Parkrun accused of 'normalising violent driving' by asking if participants could keep up with car 'going at 93mph'

It's encouraging speeding isn't it. You can't legally drive at 93mph anywhere on UK roads.

Bloody stupid and lazy promotion.

A Trabant would be faster than any runner. It's hardly a USP is it ?

But you keep normalising speeding brogs. We all know that's perfectly safe and never killed any cyclists...

brogs wrote:

 Driving at 93 mph down the motorway is not killing any cyclists. 

Given that excessive speed is a factor in something like 85% of fatal accidents involving motor vehicles, it's pretty likely that it will kill some cyclists, given that most cyclists own cars or ride in them from time to time.

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

..... surely all motorsport should considered toxic, or indeed any motor manufacturer producing cars able to travel at speeds above should be cancelled. .....

By Jove, I think he's got it!

Lolz, I think your stance around motor vehicles differs somewhat from mine. 

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

Lolz, I think your stance around motor vehicles differs somewhat from mine. 

Upright, hopefully....

Max speed in NL and soon to be in Germany is just 100kmph on motorways. This is to reduce national carbon emissions

If you did 150 in NL you would lose your licence on the spot. 

Indeed, and I thought the law forbade advertising cars in terms of speed. Pretty sure the same rules would apply to any form of promotion, not just traditional first-hand advertising.

I see this sort of "sports washing" in the same light as Cola brands sponsoring football etc. In fact it would seem that generally, brands always pay to associate themselves with qualities they innately lack.

That decision was mainly because London had very few permissions and any event would have been completely swamped. Those venues should all have been giving permission back in March, however we have had claims of the virus spreading outdoors that have not been backed up by scientific data.

Don't even get me started on the insanity of kit bags for the London Marathon being collected indoors instead of outdoors.

Regardless, launching a big media campaign that suggested this was a nationwide issue, and parroting Tory party rhetoric about town hall bureaucrats etc. was unhelpful, patronising, came across as dismissive of people who had genuine concerns, and put a lot of parkrunners of

If it were true that it was largely a London issue, could have been better addressed by just not opening London parkruns until they had reached a suitable threshold there. 

It's not as if all London parkrunners would be suddenly flooding out to the sticks to find a parkrun - sure there are the hardcores who might, but they are actually a minority.  For most, a major part of the appeal of parkrun is that it's on your doorstep.

Maybe we are really misreading their position, and getting angry that theyre undermining green credentials that they never really had?

They do organise their park runs as recreation, not as any active travel, after all.

Only the same as people driving their SUVs with bikes on the back out to some great off road trail rather than just riding their bikes.

I agree, although I'm in the priveliged position of having 4 parkruns (1 word, small 'p', they get a bit touchy about this) within walking distance, and could easily collect a touristing cow cowl (20 different parkruns) by bike. And running isn't active travel in the sense that it gets people out of cars and walking or riding to the shops / work / wherever.

If I lived out in the sticks and nearest parkrun wasn't within cycling distance, I'd just find a bit of off road track and run it. I take a similar position on riding bikes - if I can't ride to a sportive/group ride, do the ride and ride home, I'd do something closer to home.

Just checked, I've run 56 parkruns at 7 different venues, and volunteered 34 times.

it isnt active travel no, but it is exercise, and it does attract people for whom taking anyform of exercise isnt that habitual for them, and they are unlikely to scrub up their trainers to go running off road in the countryside, certainly not by themselves. So if it gets them off the couch its good imo even if it has all the appeal of a cross country run PE lesson.

as for the tweet, probably not the best way of promoting that particular partnership, but do we really have to go through this twitter outrage stuff all the time

I actually know a good handful of people who do run as a form of active transport. 

Argos74 wrote:

I agree, although I'm in the priveliged position of having 4 parkruns (1 word, small 'p', they get a bit touchy about this) within walking distance,...

Sorry, I didn't realise that pARkrUn had a specified layout...

There's a whole other issue of whether parkrun is that green if you can't get to them by 9am by public transport. (I haven't checked but in my experience the vast majority drive to them). At least Scotland and Ireland went for 9:30am. If you dare to suggest they could start later...

I run at a Park Run in Glasgow & I think the reality is that Park Run organisers cover the wide range of views on cycling that you might find in any large organisation. My local Park Run really emphasises getting to the run by public transport, on foot or by bike.

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/pollok/course/

Ahh.  So it's the old grassroots disconnect that all HQ offices have when organisations get too big for their boots and forget who gave them all their success?

They were. It's a ParkRun local to me. The person complaining about the installation of the cycle lane doesn't even live in Belfast.