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Give me my road back!

This isn't going to make me popular, but hey, what's a blog for if not to occasionally indulge in a good rant?

I was just driving home and the road I should have used was closed. Instead I had to take a diversion, which had resulted in long queues of traffic, much irritation and general unnecessary sitting around. Why was the road closed? Because there's a half marathon on it tomorrow.

First of all, why does it need to be closed this morning? What have they got to do that's so urgent it has to be closed 24 hours before the run takes place?

But that's just a minor gripe. I'm afraid I don't hold with roads being closed for runs. Sorry - I have good friends who run, but I'm not with you on this one. Imagine you were settling down in front of the TV to watch Strictly Come X Factor, and instead you had a blank screen with lots of peeps and whistles. A quick angry phone call to the broadcaster and you discover that the bandwidth has been given over to radio hams who have a marathon on this weekend. (No, really, radio hams do have marathons.) You would be a bit peeved. What's the difference?

Just so some people can do their hobby, the road that my road fund licence pays for has been closed. Why? There are plenty of parks/bridleways and other places they can run in without disrupting everyone else. Roads have a function - running races isn't it. End of.
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Comments

  1. BooksPlease10 October 2009 at 18:48

    I agree and I can't see horseriders and walkers being too pleased about their rights of way being used for a marathon either. I used to be a rights of way officer and closing any routes for events such as cycle races caused so many complaints. Footpaths and bridleways are not the places for races either!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Henry Berry11 October 2009 at 09:46

    Is it your road?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Richard Carter, FCD11 October 2009 at 09:51

    Quite agree. It's time for motorists to reclaim the streets.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brian Clegg12 October 2009 at 09:28

    I suppose it depends what you mean by 'your road' Henry - I don't live in it.

    Point taken, BooksPlease - walkers and riders should have their rights of way.

    ReplyDelete

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