AIBU to be fucked off at road marathons?

[JesusOnAYamaha]

Once a year in London is one thing but they're bloody everywhere now and it's not like the organisers put diversions in so you can get to where you're going. We had one in our town a couple of months ago and I couldn't leave my (no through) street because they blocked it off so people could spend a day running past it. I mean I couldn't even cross the road at the end of my street, on foot. Now I've just found out that I can't get to where I need to be for a family event later this month because another load of joggers are closing down a bunch of roads into/in this other place.

AIBU to think they could just run round a park? Or a field? Or a racecourse? Or a hill? Or somewhere where they're not in the way of residents and other people who just want to go about their business.

I know I probably am BU. It's probably nice that people get to run around if they like running. They probably enjoy spending a day running past my street and I should be happy for them. But, I am a bit fucked off with it all.

Map of Gtr Mcr marathon route. Black area - which I live in - is completely encircled. Because my street is a cul de sac onto a closed road it's not possible to drive to crossing places.

The weekday events are cyclists. Usually in teams with support vehicles, so I assume professional or semi-professional? These irk me far more than the runners, as they put big barriers up for these ones so we can't cross the road. The running events, you can take your chances and dash across.

Most of these things, in my experience, are much more localized than city runs. Some are permanent features - if you live near a concert venue or exhibition ground, of course you will get traffic during a concert.

Most things like markets are in spaces that are normally set up for such things. When they aren't, yes they can be a problem. For years my city did events along the harbour in a particular parking area. This was the parking are also for the farmer's markets, the library, the ferry, and a major bus interchange. The fact that it was an event space five or six times a year was really a problem for people using these services, especially since it meant street parking was already overwhelmed.

But why anyone ever thought, oh, lets just close a bunch of streets in a city so some people who like to run can do it there in a giant group, I don't really understand. If my neighborhood wants to have a street party (which we do yearly), we have to get a permit and that means getting a signature from every house on the street. Somehow the runs don't have to, and the problems they create go well bend the street that are actually closed.

My road was closed because of the London Marathon back in 2016 and there were so many people that the "runners" could only "run" at walking pace anyway!

@TempestTost You'll notice that I very deliberately excluded events at permanent event venues from my list.

Something (like a Christmas market) taking place in a dedicated area doesn't mean it's not inconveniencing anyone. Our local one is only small and takes place in a pedestrian square, but surrounding residents still experience hundreds of people turning up / creating traffic / parking / making noise / dropping litter in the surrounding streets every evening for a week or more.

It's not like it's every week, and at least a good amount of the runners will be raising money for charity.

We live near a big stadium and if there's a big match or gig on it's a nightmare round about. If, God forbid, we had to get out of our estate in a hurry at the same time people are leaving the gig/match we'd literally have no chance. I still curse Ed Sheeran after a particularly nightmarish experience trying to get home after he played at ours!

Our Christmas market is in the town centre with all the normal car parks operating. Same as the light switch on.

festivals city centre

music festival/show field in the centre again or same place as the fireworks

Fire work display again held in a place that was built and designed for large volumes of traffic and parking.

circus in that above field

Beach well yes we tend to visit beaches when away from our own city. We park in designated car parks however and actually prefer to use ones a bit of a walk from the beach itself. Though I’d guess they want tourist's paying to park, buying food and drinks and going in arcades and buying nick nacks.

Nobody wants to be blocked into their own street or a designated circle.

@Wellingtonspie Does nobody live in your city centre then?

I'd say it's fairly unusual to have a large designated area for events / circus / bonfire that everybody lives far enough away from not to be affected at all by additional noise and traffic. That's not the case where I live.

City centre is flats lots with their very own car parks or permit only. Mostly converted old offices or built ontop of stores.

Further out where its houses is all permit parking only, untill you are talking a good 20/30 minute walk.

The split in this poll nearly identically reflects obesity rates in this country, but surely that's a coincidence 😂

So, those of us who object to having the inconvenience of road closures for people's hobby....are obese?🤔
I fail to find the logic there.

Yes this happens near us as well, makes me laugh when they start banging on about the way it'll boost trade for local businesses - oh aye, only if the bloody staff can get there in the first place and get parked. No public transport from my way goes to the town I work in on these days, there's park & ride but it's the other side of the town, where the diverted bus drops you off, and there's no buses at all after 7.30. The park & ride is temporary and locked after 8pm, not great if you finish work after 7.30 because it's about a 30 minutes walk.

They're great days but they remove already restricted parking from the town, then invite more people in. The organisation is rubbish and yet it's the same every year, with the same "It's on a Sunday, enjoy the race and chill out!" Like they won't be expecting the shops & hospitality businesses open on that day for their pleasure and fully staffed with people who will find it nigh on impossible to actually get there and do it!

Although when these races (mainly cycling) were planned the potholes got finally fixed on the routes - so that was a bonus 🤣.

I came here to say the amount of disruption in Trafford due to marathons, cycling events and whatever the hell else they do is ridiculous. I lived in Stretford for a year, and it was about 4 or 5 times during that period. Way too much.

Once a year is fine. Imposing your hobby on a public space every week (Parkrun) is annoying.

I run three times a week, and manage to do so without blocking more than a single track footpath. So I sympathised with the OP. I don’t think it’s necessary to get in other people’s way to keep fit.

I forgot that I had seen signs for weeks and tried to drive to the in-post. I turned back and decided to make it my dog walk. I was glad I had - it was lovely to see such a community enjoying running and everyone lining the streets to cheer them on. It's one day a year.

@Wellingtonspie A parking space with a city centre flat is all well and good until you can't get out of it due to the carnival / Christmas lights switch on / pride parade / whatever.

I'm not just talking about road closures though. There are lots of factors to lots of events that cause inconvenience to someone. But I very much doubt anyone can claim to have never attended / enjoyed any of them, so pissed of are they by the ones that adversely affect them.

My message is live and let live! You (in the broad sense) enjoy the motor rally that makes my property inaccessible for a whole weekend, or the music festival in the park down the road that we can hear every note of, and I'll enjoy the marathon that goes past the end of your road for a day. There are bigger things to worry about in the grand scheme of things.

Does everyone driving, really need to? Cos they're pretty annoying too

"Those particular roads" may be the only ones available for you to get to a doctors appointment or out to your work. It's not reasonable to ask someone to leave their house 5 hours early for an appointment.

I'm not talking about people having to take a longer route, I'm talking about people whose only way out of their house has been closed.

Could one walk some of the way?

The London to Brighton bike ride closes the roads (my road). Where I live the months from March to September bring with them a flurry of neon coloured markers for one race or another. They usually aren’t collected afterwards and end up being these sad tattered flags until they rip
off in the wind leaving the cable tie behind and their ruined guts in the bushes. ‘Race days’ bring hollering of Lycra clad humans from about 6am onwards as their strava PB urges them on. I find it all very unsatisfactory.

Every day, all year round, a cacophony of metal vehicles thunders down my local high street, spewing fumes and causing traffic jams. I too find that unsatisfactory.

Yes, but in most cases I don't think these have anything like the same overall impact. There are lots of instances of small markets or small concerts or whatever in parking lots, parks, etc, but I can't think of any that similarly seem to impact on the same level.

Plus, many (not all) events like this are very much something the local people enjoy themselves, and when neighbourhoods find events like this really problematic, they tend to find their complaints are taken seriously.

The closest thing that seems somewhat similar to me are parades, and having once been in labour trying to get to the hospital while being blocked by a Christmas parade I feel very aware that they can be a real inconvenience - but even parades don't in my experience cause as much disruption for everyone as marathons and bike races in cities. The latter just seem so very spread out, and take so long, and block traffic across so many streets.

And maybe the kicker is, unlike smaller local events, it never really seems like complaints are taken seriously or really even noticed much. It's like the town or city makes a deal with the race organizers and sponsors, and residents don't matter, they are expected to put up with it even though few are involved and many of the participants aren't local.

Where I am now, large concerts no longer seem to be common in city venues that aren't really set up for the,. There was a period, especially in the 90s and early 2000s when there were a lot of them, but they were pretty impractical in terms of traffic and also infrastructure issues. So the trend now seems to have them in places like exhibition grounds. I think this reflects a lot of the same issues with these races.

I don’t know about all the others but Manchester (half and full) definitely girs through the posh bits :)

As there is always a lot of prior notice, then park your car elsewhere and walk to it?

Anyway, how many Doctors appointments are early on a Sunday morning????

5 hours... talk about making stuff up...