I was marshalling at the Surrey Half Marathon today, on the bike ahead of the runners to last minute check the course and stop any cars that had somehow got onto the course (mainly, residents coming out of their houses)
The signs have been up for weeks, houses on the course have been told of the closure, and roads are being closed for a max 3.5 hours.
[whoops, hit post]
I've been sworn at, had a car driven at me before braking hard at the last minute (clue, this high viz vest and radio and the fact I'm in your lane telling to to stop) - and yelling at me that you have to get to your mum's to pick your daughter up isn't going to give you a pass to drive headfirst into 6,000 runners.
And to cap it all, three blokes with a horsebox that also wasn't coming through with the runners about 3 minutes away. This was handled very well by a static marshall, who advised them they weren't taking a horsebox through no matter what you think the regulations are..... but if they want to walk down and get the horse they're picking up and walk it back to the horsebox there's nothing he can do to stop them. And then as I passed them doing this they're discussing walking the horse back in the middle of the road 'and let's see how they like it'
Some people, just utter c***ts.
Point taken caller 🙂
Mate, during the 2015 Christmas floods I blocked a road with my fire engine to prevent people driving in to a heavily flooded area where many people were working to prevent further harm. Big, blue whirly lights and everything.
At least half a dozen people tried to drive up on the pavement/grass verge to get past. 😐
But
I
Need
Milk!
Don't you understand Man ????
Some people, just utter c***ts.
Yes, 6,000 of them in this case forcing people to be prisoners in their own homes for 3.5hrs.
I remember flying back into merry old england with an irish friend, coming back from croatia.
Usual rudeness in queues, picking up bags, etc.
My Irish friend said, "English people are c***s".
I found it hard to disagree, and still do.
Oh piss off. Exaggerate somewhat ... forced to be prisoners!
MAX 3.5 hours. That was the longest closure on a main road with a diversion in place. Residential roads for typically less than 2 and with plenty of notice so if you have to be somewhere or get back from somewhere, no-one was stopping you.
Yes, 6,000 of them in this case forcing people to be prisoners in their own homes for 3.5hrs.
or you could not be a melodramatic baby and just walk/ride places without your car?
Or if you really need you car on a sunday you can just park a few hundred yards down the road past the cordon and not worry.
I lived on the velothon course a few years ago and nearly got run over by a guy driving down a footpath through a park because the road was closed 👿
See it week in week out when road racing. What is it with Range Rover drivers in particular? We've had allsorts try everything. The accredited marshals and big legally enforceable STOP signs have now replaced red flags and seem to be better tolerated.
Its the South East. If you dont turn into superman, havent nearly killed someone, cut someone up and not let anyone go in front of you, when you use a car, you shouldnt be on the roads round here....
In the not-too-distant future, there will be so many humans jostling for space on this planet that society will be forced to face up to this problem.
There will be regular tests every few years of how well people get on without doing this kind of thing. It will be done using virtual reality simulators of exactly this kind of situation.
Those that fail the test will be humanely euthanased, and their bodies recycled into something more useful.
You're forgetting that km79 is one of them.....
Roads are for cars not runners, thats why cars pay road tax and runners don't. This was in Surrey FFS! A place with more important people per sq mile than anywhere else on the planet and you lot are stopping them going about their important business. What cost to the economy eh?
See
Just to help some of the more militant posters on this thread out, I think* km79 is being sarcastic and/or ironic in their posts.
* hope.
As in life generally, some people really are complete pains in the rear. I agree op.
That said, there are amazing people out there too, ones you meet every so often that completely offset the a***- holes of this world.
On a positive note the chump who moved an ambulance whilst the crew were in the back attending to a patient in Newbury got charged recently!!!
Alan Dale, of Tangley Farm in Hampshire, is accused of moving the vehicle in Pelican Lane, Newbury, on 29 December.He is also charged with obstructing emergency workers and moving an ambulance with no insurance.
The 67-year-old will appear at Reading Magistrates' Court on 23 March.
there will be so many humans jostling for space on this planet
Everyone on the planet would be able to stand together on the Isle of Wight.
It's everyone's own veiw of how much space they need, or are entitled to that is the problem.
So it's not the number of people, but their attitude.
Everyone on the planet would be able to stand together on the Isle of Wight.
Think about the queues for the ferry though.
Everyone on the planet would be able to stand together on the Isle of Wight.
Can we be a bit selective and then sink it while they are on it?
Seen this when I foolishly took part in a local 10k once.
It's a 10k for heavens sake, road was only closed for 90 mins. Even I got round in that time, but didn't stop a pillock in a Rage Rover tearing towards the runners waving & sounding his wealth announcer.
if km79 is being sarcastic, I apologise. Had a SOH failure after giving up a couple of hours for a local event and just getting abuse and threatened by 'people like' km79.
I am genuinely perplexed by the amount of anger that's out there and it is getting worse in the SE of England in my experience where so many road users seem to be on a hair trigger waiting for the smallest excuse to explode into rage.
The roads are so overcrowded down here, driving gets so stressful. From an outside perspective occasional road closures for events are obviously not the cause of the problem.
But when you're driving it's because you need to get somewhere, you have a car so why should you walk or use public transport. You're not being selfish, it's everyone else holding you up that make the roads so busy.
Thankfully not so many knobs here, as I marshall a lot of youth racing and barely have problems. In fact, marshalling the busiest roundabout for the San Sebastian HM on a hot Sunday in summer, turning back literally thousands of cars coming into town to go to the beach, we only had about half a dozen meltdowns.
Some people are just selfish ****ers and there's not much you can do to change their behavior in these types of situation.
All you can do is curtail your desire to pull of their arm and beat them with the wet end. Some days I'm better at this than others.
I was marshalling a road crossing on a closed road and had numerous cars come along having ignored the road closed signs saying that they had been promised access, yes they had via the diversion that entered/exited the road from the other end!
Whilst most were pleasant enough and I could get them through if a gap between riders two or three were arsey about it and got sent the long way.
Had similar to this marshalling on last years Eroica event, signs at the bottom of the Beeley Descent warning of a cycling event and to find alternative routes, then signs up and down the hill warning of groups of cyclists in the road me and another Marshall at the top with high viz and vests.
Yet you would still get abuse off car drivers'That there were groups of cyclists across the road thought we were going to die',
Some old fool that tried to overtake round a blind bend with oncoming cars.
Makes for a interesting day though.
Dealing with a road closure where you live for 2 - 3 hours seems trivial enough but let me offer up a different point of view. Those of us that work full time and have kids have little spare time in which to get things done. Any free time over a weekend is a precious commodity indeed and to have even a small amount of that taken away from you when needing to get supplies, take kids to a party or generally entertain them can be a genuine cause of frustration.
Some people are indeed just complete c-units, mainly in Range Rovers and X5s, but for the most part you put down issues on the road to a general lack of time. The road infrastructure in the SE cannot not cope with the increasing head count so this will only ever get worse. A general decline in the quality of driving also doesn't help with cars making drivers feel more and more detached and isolated from the experience of driving. I think the quality of instructors has been getting worse as well from what I've experienced more and more recently.
I was marshalling leeds half a few years back outside kirkstall leisure centre. The runners were in a coned off lane rather than having a full closure, but cars couldn't turn left across it.
Someone wanted to turn left at the lights and realised she wouldn't be able to so instead decided to see if she could cut through the car park.i was on the car park exit she wanted to turn into so had to stop her.
The thing was it had some of those spikes that only let you drive one way over them, and it wasn't the direction she wanted to go. They would let you out but not in. After taking her abuse for a while I was very tempted to let her through and laugh when she got stuck....
I find the solution to this is living in Cumbria. About a 75% lower ringpiece quotient. Although we still tolerate old rich people in range rovers for some reason. (Although the one that set off into the lead group of the tour of Britain by the linthwaite hotel last year was given a succinct and impactful briefing on road safety by the police outrider, don't think it helped him having an audience of about 30 spectators either)
Roads are for cars not runners, thats why cars pay road tax and runners don't. This was in Surrey FFS! A place with more important people per sq mile than anywhere else on the planet and you lot are stopping them going about their important business. What cost to the economy eh?
You must be bull-sh1tting..
I find the solution to this is living in Cumbria. About a 75% lower ringpiece quotient.
Still plenty about. Although they don't have that same sense of entitlement that I imagine comes with being rich and living in Surrey.
Those of us that work full time and have kids have little spare time in which to get things done.
Rehome your kids then.
chestrockwell do you just own a fire engine for fun?
I stopped at a zebra crossing to let people cross only for 3 cars to drive round me and carry on. Made me laugh out loud did that one.
Disagree a bit there stabiliser. Some of the worst drivers I have ever encountered are on Cumbrian roads. Since moving up from North Wales had more near misses on the bike and in the car in the last 12 months than any other time. The bellendery is strong in this county 😀
That's all the southerners on their hollybobs
😆
I've had some interesting ones helping on sportives, but the best was doing a running event a few years back.
It was an off road event but started/finished in town so there were a few road crossings. I was responsible for the final road before the finish and stopping the traffic, the initial trickle of runners was ok, a small que starting to form but nothing crazy. Once the main flow started it became clear that there was no point letting any cars through so grabbed a few cones to put on the road at the roundabout 50m up the road and 100m down the road. We were getting a fair amount of abuse from drivers but we thought this was better than forcing them to wait for an hour at the crossing point.
As the other marshal was putting her last cone down a police car turns up and flashes their lights to let them through the cones. The policeman asked why we were shutting the road and that he wasn't informed it would be shut (it's the main road through the town...), after explaining the problem he grabbed the "road closed, police incident" signs out and parked his car across the other end. 😀
Made our job very easy!
6000 people all running, cant they afford a bike or a car, is not public transport available.
They were late....
I've had the same when marshalling on road races.
Accredited Marshal, standing there with a big (legally enforceable) STOP sign and people will still argue the case as to why they should be allowed to drive straight through.
Funnily enough, the 2 minutes inconvenience of stopping to allow a race through is apparently far more of a problem than the potential consequences of ignoring the sign and ploughing into 60 cyclists or being recorded, reported to the police and then prosecuted.
Most Accredited Marshals have video cameras; the last driver we reported got a £360 fine plus costs and 6 penalty points. I'd have taken the 2 minutes of inconvenience personally... 😉
RUNNERS DON'T PAY ROAD-TAX!!!!!
Or wear helmets 
People are dicks. People who get cross at 2 minutes of rolling road closure are dicks no question. People who get cross at Full road closures for Micky mouse events I have some sympathy with. But there are ways of dealing with it. people who then go nuts at marshalls or drive at Competitors are dicks.
Dealing with a road closure where you live for 2 - 3 hours seems trivial enough but let me offer up a different point of view. Those of us that work full time and have kids have little spare time in which to get things done.
True, which is why the closures were notified well in advance, and even after closures if someone had to get out they'd have been allowed right up until a few minutes before the runners came, and in the 'right' direction away from the runners. That is why I was riding it a few minutes in advance of the race. There were several that I turned back who were 'hoping' they could still get through who took it (perhaps grudgingly) well. Hence why I said, aren't [u]some[/u] people just arseholes.
Some people are knobs. When the Tour of Britain came through our village in 2012 some arse decided he just had to pull out of a side road first. Civilian motorcycle escort rider stopped him. Argument ensues. Four Police motorcyclists pull up with blue lights and sirens. Knob reverses back into side road. One of the motorcycle cops waited till the race had gone through and then spent a few more minutes explaining the facts of life before letting them proceed.
Though when i marshalled L'Eroica a couple of years ago - at the exit of High Peak Junction car park when they rejoin the road up to Lea and Holloway - the only argumentative knob who decided to ignore me was a cyclist. 🙄
A copper told me this story. He was attending to a RTC in a village on a Sunday morning, on his own. The three victims were lying on the tarmac, bleeding. A Casevac chopper plus two ambos were on their ways. The driver of a damaged car was awaiting arrest. Presumably it was a crime scene. Trumpton were dealing with a burning thatch roof, just out of sight around the corner.
One dear sweet elderly lady was insisting she had to drive through to get to Church. An alternative route might make her late.
And on the Monday morning he was criticied for not wearing his hat, which kept falling off as he knelt to deal with the injured. A senior officer had driven by and noticed. Hadn't offered to assist though.
Whilst I do agree that people can be idiots, things can work both ways. The cretinous behaviour of many cyclists riding sportives is amazing. Assuming the road is not closed they shouldn't be riding 3 abreast on a single track road without making allowances for others. A year or two back I was severely moaned at by a bunch of MTBers because I had a tree dropped across a footpath. The fact that it needed removing for safety reasons was irrelevant to them. They had a chice of waiting for maybe 15 minutes or riding a few extra miles. My point is that there are morons everywhere.
I do also wonder about the selfishness of many event organisers. Any complaint is just labled as NIMBYism without taking into account residents views. Its particularly annoying when alternatives are viable.
Sadly there is in life a basic assumption that everyone has the right to do as they like. Its getting worse and there is no basic respect.
Take an event like a closed road sportive. If the locals are generally in favour then the few who object should shut up. However if the locals object universally then no outside should have the right to over power their views. Much as we like it we can't have a universal right to do whatever whatever we want.
The (bloody steep) road I live on is closed for a hill climb on the first weekend of October every year for two whole hours. Yes... two whole hours! Every twelve months! On a Sunday afternoon. Can you imagine?!!
[img] http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/resources/images/4296406/ [/img]
If you went in the local pub and listened to the whining, you'd think they'd been placed under nazi occupation. Mind you... the people doing the whining are the type of people who'd stand by and watch you bleed to death in a gutter. Especially if you were black/gay/Muslim/french
Some people are utter ****s! Most aren't though. Which is nice.
Roads are for cars not runners, thats why cars pay road tax* and runners don't. This was in Surrey FFS! A place with more important people per sq mile than anywhere else on the planet and you lot are stopping them going about their important business. What cost to the economy eh?
*Just in case this hasn't got an invisible #sarcasm attached to it, NOBODY PAYS ROAD TAX!
And haven't done since 1932. Cars carry a tax based on their emissions, and it's a tax allowing them to be legally used on the public road network.
Pedestrians, cyclists, runners, horses don't need taxation to use what they have an inherent legal right to, albeit while adhering to the laws giving access to the road network.
Which also gives everyone the right to not be an arse'ole!
NOBODY PAYS ROAD TAX!
And haven't done since 1932.
1937 I think you'll find
ake an event like a closed road sportive. If the locals are generally in favour then the few who object should shut up. However if the locals object universally then no outside should have the right to over power their views. Much as we like it we can't have a universal right to do whatever whatever we want.
I don't agree.
How many locals does it take to count as 'objecting universally'. How local need they be?
For example, all the households on one street deciding they don't want their road closed shouldn't be the be all and end all for hundreds/thousands of participants, and the rest rest of the town who by and large agree with the event. And btw, in all likelihood benefiting from money spent locally in businesses and accommodation...
Every time I have marshaled a road race (as an accredited marshal) I have had some kind of conflict. The cars are only held up for a couple of minutes.
I stopped at a zebra crossing to let people cross only for 3 cars to drive round me and carry on. Made me laugh out loud did that one.
Not had this, but been beeped at whilst people have been crossing . Same on traffic lights when flashing amber and people still crossing . I do like to take my time when this happens , just to slow them down a touch more.
At Remembrance Sunday last year the quiet dignified ceremony at the local war memorial was partially drowned out by a bloke sat in his van with the engine running and the radio on as he waited for the road to re-open 👿
I live near the Ironman UK course, this involves the road being shut from 6 am to 9.30 am on a Sunday morning.
Signs go up weeks in advance and its in something like its tenth year.
It's good fun seeing the carnage. Most of the time it's security of the type you see at festivals etc who haven't got a clue where they are and how to direct motorists around the closure. I don't mind helping out directing people as the signs are always pathetic.
Best ones are the old dear who was a WRVS volunteer at the hospital thinking I would give her money for petrol as the diversion would be another few miles and a woman in a BMW convertable who refused to turn round as it would involve driving on the motorway. She parked up for 40 minutes when she could have gone on the motorway around the closure in 5 mins.
needing to get supplies, take kids to a party or generally entertain them can be a genuine cause of frustration.
Gonna struggle to get to sleep with this sob story (parent of three who lives on the routes of TdF and TdY but thank £--k I don't live in Surrey)
Just in case this hasn't got an invisible #sarcasm attached to it, NOBODY PAYS ROAD TAX!
And haven't done since 1932. Cars carry a tax based on their emissions, and it's a tax allowing them to be legally used on the public road network.
Get that argument in while you can. As of April 1st every car (except zero emissions) will be paying £140 flat rate. So not really based on emissions at all any more (except first year tax).
AND there is a new "Road Fund" paid for by VED - so car tax payers will once again be able to say they pay for the roads (although in fact it will be spent on Trunk Roads where we don't generally cycle).
I was doing the Macc Half Marathon about ten years ago and as we were running through Prestbury (Imagine a chunk of Surrey transported 200 miles north) we ran passed Robbie Savages drive blocking him and Brad Friedel in his Ferrari as they were on their way to play for Blackburn. Made me smile, they didn't seem too annoyed probably happy to get another 15 minutes listening to Phil Collins.
The couple who were walking with their little dog on the beach on Saturday, which proceeded to take a dump about 5 paces from where me and my wee girl were playing. I'm sure they noticed and tried to ignore it as they kept walking so caught up with them and asked if they were going to clean up the crap, cue the "oh we never noticed, the bags are in the car, there's no need to get aggressive etc." Selfish tools...they even had a kid in a sling so I'd imagine if someone else had done the same to them they'd react the same?
I was in Surrey yesturday as well . I entered the Wiggle UKCE ups and Downs event .
The a-holes were the ones throwing gel wrappers on the floor , even as low as 8 miles in. If you need gels after 8 miles why on earth are you entering a 50-80mile event in the first place, then why are you throwing your rubbish on the road for some other person to collect , Just to add fuel to the fire of hatred aimed at the less fortunate people who cant afford cars and have a bike to get around.
Although,judging by the cars in the car park there is no shortage of money in the south of England.
My faith in humanity was restored somewhat as I organised extracting about 6 cars that were stuck in the water logged car park . Lots of guys pitched in and helped push people out of the mud. The organisers were somewhat less helpful
The a-holes were the ones throwing gel wrappers on the floor , even as low as 8 miles in. If you need gels after 8 miles why on earth are you entering a 50-80mile event in the first place,
The first bit is right and is inexcusable, however if you need gels to do a 50-80 mile event you don't wait until empty before fuelling. Little and often so you don't get the knock.
Everyone on the planet would be able to stand together on the Isle of Wight.
Ooh! Nice Fermi task!
Say about 6 people can stand in 1 square metre.
Isle of Wight is 380kmsq
Or 380,000,000 square metres
Looks like you might only manage 2.3 billion
World population is 7.5 billion
Isle of Wight is 380kmsq
Or 380,000,000 square metres
I'm sure we can base it on the area at low-tide - we might lose a few.... but never mind.
I'm sure we can base it on the area at low-tide
Well, if you want to be so littoral!
^ excellent! Dad-joke-tastic!
Hmm, that could work out quite well... Put all the 'Kippers and Brexiters and other right-wing-froth-pots around the edges and wait for the tide to come in.
I think you'll find Brexiteers will simply take back control and stop the inrushing tide.
chestrockwell - MemberMate, during the 2015 Christmas floods I blocked a road with my fire engine to prevent people driving in to a heavily flooded area where many people were working to prevent further harm. Big, blue whirly lights and everything.
At least half a dozen people tried to drive up on the pavement/grass verge to get past
Back in 2013 floods we blocked out road with cars as our houses were in the direct path of a massive wave of water if you drove past, the ammount of abuse we got about that... Sheesh.
We even had some guy complain to the council about the noise of the generator that was running the pump that was stopping both mine and the neighbours house from flooding !
Did one bit of marshalling last year people stopped to chat about what was going on, one local got me a cup of tea. Very pleasant. This was oop North though.
I was marshaling cycle race locally a few weeks back.
The only person in 2 hours who didn't take the alternative route round the bit of woods the course was run through was an mtber.
"You can't stop me riding it, can you? So I will."
And you're just left thinking why is some people's sense of personal entitlement so great that they can't allow others to undertake an activity that might even mildly inconvenience them.
On the plus side if you were marshalling the Surrey Half then we probably live quite close so should organise a Chub Club ride out!
Maybe a Fat lads of STW steamroller Swinley and make it smooth again
Have any of you ever driven in Holland?
The number of complete bellends is amazing. Rude, ignorant, aggressive. they have it all.
When I lived in Lancing down in Sussex, I used to help marshal our running clubs 6km cross country "Fun Run" on a Sunday morning every year in October. It started and finished on the sports center grounds and was run entirely off road.
It used a quite wide (20ft) footpath to get from the center up onto the Downs and at my marshaling point the footpath was crossed by a dirt track going into allotments. Would you believe that some people would not park the car, walk 20ft across the footpath we were using to the allotment gate, unlock it and open it, walk 20ft back to the car and drive in when there was a gap between runners? They wanted to park across the footpath with the nose of the car against the gate - so that they only had to walk 5ft.
🙁
Everyone on the planet would be able to stand together on the Isle of Wight.
Think about the queues for the ferry though.
Think about the objections from the locals!
And you're just left thinking why is some people's sense of personal entitlement so great that they can't allow others to undertake an activity that might even mildly inconvenience them.
Like not using the cycle path next to the road?
😆
LAT - MemberEveryone on the planet would be able to stand together on the Isle of Wight.
Think about the queues for the ferry though.Think about the objections from the locals!
Indeed, get out of my county.
Hasn't the isle of Wight thing been debunked? I think you need something a bit bigger these days...Falklands maybe?
At 6 people per square metre you'll get 6m per square Km so (7.5 x 10^9) / (6 x 10^6) = (7.5 * 10^3) / 6 = 1250 square Km.
Looking at [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_by_area ]Wikipedia[/url], somewhere like Rhodes would be big enough at 1410Km2. There's islands nearer in size to 1250 but I think just being in the Arctic would kill many 🙄
Zanzibar, definitely Zanzibar
I marshalled a womans' enduro race last year. We closed literally 3 trails at the golf course, out of dozens, plus innerleithen just over the road. From where I was standing at flat white, you can see the entry to community service- which is better, damn it! But all day I was pretty much stood in the trail physically blocking people- arseholes- from riding it. Their day was ruined apparently.
All this bollox about standing on island? Isle of Wight, Rhodes? What? Is that what we do then? Just stand? Not only are some people utter arseholes, some people talk out of them.
At 6 people per square metre
Have we accounted for people in wheelchairs?
Or Americans?
We had all kinds of fuss from one resident living just off a closed road. Closed around 2h and she lives 100m into the closure - max walk of say 200m to her car then. There's always some mysterious 'elderly relative' that needs something at short notice 10AM Sunday. She took it up with our local MP. Our local MP takes part and is a big fan of the race 🙂