Hamilton gearing up for V8 races

[MotherBear]

Gridlock ominous ahead of V8 races
5:00AM Monday April 14, 2008
By Yvonne Tahana and Mathew Dearnaley

Organisers of next weekend's V8 Supercars street race in Hamilton say they're confident there won't be a repeat of the gridlock that plagued Saturday night's Balloons over Waikato nightglow.

Punters trying to get to the nightglow at Waikato University were forced into hour-long waits for buses for the five park and rides to the event.

Environment Waikato's land transport operation manager, Russell Turnbull, said a private company contracted by the event organisers failed to implement parts of the traffic management plan, which meant there were cars on streets where there shouldn't have been.

Compounding the problem was the number of spectators who drove to the university, which meant traffic ground to a halt in surrounding streets.

More here .

[Welshgirl]

As those of you who have read my blog will know, I went to the Balloons Over Waikato Night Glow on Saturday. When it finished, we took the short 10 minute walk back to our car, surrounded by an upbeat and happy crowd. Once we reached our car, it then took me an hour and a half to drive the 2km out onto the main road, so it's true, it was absolute gridlock. In fairness to the other drivers though, noone got impatient and they remained, for the most part, courteous. I think it's just the price you pay for having 80,000 people in one area for a big event. Planning could have been better no doubt, but there still would have been some inevitable delays, given the amount of people and traffic.

I'm guessing the traffic congestion for the V8's will be substantially worse, given the location of the track and the fact that it is over 3/4 days. Our vehicle sales and rentals place is smack bang in the middle of the action - there have been roadworks for weeks - and yes, it's a bit of an inconvenience having to take an alternate route to work, but this event is well and truly putting Hamilton on the map and the locals have been very understanding

Professional planning and patient people is all is needed - if you don't like the traffic, stay at home

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by Welshgirl

Our vehicle sales and rentals place is smack bang in the middle of the action

You won't be doing much business during that time then. No one will be able to get in or out. Someone will have to bring you food parcels so you won't starve when you're under seige.

[Welshgirl]

On the contrary, we're hoping for lots of business! When I say we are smack bang in the middle of the action, I mean we are just on the outer edge of the racetrack. The track route basically goes around in a circle around Frankton, so everyone 'inside' the track won't be able to open, but we are conveniently located right next to the track, but 'outside' it

We are anticipating a whole heap of requests to use the toilet and have therefore worked out the following pricing structure:

If you buy a car from us, the use of the toilet is free.
If you rent a car from us, the cost will be $1 per person/per wee.
If you neither buy a car from us or rent a car from us, it's $100 per person/per wee
(Number 2's attract an inconvenience fee of $250 per person).

Kind aren't we?

[MotherBear]

But what about the cups of tea/coffee, fizzy drinks, sandwiches etc. ? Someone is bound to want some - it's thirsty/hungry work watching car racing because the adrenalin gets going.

[Taffy]

At $350 per crap, why would we even bother to sell tea or coffee!

[MotherBear]

But you can't rely on anyone wanting one - not many, anyway - as they might have already 'been' before they left their house. The refreshments are backup.

And it was $250, not 350 or has the price already gone up?

[Taffy]

Originally Posted by MotherBear

And it was $250, not 350 or has the price already gone up?

It was $100 to use the loo, and a $250 inconvenience fee on top of that.

[Welshgirl]

Hmm, maybe we should sell tea....... more teas = more wees = more profit from the toilet usage

(Apologies to everyone viewing for the lowered tone of this thread )

[Taffy]

In that case, we should probably sell hot, spicy curries too