Re: Tour de Yorkshire 2019

[arwadsworth2020]

Like f*ck I could.

[Brian Gaff]

Is that only one day though? I know how you feel as for some reason the main event in London seems to always involve Kingston Upon thames and cause traffic chaos over the two days they use it.

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

No because they are continually repairing it more often than not. They really do need to do more consultation. apparently having the roads closed for a day when cyclists only come through in about two hours of it is seen as a good thing due to all the people who are supposed to come to town and buy from the shops. However if you take into account the amount of damage and litter, the cost of marshalling and bus diversion and the rest, I wonder how on earth the sums make sense. Its more likely brownie points for the local council. Brian

[charles]

when we had the Olympic cycle races closing roads for two day. one of the roads separated two fields blonging to the same farm. The farmer said "if the harvest is ready, I will be crossing that road as I need to. It's my livelyhood."

[ARW]

It is not just for one day.

From every day now until the race there will be clowns riding the circuit. Two abreast or bringing out the whole family.

Sometime whole f****ng gangs of them clogging up the road.

[NY]

The problem is that the organisers of races like this think that it is acceptable *ever* to close a road, for a marathon or a bike race.

I disagree with this. Roads are a means of transport. Races or anything else that requires a road to be closed for safe racing should go elsewhere - somewhere private that is not a means of transport.

The only valid reason for closing a road should be when there is a crash or other unforeseen emergency. No other reason should be allowed.

The real problem is not the disruption on the day. It's the fact that for a long time afterwards you get the "wannabe" riders who want to do the official route. That's not a problem when it's a group of two or three friends, but it *is* a big problem when you get an organised gathering of maybe 50 or 100 riders who try to ride as a peloton, grouped together so there is no chance of overtaking them because they ride:

a) more than two abreast, and don't revert to single file to make it easy for cars to overtake where it is safe

b) in a long group without leaving gaps, so you can't overtake several small groups in stages; instead you must overtake them all or else wait

I got caught behind a group of cyclists taking part in a race / timed event (I thought racing on the public highway was illegal) and the marshalling cars were preventing anyone overtaking even when it was safe, so I had to follow for about 5 miles at 20 mph max. There were warning signs "Cycling event" but no signs saying "Road closed - diversion ->", so they were using roads that were still open for racing on. They were also using their cars to block side roads so no traffic could join and come towards us.

I got the details of the organisers and reported it to 111, and they said they had no record of this event having been registered with the police, and that what they were doing was illegal, so hopefully the organisers faced some awkward questions.

It is events like that which give cycling a bad name: it only takes the arrogant few like this to give all cyclists a bad name. I've no problem with a few friends getting together and doing all or part of a route, riding sensibly and with consideration for other road users, but when they try to ride as a block, and prevent other traffic approaching or overtaking, then they've gone way too far.

[Graeme]

Not really. Just struggling to understand how a Tour de Yorkshire would work in the home Counties.

[mechanic]

The Tour de Yorks has been very popular with locals, just look at the turn out lining the route. The Yorks police know what they're doing for the big events even if not for the one you were reporting. They have rolling blocks well organised with little disruption to everyday traffic, most of which seem happy enough to get out of their vehicles and watch.

[Richard]

Who cares what it's called, just let them have a lane of the M25 and leave the pleasant parts of the country alone.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Yorshire. Free. QED.

[NY]

You haven't quite understood the meaning of the Yorkshire dialect word "thoil". It's a difficult one to define but it embodies the spirit of "I can easily afford to pay X but I think it's far too expensive so I'm not paying that much".

It leads to the mistaken belief that Yorkshire people are tight-fisted with their money; the same allegation is made unjustly of the Scots.

It's simply a case of the Yorkshire motto "Only a fool pays for anything in life if he can legally get it for free". I imagine there's a version in Yorkshire dialect which expresses it more succinctly but less understandably. I suppose it's partly covered by

'Ear all, see all, say nowt; Eyt all, sup all, pay nowt; And if ivver tha does owt fer nowt ? Allus do it fer thissen.

Hear all, see all, say nothing Eat all, drink all, pay nothing If it you ever do anything for nothing Always do it for yourself

[ARW]

South Yorkshire police have done very well on major events in the past.

Hillsborough and Orgreave spring to mind.

[Richard]

:)

[Harry Bloomfield]

Brian Gaff brought next idea :

The sums don't work I am sure, it is just a brownie point maker.

They had a cycle lane added in Leeds, down the built up section of York Road, most of the route to the centre. It cost millions, caused major delay to traffic cost them lots in lost time waiting in traffic queues and two years later they are still working on installing it.

I have yet to see a cyclist making use of it. What a terrific waste of vast amounts of money, then the council claim they are under-funded.

[NY]

There have also been cases of some people in streets which were on both the outward and return legs of the journey (parts of York, one year) who were imprisoned in their houses (by car, if not on foot) for many hours. There were reports that pregnant women who were close to their due date had been advised to go to their nearest maternity hospital the day before in case they went into labour and there were problems getting an ambulance to them. I presume in practice any life-threatening emergency (heart attack, house fire) is covered by special rules which allow emergency vehicles to take precedence over the race if necessary.

The village where we live has three roads out of it, all of which lead onto different parts of the nearby main road that was part of the route. There were signs up at junctions telling people the times when the road would be closed (slightly later for one road because the race went through Leyburn before getting to that junction), and we had to decide whether to go out for the day, leaving no later than one critical time and staying out until another critical time, or else stay in and know that we couldn't go out until the race had been past.

Have there been any locations where the TdY has gone over a level crossing on a National Rail line? I know they've been over the crossing at Grosmont several times, but the NYMR can tweak its timetables if necessary. I presume National Rail trains take precedence, so if a train arrives, cyclists have to wait, rather than trains being stopped to wait for the cyclists to pass. There was a case in France where cyclists in a race *didn't* stop for the barriers and a lot were prosecuted. Maybe the route planners now studiously avoid level crossings to prevent that situation happening, because it could lead to cyclists at the front losing their competitive advantage if all the other cyclists caught up with them as everyone was waiting.

[Andrew]

The Tour de France has ventured into the UK in the past.

[NY]

Sadly it rarely happens. One of the TdYs had torrential rain and/or thick fog for several days leading up to it, but on the day the weather was perfect, before going back to rain afterwards. Sir Gary Verity had evidently had a quiet word with the Weather God ;-)

[ARW]

Nice idea.

[Allan]

[snip]

+1

[John Miller]

I just hope you choose somebody with a head cam who will report you to the police. John M