At around 4am one Sunday morning just over a year ago David Haye could be spotted strolling the streets of south east London carrying the world cruiserweight title belts he had just unified by knocking out Enzo Maccarinelli at the O2 Arena. No, he wasn’t walking back to happiness, but to his home in Bermondsey because there was no other means of transport.

He couldn’t be driven there because the partially-closed Blackwall Tunnel, that vital lifeline to Docklands, was clogged up with traffic and had been for hours. And of course the Jubilee Line had ceased to operated, as it often does, well before the O2 event had ended.

As the Hayemaker, now of course the WBA heavyweight champion, will tell you, Blackwall is no tunnel of love - more of despair. I was among those stuck amid other cars, taxis and lorries for four hours getting home and the memory of that has given me tunnel vision about the 2012 Olympics, and it is not a good one transport-wise.

Ok, so I know we are all supposed to cram on to the tube when the Games open, but the Blackwall Tunnel and its environs, which include not only the O2 and ExCel, both Olympic venues, but the Olympic Park itself, remains a key access route for many coming from other parts of London and the country – not to mention deliveries of supplies for the Olympic Village. But it only takes one car to stall, and the result is chaos.

That happened a few weeks ago on a Saturday morning (actually it was an overturned lorry) and the tunnel was closed for the weekend. Fans getting to football grounds in East and South London were heavily delayed. So were the footballers of Gillingham who were late for the kick-off at Leyton Orient.

How many times do we hear on the London news that the tunnel is closed because of an accident or for "essential roadworks". And this also applies to the Limehouse Link which can be equally catastrophic as I know from personal experience in travelling to the Independent's former offices in Docklands from South London. 

Yes, there will be Olympic Lanes for competitors and officials. Let's hope they work but my concern is that we are not quite as disciplined as the Chinese (who obeyed implicitly in Beijing, probably fearing the death penalty) for you can bet there will be those who get frustrated and try to sneak down them just as they do bus lanes now. And to hell with the fine.

Last week the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said that 75 per cent of the Games transport programme is now in place.
The work they have done certainly looks impressive. The ODA chairman John Armitt assures us: "We are on track for completing the transport improvements needed for the Games and legacy." That’s good news. And I have no doubt that Seb Coe and his highly professional team will produce the greatest sports show this country has ever seen - on time, (if not on budget), a memorable spectacle that will be brilliantly organised and orchestrated. I just hope that too many don’t have to struggle to get there.

Sure, the tube service we are promised, with those new state-of-the art high speed Javelin trains, seems excellent - on paper. But Bob Crowe and his merry men have yet to do their worst. Will the Games be held to ransom around three weeks before they open? They are a perfect target to be hijacked by threats of strike action on the tubes and trains just as BA might have been over Christmas but for the High Court ban. Ominously, Crowe is the General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union which covers a multitude of possibilities for industrial action affecting 2012 – including the Thames launch service which will ferry spectators to the O2 and other Games sites.

If I was Seb, right now I would be sending out invitations to Crowe and other union leaders to be guests in the VIP box at the opening ceremony and guarantee tickets for any other events they wish to see. Judging from his bonhomie and Have I Got News For You avuncular Bob is not averse to a bit of public pampering so such a "sweetener" might not be amiss in crucial circumstances.

Having said all that about potential travel problems, I do feel that boxing, having won its bout to stay within the Olympic radius – and I understand AIBA’s reasoning - has missed out by not moving to Wembley instead of the Excel. While the Excel has staged pro and amateur boxing it is a barn-like arena, rather soulless compared to Wembley where atmosphere oozes from its doors. It is  a traditional home for boxing, having hosted famous fisticuffs from World championships to the ABA finals over many years.  

Indeed, I have always felt disappointed that with the massive investment in Wembley the Stadium itself should be so underutilised during the Games. Why are we not employing the best stadium in the world for something other than the football finals? Football is a relatively minor part of the Olympics. I understand the stadium was once under consideration for the closing ceremony - a pity this now won’t happen and that we are not going to Wem-ber-lee, which is far easier to get to than the O2 and ExCel - and you don’t have tunnels to get stuck in.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games