car park madness

[us2]

I appreciate that it is handy to have a car park at the club, but if you park there early and have no intention of returning to your car until well after the match do us all a favour and park somewhere else or even tell the steward and park over the far side. It is just common sense, means that the flow of traffic is easier and keeps the designated drivers blood pressure lower.

[strathyjags]

will people ever learn the car parks a joke full stop i stopped using it 2 seasons ago and park down a side street

[Scotty]

but if you park there early and have no intention of returning to your car until well after the match do us all a favour and park somewhere else or even tell the steward and park over the far side

Most likely players, officials or those in hospitality and there probably werent any stewards there when they arrived. Car parking has been an issue for years, and I think I would take Blackieforce's approach or give LG's firm a shout to get a taxi to/from the front door  :003:

[kencar]

I think everyone knows or should know by now that the car park is a shambles but the simple solution is unless you have to don't park your car down there

[RiG]

I am reliabely informed that there will be a much smaller number of cars on Wednesday night so it won't happen again  :006:

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Fer fecks sake never drive to a game...just feckin drink.

[L_G]

Most likely players, officials or those in hospitality and there probably werent any stewards there when they arrived. Car parking has been an issue for years, and I think I would take Blackieforce's approach or give LG's firm a shout to get a taxi to/from the front door  :003:

Cheers Scotty - great advice.  :driving01:

Fer fecks sake never drive to a game...just feckin drink.  -  Also great advice IHE. 

We took a taxi down to the stadium yesterday, but just decided to walk back up the town and enjoy the banter.  The craic was good and we had a couple of beers in Rileys before catching a bus home.  I really enjoyed my day yesterday (and I suppose the result helped)

[Ronaldo]

Most likely players, officials or those in hospitality and there probably werent any stewards there when they arrived. Car parking has been an issue for years, and I think I would take Blackieforce's approach or give LG's firm a shout to get a taxi to/from the front door  :003:

Cheers Scotty - great advice.   :driving01:

Fer fecks sake never drive to a game...just feckin drink.  -  Also great advice IHE. 

We took a taxi down to the stadium yesterday, but just decided to walk back up the town and enjoy the banter.  The craic was good and we had a couple of beers in Rileys before catching a bus home.  I really enjoyed my day yesterday (and I suppose the result helped)

sorry folks got disturbed at work whilst trying to post there

I took the car yesterday and it was almost dark by the time I got home.

I am seriously considering taking my son to games on our tandem bike and you can put beer in the panniers......... 

Deleted duplicate post for you LG

[L_G]

There is no doubt that the car park is a shambles, but the annoying thing is it could be sorted.  If it was well managed and people were a bit more patient it would all clear much faster.

There are much bigger car parks than ours around the country that work.  We were in one at the end of last season - the parking of cars and the exits were well managed - you had no option but to wait your turn and the car park was emptied very efficiently.  If you can see that the stewards know what they are doing and that they are doing their best then there is no problem with waiting your turn.  But when the stewards haven't a clue and are more interested in chatting about their plans for the weekend than watching the traffic that's where the frustration and cheating comes into play.

That's the annoying thing for me.  If it was better managed it would work.  We are very fortunate to have a car park at the ground, so it's a shame we can't or won't use it.

[Scotty]

Car Parks are the same all over ... we were over an hour getting out of Hampden's car park when we were in the cup  semi final a few seasons back. There are a few problems with our car-park and they are not (all) the club's fault. The drivers have to take a fair bit of responsibility too.

Problems:

1. SOME of the stewards dont seem to know what they are doing and may also be a little timid when it comes to stopping motorists from queue jumping or wildly changing 'lanes'.

Solution - train them in traffic control, and have enough of them that they can be seen by all motorists. You are more likely to obey a steward who is near your car telling you not to move that one who is 50 yards away telling 5 lines of traffic not to move !! You are also more likely to obey a steward who at least gives the impression that they have a clue !!

2. 1000+ cars can get in, and do so in dribs and drabs over the space of an hour or more but when it comes to getting out, they have to go through a bottleneck that is only 1 car wide which slows up the flow. Add to that the fact that everyone wants out at the same time, and will try to get to the front of the queue even if it means they have to be irresponsible and the fact the the stadium road is also narrow and it gets really frustrating.

Solution: other than opening up more exits, which does nothing to solve the stadium road congestion problems, the only thing that can be done is to try and make it apparent to motorists that if they wait their turn they will get out. Surely a senior traffic warden or a senior police officer has access to the sort of plans that are used at other stadiums with far higher crowds than ours and who succesfully empty their car parks in 20-30 minutes ? Again, the motorist has to be educated as well. If you take your car to the game, you need to allow 20-30 minutes to get out and not try to be at the exit in 2-3 minutes - some will be lucky and get out quick, but not everyone can fit through that 1 car wide exit at the same time. There should also be a separate area for players, hospitality guests etc who are not coming straight out after the game as it IS really frustrating when you have to try and reverse and change lanes with hundreds of other cars around you wanting into the same free flow of traffic you are trying to reach.

When I was last home and went to the Celtic game (18/12/05) - the crowd was a similar size and it was a no brainer ... we got a lift to the game and walked back to the Innes afterwards - we were in the Innes long before many people who had taken their cars to the game - either because they were still in the carpark, or because stadium road was plugged with traffic -- Get yourself organised, 3 or 4 people or more, book a taxi for before and after the game and avoid the car park blues. I am sure LG will sort out reasonable rates for you  :004:

[918loyal]

LG, just out of interest what taxi firm do you work for??

We phoned a certain taxi company yesterday at 1.00pm to book a taxi from 21 Degrees North for 1.30pm, but they said they weren't taking any bookings to the stadium after 1.15pm, which I found very strage...!

[L_G]

Could well have been the company I work for.  The only reason they would stop taking bookings is that they would have had enough bookings for the number of cars on shift.  Also the traffic comes to a complete halt, so the turn around of cars takes longer.  Better to say they couldn't take any more bookings than take your booking and not turn up on time, or even at all.  I work with City Taxis (01463 222555) and it does sound like that could have been us.  I do know they were particularly busy.  Drivers like me took the day off.  :001: :001:

[CaleyD]

Can't blame it all on the Stewards, at the end of the day it is those behind the wheel of the cars that are driving like @ssholes and creating the problem.  If everyone acted in the proper manner you wouldn't need stewards at all.

We have all been guilty of it - you see a sneaky opportunity to get a couple of cars closer to the front so you take it, someone else follows and someone else gets peaved because you've just snuck in front of them so they edge closer to car in front to try and stop you, or you are the person that gets peaved and tries to stop someone taking a shortcut past you.  You then get those who totally ignore what the Steward is telling them to do, or you get situations occuring across the entire carpark and it is imposible to manage unless you vastly increase the number of Stewards.

The biggest difference between our car park and a lot of other similar carparks is that we have no proper layout marked.  Your average Joe seems unable to think sensibly if he doesn't have an arrow on the ground telling him/her which way to go and thats when the frenzy begins.

Personally I don't see the difference between waiting 30 minutes in the carpark and waiting 30 minutes on the road.  It doesn't matter how quick you get cars out there are only so many people you can get on to the roundabout at the bridge or out through the town at a time anyway.  Someone has to be last out and if you don't want it to be you then either park elsewhere or get there early so your parked nearest the exit.

[Naelifts]

You might have been back at the Innes in good time but, if memory serves me correct, you were a bit late getting into the ground!......................When did you last see an ICT goal live?

[Scotty]

:015: - saw the goal, was just taking my seat when Dargo scored .... also got a great view of Hartson scoring the equaliser as he did it at the north end  :008:

[Guest airbornejake]

thank goodness you guys are not increasing your support. or the parking would be the pits. can you imagine that man/u had 72,000 at there game must have been murder getting home.

[918loyal]

Could well have been the company I work for.  The only reason they would stop taking bookings is that they would have had enough bookings for the number of cars on shift.  Also the traffic comes to a complete halt, so the turn around of cars takes longer.  Better to say they couldn't take any more bookings than take your booking and not turn up on time, or even at all.  I work with City Taxis (01463 222555) and it does sound like that could have been us.  I do know they were particularly busy.  Drivers like me took the day off.  :001: :001:

No wasn't City Taxis, thats who we ended up phoning, think it was Inverness Taxis!

[L_G]

Inverness Taxis are a good enough company, but they wouldn't have had many cars working through the day on Sunday so that would explain that.  Still better to be honest and say they couldn't cover it than let you down.  Glad we were able to help anyway.

Back to the Car Park.  I don't use it as a rule, but tonight there was a low crowd and I was really early so was parked near the front and near the gate.  Thought I couldn't go wrong, but an over zealous steward was letting everything out in front of me.  I was at the front of the line and if I tried to move when I saw a space she stopped me.  Even when there was nothing else moving towards the gate and I had a clear run at it, she told me to wait and she would get to me in a minute.  Only when she looked round and realised there was nothing stopping me, she let me go.  :008: :008: :008: :008:  It still cleared relatively quickly as there was a low crowd and obviously less traffic on Stadium Road, but there was still clear signs of the ego that comes with yellow jacket.