Safe Speed Forums

the event:
http://www.etapecaledonia.co.uk/

the news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tay ... 050383.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tay ... 054215.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tay ... 055240.stm

the protest advice:
http://www.commentonline.co.uk/general/ ... omACRE.htm

"Protesters sabotage cycle event..."

I take issue with the way this has been 'spun' (not necessarily aimed at you Ed).

I have no doubt this happened and that it was done with malicious intent (and yes this is disgusting and dangerous).
What I don't know is if any protestors actually had anything to do with this.

Don’t forget, we already have thugs who think nothing of hurling eggs, hammers and bricks at passing traffic (even at fire engines), that doesn’t mean they are anti-car/motorist. Could this also be another case of mindless thuggery for cheap laughs?

Let’s first catch these b”£$%^&s before we start casting assertions as to their motives.

yup, agreed.
general consensus is that the majority are supportive of the event, as often the case it seems the vocal minority are upset cos they've not got what they wanted (demanded?).... which is a shame for the rest and the area in general.

TBH I can't see what the fuss is about. This is a one day event, not even lasting the whole day. It's not like there's a lot going on in that area anyway!
It's a bit sad.

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Damn Internet, I just lost my post, and eloquent it was too!

1. Peaceful protest does not include damage or sabotage.

2. The local Iron Man triathlon closes the whole cycle route, so is this semantics saying the Etape Caledonia is the only cycling event to close all roads?

3. My only personal beef with closing roads for cycling events is that car rallies don't get the same privilege.

Not so eloquent, but hey ho.

You don't have a local Ironman race anymore.. sorry... thank the castle owners for that.
Most of the roads were only closed in the direction of the race.

What morons. What feck do they hope to achieve by being mindless morons

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

Most support. For record - we'd happily close roads. We will make a rolling road block when ToB passes through our patch later. Application received and I understand OK.

Not perfect - but it still works out OK

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tay ... 057084.stm



and a long press release...
http://www.etapecaledonia.co.uk/

Assuming it was him that did it:

Flame on...

Given his age, he probably didn't do it for a laugh; it's more likely he probably was protesting against the closure. Hence it's difficult to believe he doesn't have a driving license.

If he's found guilty then I would be happy to see his license taken away from him, then all roads will be permanently closed to him - poetic justice I think!
I don't want to be sharing the roads with idiots like that.

_________________
Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Interesting that, with little more than a blank sheet to go, you automatically assume a cyclist-hating mad motorist.

Plausible enough? Or indicative of the effectiveness of the current trend of demonising the motorist that evan motorists think unthinkingly that motorists are to blame?

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

interestingly... or not... the stated age of this chap is remarkably close to that of the protest group organiser.

You made a worse assumption. You seem to have automatically assumed I was describing a cycle hater (whoever the offender is).

The irony !

Whoever it is definitely mad - unless you disagree?

I gave my reasoning as to why the person is likely to be a motorist (as opposed to a mindless thug), with a clear indication it was all based on an assumption. Now I could of course be utterly wrong in that it was a non-motorist who took issue with the road closure (or the cyclists), but I don't see why that would be, do you?

_________________
Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

this just gets better... ... steve you'll like this

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scott ... -21373683/


the report is woefully inaccurate in many other aspects!

i know more than a few involved who are proposing to recover their losses through civil action ... claim for a couple of new inner tubes maybe a new tyre....

His being a cyclist hater is my assumption rather than an inflection of your comments.

Given that in country areas, the vast majority of people are motorists by necessity, I'd say it's a fairly safe assumption that the "offender" is indeed a motorist. What interests me is the connection you've made between someone doing bad things to cyclists and out of all the conjecture we could arrive at about the guilty party, who is is, what he does, how he thinks and why, you specifically chose "motorist".

It's just something that intrigues me about the current trend of pitting road users against each other and the popular demonisation of certain parties and subsequent counter-demonisation, rather than working out a cohesive road-sharing plan, and the psychology that results in, both in his actions and your comments, rather than an attempt to have a pop at you BTW. I made the same assumptions myself.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

You're right about that trend.

Because noone wants to increase transport infrastructure provision any more, capacity is a zero-sum game, so it serves our masters to pit different groups against each other to try and discourage us off the roads.

Paranoia's setting in! I'm turning into Dixie!

In which case I may not have been clear enough.

I wasn't trying to make the connection to how he used the roads (but making that connection was a necessary evil), I was merely commenting about what punishment he should get if he is.

If all is as I suspect then I am hoping for a stiff and deliciously ironic penalty (which applies to motorists only):

He was against the road closure >> he should experience 'road closures' to the fullest extent the law can apply

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

a slightly missing the point reaction from the protest group..
http://www.commentonline.co.uk/general/ ... action.htm

It would be interesting to tot up business revenue lost due to road closures vs. business revenue gained by hosting big cycle race.

The ACRE people seem to claim this event takes place in peak season....... mid may ? oook then.
One of their statements also claimed most people only staying overnight... and it could be run on open roads like similar events.... the fact it's on closed road explains its popularity and people's willingness to travel so far for a single weekend.
Open the roads and I expect you'll get a much smaller number of entrants less inclined to travel as far and hence less in need of a full weekend's accomodation and feeding... and less local income.

As a whole I seriously doubt the area loses out, but I can see that some individual businesses may be unfortunate enough to lose out.
(Same problem with IMUK, the influx to local econom.y was quoted as something pretty massive, unfortunately it didn't beneifit the very vocal fisheries chap who's business was inside the bike loop)