CONVERSATION WITH JAMES

It was good to meet up with James this afternoon, albeit briefly. He's always good company and has a lovely laid back view of life. He was trying to explain to me how, at work, he is currently involved in the logistics of moving an oil rig. I can't remember where from and where it's going exactly, although it IS in the Middle East and involves contacts in a number of different countries, and he sounded so relaxed about it all, that I just sat there feeling really proud - and quite inadequate!
Anyway, during the chat he got to talking about this blog and a post I had made yesterday about the students with a death wish. James knows all about my feelings on THAT matter, but he said it reminded him of another conversation we had had a couple of weeks ago on a similar subject, but one on which I have to say I take a slightly different view from the one I expressed about the KEV1 students.
The conversation he was referring to took place at St James Park when he and I went to the NUFC/Bristol City game. Anyone who has been to SJP on a match day will already have some idea of where I'm going with this, but if you haven't, you need to use your imagination here. Think about between 40 and 50,000 football fans making their way into and out of SJP. That's an AWFUL lot of people on the move, with most of them making their way along Pink Lane towards the city centre at the end of the game. Fans arriving FOR the match tend to get to the ground over a fairly lengthy period thus slightly lessening the volume of pedestrian movement, but the impact is infinitely worse at the end of the game when everyone is leaving the ground simultaneously.
So you have all these thousands of bodies on the move together and what happens? Those drivers who are foolish enough to be passing the ground as the match turns out get totally snarled up amongst the Toon on the move. Frustrated, angry and sometimes downright scared, drivers can barely move against the flow of fans and those who DO try it, or heaven forbid blast their horns in an attempt to clear the way, risk getting a good thumping or kicking to their vehicle.
I AM ABSOLUTELY NOT CONDONING THIS BEHAVIOUR, but common sense surely says that with this mass of people making their way on foot, often along the middle of the road and with little or no regard for passing vehicles, it would be a good idea to cordon off the road immediately outside the ground and redirect traffic along an alternate route. Drivers would surely not be any more delayed by a diversion than they would certainly be by the Toon Army and may very well make better time as they wouldn't have to literally inch forward past the ground.
I've been in that crowd and do my very best to stay out of the way of oncoming traffic, but there are times when the sheer volume of moving bodies mean that you find yourself jostling for a place on the pavement - and you don't always get there.
James and I stayed back for a while at the end of the last game and just watched the mayhem outside the ground from the stadium steps. And it WAS unbelievable mayhem. I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to be passing the ground at such a time...
(Wow, David Beckham's just come on in the England/Belarus game (Double wow, SW-P has just scored!) and he's got a BEARD. David - my beautiful boy - what are you thinking?)
...and I bet they never make the same mistake again.
Anyway the point is that this, in MY opinion (AND James's) is one occasion when the sheer numbers of pedestrians have to take precedence over vehicles. Just clear the road, get the supporters out of the way safely and then re-open the route once traffic can flow freely again. Simple!
(I hope you don't consider this in any way a contradiction of yesterdays rant. The situations are completely different. I don't know exactly how many students there are at KEV1, but even a couple of thousand simply doesn't compare to the numbers at a Newcastle match. Expecting that number of fans to follow the green cross code, or whatever we do these days, would just result in pedestrian gridlock and people would almost certainly get hurt.)