its highways for members of the “Olympic Family”.
A spokesperson for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games reminded everyone that “We will do over 100 bus journeys today. It is day one and we have only had one or two issues where journeys have taken longer than planned, The vast majority are fine.”