snailracer
Über Member
Are all the closed roads in areas of outstanding natural beauty?Is Walton Bridge in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty? No.
Next!
Are all the closed roads in areas of outstanding natural beauty?Is Walton Bridge in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty? No.
Next!
If "rich, powerful and influential" car owners really do think as you presume, then they deserve to be taken down a notch. These are public roads, they can build their own private roads if they want to reserve it for their exclusive use.
GregMy take; 20000 isn't a few cyclists, it's 20000 and the hold ups... significant road closures for the whole day... significant restrictions on the roads linking the closed roads... parking bans... et cetera. Now I HATE car-centric Britain as much as the nest person but as a way of winding-up a group of rich, powerful and influential car owners? Well, holding a closed roads sportive in the Surrey Hills is almost without equal. And when plod, whose policing priorities are set by the good burghers of Surrey (and Surrey County councillors, a number of whom live in that area) say "Enough is enough" it won't be the once a year Prudential London riders that get affected but, more likely, me, my friends and my club mates.
For perspective, 30000 motor vehicles cross Walton bridge every day, which runs right next to the Prudential Ride London route.
Indeed, How many folk do the London Marathon, the Great East Run, etcOrganised, well behaved chaos, for one day in the year, just like plenty of other one off non-cycling events which can cause "traffic chaos".
As this is bound to be a large event with a large sponsor, I suspect it will be quite tightly controlled.
I shall only be going along for the free ride though, looking forward to using a small part of London's roads traffic free (rather than doing the usual dance with black taxis).
My take; 20000 isn't a few cyclists, it's 20000 and the hold ups... significant road closures for the whole day... significant restrictions on the roads linking the closed roads... parking bans... et cetera.
It should be possible to run a sportive without closing roads, if only motorists could be relied upon not to drive dangerously around riders which, unfortunately, they can't.
I remember the parlous state of the road surface up Box Hill until they resurfaced it last year. I don't think it was cyclists who caused that.
Interesting that it took a cycling event for them to do something about it though.
Interestingly it was the advent of cars that led to roads being tarred in the first place.
At least one County Councillor, no doubt under pressure from disgruntled locals, and having already sussed the aforementioned, has already taken up arms "This is not the Olympics" stylee.Greg
I actually agree with your basic principle. But I'm not sure the Prudential London is actually a good example. I live in a town on the route, and the sense I have at the moment is that the Olympics Hangover effect is outweighing the B*** Cyclists Closing Our Roads effect. Most of our town seemed dead chuffed to have the Olympic Road race come through, not because it was cycling, but because it was an Event, and I would guess that at the moment people are thinking "ooh good we get to have our Event all over again". Maybe the test will come in a few years time when people have completely forgotten why we have this event on these roads, and realise that for some unaccountable reason Wiggo and Cav, the only two cyclists they've heard of, don't seem to be taking part any more.