"Safety" Gate

[M U R T Y]

Why oh Why was it used tonight. Can stewards not use any common sense!!!!

[Diddyroyal]

again another fine performance off the field!

common sense is needed

[Dirk Gently]

See the many, many, many times this has been discussed before.

It's not there to keep rival fans apart, it's there to regulate the flow of pedestrians by stopping everyone in the East Stand from coming out, turning right and then trying to walk down the hill together, at the same time as the majority of the S & W stands.

[M U R T Y]

So the 100-150 or so waiting tonight were going to cause a problem then?

[Dirk Gently]

If the gate wasn't there it wouldn't have been 100-150, would it? They were just the people prepared to wait. It would probably have been 4,000, all at once.

[M U R T Y]

But surely once the initial rush has died down and 100 or so people are staring at the empty space the other side of the fence - and no rush is going to happen - why cant it be opened then.

Only once the coaches leave the gate opens - so maybe its there for the coaches??

[bigmike]

I dont ever remember there being too much of a problem when the gate wasn't there ... However we were lucky back then to get 10000 people in the ground

[biscuitman]

I dont ever remember there being too much of a problem when the gate wasn't there

Welsh fans, nuff said

[Coppelled Streets]

I dont ever remember there being too much of a problem when the gate wasn't there

Welsh fans, nuff said

Bristol Rovers and City had their moments too.

[Royal Lady]

So instead of East Stand turning right and walking home all together down the hill. We all turn left and walk round the ground together.

[cheeryoleary]

Perhaps the safety gate is there to stay. I can live with that.

What I would like to see is:

Stewards to stop people driving out of the car park 10 minutes before kick off only to find that they have to sit on the road, with their engines running, blocking the road when pedestrians exit the ground.

If you were to measure the bottle neck that is the South East corner, and then compare that to the amount of space left near the hotel 'pointy bit' when cars are blocking the road, I suspect that there would be a greater amount of space available at the South East corner.

So do we get rid of the safety gate? Unlikely to work, so why bother wasting time.
Why not ban cars for 20 minutes after final whistle?

One point I would like to raise following last nights game:

When X thousand people want to walk out of the ground using the round, why do the stewards lower the barriers? Can't they just tell the driver in front to swich his engine off?

BTW, I get mildly claustrophbic in crouds. Walking through traffic, under barriers, and against the flow of traffic can send me into a panic.

[Dirk Gently]

Why not ban cars for 20 minutes after final whistle?

You'd have to ban them for 10 minutes before it too, otherwise it just means more people would try to leave early and not get out in time.

When X thousand people want to walk out of the ground using the round, why do the stewards lower the barriers? Can't they just tell the driver in front to swich his engine off?

So many of the car drivers are such impatient f*ckwits that they'd just try and overtake what they'd see as a "parked" car. Without a physical barrier, some idiot would try and force their way down through the pedestrians.

[Jerry St Clair]

I dont ever remember there being too much of a problem when the gate wasn't there

I do.

Apart from the Cardiff/Millwall/Brizzle trouble there was regular crushing outside the South-East corner. with fans trying to go in both directions.

Bournemouth at home in 1999 was particularly bad.

As Dirk says, it enforces a pedestrian one-way system, and I think the club are correct to keep it.

[cheeryoleary]

[quote="Dirk Gently"]You'd have to ban them for 10 minutes before it too, otherwise it just means more people would try to leave early and not get out in time.
[quote]

Great idea - when can we start

[Garry Mann]

Can't believe how incapable Reading FC are. It's a modern purpose built ground for Christ sake pretty much in the middle of nowhere (the industrial estate tends to be closed on match days)

Compare to OT where there are 76,000 people who all get out easily, the car parks let you go straight away, and the place has been there for years and years and has housing around it.

There is no need at all for the safety gate and yet again STAR have no balls to stand up to the club on this issue. Still, at least they attend protests in Wolverhampton on behalf of Cardiff fans.

[Forbury Lion]

Why oh Why was it used tonight. Can stewards not use any common sense!!!!

Maybe it's there to protect the away fans from the Reading fans?

Stewards are not employed to make these decisions, they just carry them out.

[Volvicanus]

It just seems that with all these various stewarding issues that there just is something basically wrong with the manner in which RFC are going about things. It's not so much that they have certain rules about leaving the ground in your car, it's just like the standing up issue in that the rules are not enforced across the board and in any sensible manner.

Those of us that park near the Southeast corner are held back far far longer than anyone else in the whole stadium. Why this is I have no idea. We seem to have to wait until the safety gate is open which makes no sense as most of us leave the stadium down Northern Way. And they can't really argue that it's for the protection of people walking as we are still waiting after there aren't any pedestrians left. And if you happen to park north of the corner gate you can leave as soon as the pedestrian traffic is gone and not when Mr Steward tells you to.

So frankly, that's where all the aggro comes from IMO - that the club seems to continually put into places rules and regulations that just end making half of the people say 'If we aren't supposed to do ________ then why do they get to?'

[Harps stay sharp]

But surely, as with everything to do with crowd control, procedures have to be folllowed. I am sure the stewards controling that area don't have the authority to say......'well it's not too busy, there are only a few Reading Fans waiting and the Wigan fans seem like a nice bunch, we might as well open the gates!'

[weybridgewanderer]

So instead of East Stand turning right and walking home all together down the hill. We all turn left and walk round the ground together.

yeah but you don't walk down the hill at the same time as all the people from the west stand

by the time you have walked round the ground the main rush from the west stand has cleared the area causing less overcrowding 5 minutes after the final whistle has blown.

now, once the traffic has stopped, can they not lift the barriers and have a couple of stewards stand in front fo the Q of cars. this avoid the funnel effect we have at the barriers as people try to get round them

[RoyalBlue]

Why not ban cars for 20 minutes after final whistle?

You'd have to ban them for 10 minutes before it too, otherwise it just means more people would try to leave early and not get out in time.

When X thousand people want to walk out of the ground using the round, why do the stewards lower the barriers? Can't they just tell the driver in front to swich his engine off?

So many of the car drivers are such impatient f*ckwits that they'd just try and overtake what they'd see as a "parked" car. Without a physical barrier, some idiot would try and force their way down through the pedestrians.

You mean just like the bus drivers?

Dangerous to let stewards stand in front of cars but perfectly acceptable to have thousands of spectators walking in front of buses!