Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008 | For America’s Finest City Half Marathon on Aug. 17, the road closure signage was faulty. The sign near my boat, which could not be seen after dark on Aug. 16, the night before the race, stated there would be “intermittent access from 7:00 AM to 8:30 AM.” It did not communicate that the road would be closed with no way out, no way to a store, no way to my beach cleanup commitment, no way to breakfast, coffee, etc.
Intermittent access means that there are reasonable traffic breaks, say every 15 minutes or so. Please be honest and tell us that it’s a half-marathon and roads will be closed, and that you will in effect be held prisoner in your home, boat, hotel room, etc. Then we can plan accordingly. Please also light the signs if there is no other way out.
There are an awful lot of marathons and half-marathons that run through Roseville. They pick a route that impacts the same people over and over again. Plus there is absolutely no other avenue of escape. The City of San Diego needs to apply common sense to the routing. An alternate escape route north was not available, nor west, nor south, nor east. A better choice would be to go down Rosecrans instead of Scott Street. And please pick either Nimitz or some street east of Talbot. This way, people could exit via Talbot or Canon to get out.
The impact to me was not that great; it was simply a volunteer opportunity to clean up San Diego. But several persons were delayed getting to work (yes, many people work on Sunday). Others almost missed their flight home. Toxic fumes were building up from idling engines. All of this could be minimized by good signage and better routing.
Please stop holding Shelter Island and part of Roseville hostage for your “glory” events.