Tunnel runners 'nutters' says MP
Docklands MP calls for barriers and dispersal orders to ban late-night tunnel runs
So how can you enjoy a nice car in the capital? Well, if you're willing to have a late night and have a car with a loud exhaust you could always go and make some noise in a tunnel. What harm could that do? It's not like there are people living, walking or cycling in them and most have strict speed limits, many with camera enforcement.
Well, from, um, underground and well organised beginnings things have spiralled and the size, frequency and popularity of recent tunnel runs have been upsetting the locals, including MP for Poplar and Limehouse Jim Fitzpatrick.
In an EveningStandard article yesterday peppered with words like 'racing' and 'rallies', Fitzpatrick is quoted as saying "These people are nutters who are putting their lives and the lives of others at risk. I want to see them banned. I have had complaints from constituents who say the noise and the speed is awful."
In a piece last week on wharf.co.uk Fitzpatrick went further, saying "These cars use the tunnels and the route for no other purpose than to showcase the sound and speed of their cars. Videos posted online show dangerous and loud street car racing which belongs in a Hollywood movie and not the streets of east London.
"As well as causing a disturbance to residents the fast cars endanger motorists on the road. We need these tunnels runs off the road which means a dispersal zone and barriers on race nights."
So is he right? Are the many PHers who've participated in tunnel runs over the years really 'nutters'? And have tunnel runs, once an innocent activity enjoyed by a few noisy TVRs, become hijacked by some sort of renegade street racing culture? Or is he a spoilsport out to ban possibly the last legal way to enjoy driving a nice car in the city?
Over to you...
Photo: Highways Agency
I'm sure the vast majority behave but as with everything in life there only has to be a few selfish idiots that ruin it for others and everyone gets punished for it.
10 TVRs = likely to be 0 idiots; just some mates enjoying the ride and noise in their cars
200+ random cars with 'phat' exhausts = 30 or so idiots trying to show off
Don't matter what car you drive nowadays, if its loud or looks a bit extravagant you are branded a criminal.
In Italy I had a police car pull alongside to encourage me. I dropped a cog and floored it and the police loved it.
In 10-20 years time petrol heads will not be aloud to enjoy our cars/ motorbikes etc. free country my arse.
Adam
Maybe the MP could ask the hundreds of tourists snapping pictures and making videos of the convoys what they think
Ever since the Iron Curtain lifted 20-odd years ago I sense an ever growing desire of people in positions of power to make our lives as smell-, taste and colourless as their own. I assume because now there is no need anymore to profile our societies as 'free' against the former Communist states...
I dont see what difference there is in me driving through a tunnel in a modified car with a loud exhaust, and some London banker driving through in his loud V8 Ferrari. Are they going to ban anything over 90dB from driving in London's tunnels? I can see that causing an uproar.
The tunnel runs dont generally cause chaos (except when Hindhead Tunnel staff close the tunnel), and we just enjoy our cars, legally. Id much prefer people doing that, then shooting up on drugs, stealing to feed the habit, and causing millions of cost to the NHS
kwit of an MP who has heard about the Fast and Furious films and assume every modified and sports car owner drives like that at all times. Utter twonk!I never make any noise and I never play with anybody else making noise. No, not at all. I'm too busy recording it all on my dash cam and sending it to my MP or putting it on youtube. I don't even know where the cameras are or that it isn't an average speed limit despite the minicabbers crawling along at 23mph.
There are many groups who organise tunnel runs.
Some of them are well organised, with reasonable numbers who are car enthusiasts who just want to make a little noise
Others are total show-offs who just meet up at a given place, race to the tunnels with little regard for any laws or the safety of others and want to draw as much attention to themselves while they indulge in their private fantasies of winning road races!
On the other hand, it is fine for chino-wearing MP's to frighten/disturb me with a knock on my front door to ask how I'm voting, or post their huge amounts of propaganda through my letter box where I live. Or park their party MPV's in stupid places so they can march around our high streets, blocking the entrance to bookmakers, the only thriving shop in town. Thats different.
Supposing you close the tunnels, won't that mean the very same 'normal' people complaining about this 'issue' will then have to go the long way to get from A to B? And how will barriers prevent noise being made? Do the barriers have an ear-defender vending machine next to them?
Maybe if this MP genuinely 'cares' about people he could hire a coach and bus people through the tunnel in complete safety, thus keeping everyone happy. For an added bonus, he will have a captive audience too, thus saving the environment as there will be no need to dish out leaflets.
Then they came for the nutters.....
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