AIBU to be fucked off at road marathons?

Thing is it doesn’t matter if it’s once or twice a year. People shouldn’t be blocked in their streets for any reason bar emergencies.

They might claim there is pedestrian crossing but if you are disabled you might not be able to walk that far to the designated one, they might have over zealous marshals claiming not possible.

and I do how to wonder how many marshals again would trust an emergency being driven in their family car rather than an ambulance to actually stop the race for a few minutes to let people out.

Well publicised also depends again. I don’t follow running pages, lots of people are not on Facebook, our local paper is a shambles so barely anyone buys it. Only those on the actual shut roads get letters and the general road closure sign doesn’t tend to include a little note saying also x y z roads are closed too, so you can normally assume this road is closed tomorrow ok I’ll go down Y road instead. So if you are unlucky enough to live within the circle but not the road that’s actually closed you are still locked in and could very easily be with no notice.

London Marathon lists 2 roads closed at 4am, all others from 7am.

LM is once a year as is the Great North Run, these are both exceptional world famous events.

So where are all these 100s of other 1/2 marathons and bike rides that shut down our town s and cities???

...and no link to this 3am to 5pm closure....

Birdcage Walk is closed from Friday morning until Monday morning. I presume anyone using Birdcage walk to get around is very used to disruption.

Otherwise the roads closed at 4am are open at 1pm; 7am - 1pm or 2pm, 8am - 4pm.

There are a few closed for 12 hours - the ones right in the centre.

Manchester - yes, longer road closures. Their website seems very clear and informative. I'm sure they would be willing to work with people who inform them it takes them 5 hours to get to an appointment.

Traffic Orders specify that any road closures don't apply to them (obviously).

These extremely long closures are, I assume, only once a year in these cities (the big marathons, Great North Run).

@Alexandra2001 - the main road in Manchester is indeed closed for those hours. I don't live there but I've been there when events are on, and I've seen the signs.

And London starts closing roads at 2am on Marathon day on some parts of the course. And they stay closed well after 3pm. There are still 000s of runners on the course then!

Please show a link to your 3am to 5pm closure please?

Have you talked to the organisers/council about disabled access or did you just make this up?

Even the London Marathon are from 7am to 3pm.....

Chester, which was mentioned earlier, the longest road closure is 0830 to 1300 and pedestrian access available at all times.

Near me too. A vet wasn't allowed to access a horse which was in distress because only "human" emergency services had been considered.

And care workers are on a very tight schedule. Their employers aren't going to give them an extra 20 minutes for each client if they have to park streets away.

If you aren’t local to Old Trafford you wouldn’t know, but that one main road that the marathon route uses (and also various cycling events) is effectively the only one that goes through the area because all the back streets border onto railways, tram tracks and rivers. So there is no other route for many. And they get disruption from football, cricket and rugby matches. And yet people are still nice to you when you run past them, so it would be nice if the massive inconvenience was acknowledged, rather than telling them to suck it up or live somewhere else. These aren’t the fancy-ass parts of Trafford, people there probably can’t just move.

@Topseyt123 race marshalls refused to allow an emergency services vehicle through to attend a life threatening situation?

If that was the case the organisers of that event should never be allowed to put on event again

Jesus.

Why should she have to?

It's her house.

Everyone agrees that flooding is a problem and cities try and mitigate it, not encourage it.

This idea that cars etc use the roads so runners can use the roads.

Roads are meant for everyone to get where they need to go. Most of the time, almost all roads are open to cars, trucks, pedestrians, bikes. No, it's not always a perfect arrangement, but the principle is that all users should be able to get around.

Even with parked up events or traffic jams for events, yes it can be a practical issue but the roadways aren't actually being closed to certain users.

With marathons, bike races, and even on occasion car races in cities, it's a totally different scenario - everyone except the actual racers are expected to give up access to public roadways. Usually with zero benefit to themselves.

It's not even like a park being used for an event, you can go to another park. There isn't a second set of public roads for most people.

Councils are not going to the residents in these areas and getting their ok. They are deciding on their behalf this is great publicity or whatever and going ahead with it.

Not made up at all. There was a case where this happened in the town where my mother lives. Also, her care company has had issues with getting through to their clients, who are mostly very vulnerable people needing visits several times a day.

Indeed, why on earth wouldn't access be given to emergency services? It will be a condition of road closures. People seem to be making up random scenarios in their heads.

Absolutely events will be halted/ held up if emergency vehicles need to get through.

Almost every year an Iron Man event closes the road my very elderly mother lives on. She is 89, not very mobile, can no longer drive so has no car etc. She has several serious medical issues now too.

It does worry me a bit whether they have taken full account of very vulnerable people who may be living on these routes. If questioned, the organisers' stock response is " go and park the car round the corner and just walk to it if you need to the next day", which is completely useless to someone like my mother who can't walk more than a few shuffling steps and needs carers to come to her house several times a day. Apparently the carers too should park well away too and walk, no matter how much stuff they might need and how many vulnerable patients they need to visit on their rounds. The care company has also complained about it and got precisely nowhere.

I do hope that they would allow emergency services up the roads, but have certainly heard of cases where they too were impeded.

I find that when you query any such questions with the event organisers you are far too often met with utter incomprehension.

I think there should at the very least be a means of knowing which addresses are occupied by vulnerable people, although emergencies can occur anywhere at any time.

I understand a car is essential for many, but not all. I must admit i didn't realise that barriers prevent people even leaving their street on foot, that is very restrictive i agree

Could the elderly lady go on the saturday and stay the night

Not if you can't walk out of your road when they put barriers up for the bike races. Or if you are disabled and can't get about without a vehicle. Or you have to make 3 care visits an hour which can't be done on foot. Or you live somewhere with poor public transport so can't access work/shops/family without a car.

I walk to most places. Couldn't drive a car until 5 years ago. Not a car fan at all. But it's essential for many people nowadays. But car or no car, I can't walk out of my road when the bike races are on. Not sure how this is so hard to grasp.

But another great example of a city where lots of people would have been unable to drive out of their roads for a good chunk of the day, but where the 10,000+ tourists are bringing a HUGE amount to the local economy. (overnight accommodation, meals out, drinks and coffees, parking fees etc etc)

This, with bells on. I've been doing the maths and our family of four will have put at least £500 back into the Brighton and Hove economy last April.
Two nights in a local hotel; meal out the night before the race; snacks and coffees and sandwiches afterwards all add up.

Agree with you re the industrial section going as well.. some hideous memories of running through that wood yard!! Very glad it's gone.

I appreciate i am advantaged as in, i don't have any mobility issues, but I'm not sure everyone complaining about these events is doing so because of mobility issues. I also appreciate not everyone can choose where they live, but plenty of people do.

For all the people who have a big issue with the road closures, talk to your councillors and your local council. These things don't happen on a whim. They all get approved at a local government level. So if you feel that strongly about it, then complain

I am sure people do. That is why, for example, that running events often start really early, and far too early for public transport to get the runners to the event. so that roads can reopen in time eg for the shops to open (for shorter races). It would be much greener to have races starting at say 11 so people could use trains to get there. Even better would be if trains ran earlier on a Sunday!

Indeed... not many people on the loooooooong drag out of Brighton and back in again! Or out towards the industrial estate (thank goodness that's not part of it any more). But another great example of a city where lots of people would have been unable to drive out of their roads for a good chunk of the day, but where the 10,000+ tourists are bringing a HUGE amount to the local economy. (overnight accommodation, meals out, drinks and coffees, parking fees etc etc).

For all the people who have a big issue with the road closures, talk to your councillors and your local council. These things don't happen on a whim. They all get approved at a local government level. So if you feel that strongly about it, then complain!

Manchester Marathon was (apart from London) by far the best event I have ever done from a crowd point of view. They were amazing - all the people outside their houses, and lining the route

Absolutely agree. Manchester marathon is on a par with London and the Great North Run for the support you get along the way.
Pockets of the Brighton course are similar, eg the residential bit through Hove, but Brighton also has long sloggy sections with nobody around.

It comes across as though you are quite advantaged @Allfur and perhaps don’t understand, as a result.

Re doing stuff without a car - other residents of my house have blue badges as they have disabilities. We have a motability car.

Re: living in a quieter part of a city. Sometimes people have to live in a part of a city that they live in. Not everyone gets to move/live where they please or fly off to another continent to watch someone doing a marathon.

Definitely not unreasonable, my local area gets cut off 5/6 times a year with fun runs, 5k, 10k, charity runs. All sorts, it's very annoying especially the charity runs as the stragglers take forever to finish.