Etape Caledonia Sabotaged
- Thread starter Isla Valassi
- Start date
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gadgetmind said:
Speaking from experience, there are quite a lot of square pegs living in these communities. You'd really have to live there to understand it. Whilst the majority of folks are very nice, the vociferous few tend to reign over everything, no flexibility in the world will accommodate them. It's their way or not on their highway
snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
If you try to keep everyone happy someone's not going to like it.gadgetmind said:
gadgetmind
New Member
MichaelM said:
Personally, I'm not looking for any.
The good people of Perthshire would seem to want whatever level of flexibility is required to ensure that the roads aren't closed. Perhaps some flexibility modelled around what the many other UK events do to achieve their goals without having road closures as an absolute requirement. I believe they used staged starts to avoid congestion and they also encourage riders to be observation of and considerate to other road users.
I'll probably be riding 90 miles on Sunday, and we'll be using the magic of "car up!" to avoid inconveniencing other road users. We could ask the good people of the towns and villages we'll be passing through to close the roads for us, but this being Yorkshire, I reckon we'd get some pretty blunt responses!
Ian
gadgetmind said:
'No road closures' doesn't sound like a text book definition of flexibility to me.
From what others have said, there are many good people of Perthshire who had no objection. If it's to be believed then many more than had an objection.
Sadly, with just about event there will be a level of disruption or inconvenience to someone. Whilst I recognise your desire to avoid that Ian, I just don't think it's possible. Someone will always complain. You must have experienced something along those lines at some time or other.
Gadgetmind, have you ridden these singletrack roads? Where I lived there was some kind of Audax going through, probably about 30 riders strung out. It took me a good 10 minutes of nipping in and out of passing places to get past them. Luckily they had the courtesy to wait behind me when another car was coming and I had to wait, if they'd gone past I'd never have got past them, it's just impractical to try and do that past 3500 bikes. Even as a single cyclist on those roads cars have to wait in passing places you can't get a car and a bike past most of the time.
scoosh
the value you quote £440 is based on last year's event which had approximatley half the number of participants
i merely doubled the amount to get £1m
gadgetmind
this is a bit like a planning application
there are often some people whio are adversley affected by a development, sometimes incredibly so e.g. quarry development near house. A Council needs to weight up the benefit of the development and for the wider society against the very localised impacts. In this case the impacts are to so few and so small and the gains that big that its actually, I belive the term is, a no-brainer
the value you quote £440 is based on last year's event which had approximatley half the number of participants
i merely doubled the amount to get £1m
gadgetmind
this is a bit like a planning application
there are often some people whio are adversley affected by a development, sometimes incredibly so e.g. quarry development near house. A Council needs to weight up the benefit of the development and for the wider society against the very localised impacts. In this case the impacts are to so few and so small and the gains that big that its actually, I belive the term is, a no-brainer
ferret fur
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Roseburn
Gadgetmind: Quite frankly you really have to look at the detail to realize how obtuse some of the antis objections are: Let's start with the claim that they are 'imprisoned' in their houses with no sense that individuals could work around the 3-4 hours of road closure on a Sunday. The whole of Highland Perthshire being closed down for the weekend when a few small backroads are closed for a Sunday morning: The wide variety of medical ailments which prevented people getting to hospital on that particular morning including an ambulance which didn't arrive for 8 hours when someone had a stroke. etc etc.
I don't think that as a cyclist I have a right to impose my minority sport on an unwilling majority. Nor do I have a right to completely disrupt the lives of a small minority. However, as has been repeated above, the objectors are a small intransigent, bloody minded group who object purely because they want to get their own way. No matter what. They don't represent 'local opinion' nor are they willing to realistically compromise. In a way all this shows how 'terrorism' (in the loosest sense of the word, & by that I just mean taking direct action) is highly successful. Without being in possession of the facts, people end up thinking 'well, they must have a good reason for doing this'. They don't.
I don't think that as a cyclist I have a right to impose my minority sport on an unwilling majority. Nor do I have a right to completely disrupt the lives of a small minority. However, as has been repeated above, the objectors are a small intransigent, bloody minded group who object purely because they want to get their own way. No matter what. They don't represent 'local opinion' nor are they willing to realistically compromise. In a way all this shows how 'terrorism' (in the loosest sense of the word, & by that I just mean taking direct action) is highly successful. Without being in possession of the facts, people end up thinking 'well, they must have a good reason for doing this'. They don't.
!
HJ
Cycling in Scotland
- Location
- Auld Reekie
scoosh said:By the way, that hill I climbed on Sunday was at least 32%
That'll be the one I passed you on...
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
MichaelM said:
You couldn't make it up...
gadgetmind
New Member
Crackle said:
I've ridden on a lot of singletrack roads, usually alone, but occasionally with a group of other cyclists. When a car comes from behind, you pull in and let them past. With 3500 cyclists this could be tricky which is why you probably need a staged start.
I'm sure the good people of Perthshire will understand that going might be slower than usual, but the choice they are being offered is this or being totally banned from the roads. Oh no, hang on, they aren't being offered a choice at all. :-(
By the way, how many similar events are there in the UK on an annual basis? Is there a list somewhere? It would be interesting to see how these other events solve these kinds of problems without causing such disruption.
Ian
gadgetmind
New Member
ferret fur said:
Yes, that's the way I see it too.
Ian
