According to an article in Vanity Fair, London’s traffic lights were ‘rigged’ so that Olympic officials could get through London smoothly during the bidding process. In the article, entitled ‘Jumping Through Hoops,’ Sir Keith Mills, CEO of the London bid committee, is quoted as saying that “our nightmare was it would take forever to get to the venues…[so] when they came up to traffic lights we turned them green.”

By “they,” Sir Mills is referring to members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who were visiting London during the latter stages of the biding process.

One of the biggest hindrances to the London bid was congestion in the City, so to counteract it, every car that contained a visiting IOC member was fitted with a GPS tracker.

By coordinating with the London Traffic Control Centre, which is based near Victoria Station and controls hundreds of traffic surveillance cameras, it was ensured that the IOC officials never hit a red light.

It’s amazing the officials didn’t notice. Or maybe they did, and were so bowled over by the sheer effort that it tipped the scales in London’s favour? A myopic approach…but we’d probably react the same way.