Automated cameras will begin snapping photographs and mailing tickets worth £5000 (US $8870) to any motorist that accidentally strays into new "Olympic" lanes to be set aside for the 2012 Olympics in London, UK. Department for Transport officials will take traffic lanes away from general use so that 55,000 people designated as special can use them. Their numbers will include athletes, the media, government officials, corporate sponsors and their guests.

The Olympic-sized citations will be issued between 6:30am and midnight when the 150-mile Olympic Route Network restrictions are in effect. Similar £150 tickets currently generate millions in revenue from those who stray for just a moment into special "bus only" lanes, including those making an otherwise legal turn into a parking lot who cross into the special lane for seconds.

"The last thing we are after is people's money -- we simply want to get everyone to their venues on time," a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport told the London Times.