Football Chaos

Yesterday I was in Derby and made the mistake of trying to drive though Pride Park.

Why a mistake you ask?  Because Derby County were playing a home match in the Pride Park stadium.  I had not checked the kickoff time and therefore was driving through as the fans left the stadium.

Utter chaos ensued as the fans felt that all the roads were in fact pavements for them to walk along, meaning they were mixed in with the cars, vans, coaches etc which were trying to use the road legitimately.

Add to this the fact that the police who had been present to ensure order during the match were now leaving in their minibuses and leaving the chaos behind.  Could they have marshalled the fans?  I think not only that they could, but they should have.  How much extra time would have been required for them to ensure the orderly departure of the fans on foot and controlled the vehicle traffic.

Effectively, for some time the whole of Pride Park was gridlocked.  I am sure the businesses there are not happy with the scenario as their customers are considerably inconvenienced and probably stay away, as I would have if I had realised that the match had just ended.

Two other points come to mind:

1. The stop start traffic must have a considerable carbon footprint.
2. The number of drivers on mobile phones who clearly considered they were not 'driving' as the traffic was stop start.  This despite the fact that there were still some police officers around (mostly in minibuses and police cars leaving the stadium)

It would not take much effort to put in place a traffic management system, with one way travel using the full width of the roads, to ensure much faster and safer flow.  Locally this is demonstrated very well at major events at Donington Park.  Further afield you only have to look at the management of Silverstone when there is a Grand Prix race on - a very large number of vehicles safely marshalled in and out of the circuit.

Football clubs spend an obscene amount of money on their players.  Perhaps it is now time they spent money on reducing the negative impact they have on their neighbours.