A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

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jackal
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A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

Post by jackal »

The expressway has about 50k AADT. Given there's also a general increase in traffic for the event, there are effects across Glasgow's road network:

Image

I've also heard residents of Finnieston can't park there for the duration unless they have off street parking (which would be unusual in this area), and there are rumours of Insulate-style protests on Kingston Bridge and in the Clyde Tunnel, which I'm sure would go down well...

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/hom ... in-closed/
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

Post by Bryn666 »

That's a good look isn't it, forcing traffic onto unsuitable city streets and causing additional emissions to protect the vanity of a bunch of no rate politicians on a junket that raises numerous carbon questions of its own?
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

Post by WHBM »

Bryn666 wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 18:23 That's a good look isn't it, forcing traffic onto unsuitable city streets and causing additional emissions to protect the vanity of a bunch of no rate politicians on a junket that raises numerous carbon questions of its own?
Quite so.

I also wonder whose self-appointed ego caused them to request three weeks closure of the road. To think back, at the 2012 Olympics in London the Olympic Committee, led by Sebastian Coe, demanded about two months closure everywhere, on the basis that this had been done in Beijing, so they must have at least that. Sir Peter Hendy, Transport Commissioner for London at the time, made a very public statement. "We will do everything to facilitate the Olympics. Alongside this, the roads of London will not be closed to Londoners for ONE MINUTE more than necessary". And so it was done. Worked brilliantly for all.

I wonder what the budget is for damage done by environmentalist "protesters" to the infrastructure.

I understand the railway in Scotland has gone on strike throughout the event.
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

Post by unrepentantfool »

WHBM wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 18:50
Bryn666 wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 18:23 That's a good look isn't it, forcing traffic onto unsuitable city streets and causing additional emissions to protect the vanity of a bunch of no rate politicians on a junket that raises numerous carbon questions of its own?
Quite so.

I also wonder whose self-appointed ego caused them to request three weeks closure of the road. To think back, at the 2012 Olympics in London the Olympic Committee, led by Sebastian Coe, demanded about two months closure everywhere, on the basis that this had been done in Beijing, so they must have at least that. Sir Peter Hendy, Transport Commissioner for London at the time, made a very public statement. "We will do everything to facilitate the Olympics. Alongside this, the roads of London will not be closed to Londoners for ONE MINUTE more than necessary". And so it was done. Worked brilliantly for all.

I wonder what the budget is for damage done by environmentalist "protesters" to the infrastructure.

I understand the railway in Scotland has gone on strike throughout the event.
The railway has been reinstated, but the road closures are still stupid. Should have held it further out in Lanarkshire or in Edinburgh, which is more used to dealing with large volumes of people.
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

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unrepentantfool wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 19:39 The railway has been reinstated, but the road closures are still stupid. Should have held it further out in Lanarkshire or in Edinburgh, which is more used to dealing with large volumes of people.
Not sure Edinburgh has the infrastructure that Glasgow has for an event of this scale. There is no equivalent of the SECC in Edinburgh approaching its scale, both BBC Scotland and STV are across the Clyde from the SECC, and the general transport infrastructure in Glasgow is better than Edinburgh.

For closing the A814, given the number of guests and that those guests will include heads of state and heads of government, it is a high risk meeting, so the ring of steel that comes with these was always likely to extend across the Expressway. Edinburgh is used to dealing with ceremonial, but Glasgow is more used to dealing with numbers.
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

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exiled wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 20:18
Edinburgh is used to dealing with ceremonial ...
It certainly is. When I was there and The Queen was in Holyrood Palace (a few weeks each year) the State Visit of The King of Sweden happened, unusually in Edinburgh and not London https://royalwatcherblog.com/2018/07/08 ... tain-1975/ . All the grand parade vehicles were shipped up from London, the procession along Princes Street was about a mile long.

They rehearsed at 04.30 one morning (is Glasgow doing this to avoid inconvenience ?), and the actual procession closed off the streets for about an hour beforehand and likewise afterwards. There were apparently significant security sweeps that nobody noticed. No paranoia about closing days beforehand - just professionally done. There are always those around who want their presence to be be more disruptive of everyone else, which they get a kick out of, and unfortunately there are increasingly officials who go along with it.
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

Post by Glen »

It's obvious that an event on this scale either cause significant disruption to some roads in the vicinity of the venue, it's much larger than the G8 or other international gatherings which have always involved some degree of road closures.

The entire SEC site, which includes many temporary buildings to provide the capacity needed, is under UN control for the duration of the event, so there will need to be a significant security ring around that under control of territorial police. The A814 runs along one edge of the site, it won't be possible to have public access that close to the secure area.
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

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Sounds to me like the equivalent of closing the M4 at J24 when the NATO Summit was held at Celtic Manor, leading to tens of thousands of vehicles crawling around Newport. The whole of COP26 has been an optics disaster. It has never been clearer how 'green' is viewed by the ruling class as a thing that everyone else has to do while it is simply 'too impractical' for them to do the same. I mean, the Royals still have a habit of traveling by helicopter.
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

Post by B9127 »

An island might have made a good venue e.g. Accension - no night clubs and no distractions
Motorways travelled 2019 - M90 - M9 - M80 - M8 -M77 - M73 -A74(M) -M6-M42-M40 -A404(M) - M4 - M5 -M50 -M56 much better so far than last year
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

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Went to the other side of Paisley today to drop some things off for a friend. Signs very clear about the closures and risks of delay. A lot of police, with some police escorting convoys already arrived but also clearly police from elsewhere learning the routes. Saw police from Durham for example.
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

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DB617 wrote: Sun Oct 31, 2021 14:29 Sounds to me like the equivalent of closing the M4 at J24 when the NATO Summit was held at Celtic Manor, leading to tens of thousands of vehicles crawling around Newport. The whole of COP26 has been an optics disaster. It has never been clearer how 'green' is viewed by the ruling class as a thing that everyone else has to do while it is simply 'too impractical' for them to do the same. I mean, the Royals still have a habit of traveling by helicopter.
There is always a security consideration when VIPs travel. Travelling by helicopter may be due to time restraints, but also to avoid blocking the roads or putting the person and their staff at risk. The Queen and Prince Charles have both been targets of assassination attempts and someone tried to kidnap Princess Anne. Public figures are vulnerable simply for the job they have.
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

Post by djw1981 »

exiled wrote: Sun Oct 31, 2021 20:11 Went to the other side of Paisley today to drop some things off for a friend. Signs very clear about the closures and risks of delay. A lot of police, with some police escorting convoys already arrived but also clearly police from elsewhere learning the routes. Saw police from Durham for example.
Edinburgh City Centre 'plan' yesterday evening was Hampshire and WIlstshire vans mostly, with a police van base just by Holyrood Palace iun the Park and a second one out towards Haymarket
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

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exiled wrote: Sun Oct 31, 2021 20:26
DB617 wrote: Sun Oct 31, 2021 14:29 Sounds to me like the equivalent of closing the M4 at J24 when the NATO Summit was held at Celtic Manor, leading to tens of thousands of vehicles crawling around Newport. The whole of COP26 has been an optics disaster. It has never been clearer how 'green' is viewed by the ruling class as a thing that everyone else has to do while it is simply 'too impractical' for them to do the same. I mean, the Royals still have a habit of traveling by helicopter.
There is always a security consideration when VIPs travel. Travelling by helicopter may be due to time restraints, but also to avoid blocking the roads or putting the person and their staff at risk. The Queen and Prince Charles have both been targets of assassination attempts and someone tried to kidnap Princess Anne. Public figures are vulnerable simply for the job they have.
I don't disagree. Mountbatten was actually killed, even. In terms of optics, though, it's not rubbing well with people at present. "move out the way and sit in traffic so that we can talk about climate change", at face value, is upsetting to many.
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Re: A814 Clydeside Expressway closed for three weeks for COP26

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DB617 wrote: Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:36
exiled wrote: Sun Oct 31, 2021 20:26
DB617 wrote: Sun Oct 31, 2021 14:29 Sounds to me like the equivalent of closing the M4 at J24 when the NATO Summit was held at Celtic Manor, leading to tens of thousands of vehicles crawling around Newport. The whole of COP26 has been an optics disaster. It has never been clearer how 'green' is viewed by the ruling class as a thing that everyone else has to do while it is simply 'too impractical' for them to do the same. I mean, the Royals still have a habit of traveling by helicopter.
There is always a security consideration when VIPs travel. Travelling by helicopter may be due to time restraints, but also to avoid blocking the roads or putting the person and their staff at risk. The Queen and Prince Charles have both been targets of assassination attempts and someone tried to kidnap Princess Anne. Public figures are vulnerable simply for the job they have.
I don't disagree. Mountbatten was actually killed, even. In terms of optics, though, it's not rubbing well with people at present. "move out the way and sit in traffic so that we can talk about climate change", at face value, is upsetting to many.
Fixing it a little if I may: "causing mass disruption and jetting into a single city when technological advances would have been a perfect demonstration of how you can do these summits without everyone flying to them and thus minimise the carbon footprint", but that won't fit on a placard.
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