Paying for access to a track?

I pay for access to an indoor track, but outdoors has always been free.

I have seen pay for use tracks in Australia, but none of the other places I have gone.

In the US, I have never heard of a track that you have to pay to use. Your idea that everywhere in the US has a track near is certainly accurate, but they are not always open for use, even on weekends. Where I live, only one of the nearest three tracks are open for public use (talking about all weather tracks, the dirt tracks at the middle schools are open in general).

In my hometown, 1 of the two all weather tracks are open for general use.

The ones that are closed are just closed, there is no access even if you pay.

I am a strong advocate for tracks being made available for public use when not being used by the school (and outside of school hours of course). I see having the track and infield open for joggers, racers, soccer pickup games, kids throwing around a football, etc to be only a positive thing. The community paid for the field, it should be available to all users, not just high school kids while in practice or gym class.

runnerdnerd wrote:

I am a strong advocate for tracks being made available for public use when not being used by the school (and outside of school hours of course). I see having the track and infield open for joggers, racers, soccer pickup games, kids throwing around a football, etc to be only a positive thing. The community paid for the field, it should be available to all users, not just high school kids while in practice or gym class.

I agree with this, any encouragement that can be given to get people moving around under their own power. It is why I am confused by this spanish screw-down. These are plain, outdoor ovals with an infield, nothing more. There is no facility to them. I could see charging for use if the fee got you a shower after, or use of a pool also or something, like a gym. But these are just plain-jane ovals, and every time I run by them I look in through the fence and of course they are always totally empty.

Reminds me of the ridiculous US national parks visitor fees. Oh, 20$ simply to drive your car through the gate? No wonder people rather stay home with their xbox.

Anyway I think I'm going to try to just barge in and run. The gates are usually open and it's not like there's a ticket window. If they want to charge me or boot me out let them come flag my as$ down.

Bonkers wrote:

I pay for access to an indoor track, but outdoors has always been free.

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I think this is the common situation

They should charge by the lap. More laps = more wear on the track.

I just barged in. The first one I tried actually has a ticket shack and an f-ing turnstile, like going into a carnival. So went up the hill to the other, and that one just had the gate stood open. I think it's one of the warm-up tracks from the 92 games. It's right behind the main olympic arena.

So maybe the ridiculous prices posted out front are just 'suggested' prices, like at the met in new york.

I expect to get screamed at in catalan eventually.

I am okay with a track owner charging. There is maintenance and upkeep for the track.

My sense is that more often than not in the US high school tracks are not open to the public. Now I bet folks still run on them, but technically they are trespassing. My hometown (the town in which I was born) has a very nice track that is owned by the rec dept and last time I was there it was free and open to the public.

If it's a public HS, and you are a resident of the community the track is in, and you're paying taxes...some of which goes to that Hs, then you should have access to that track. If they so "no". Get a lawyer!

This has also been my experience in Spain, and especially Barcelona. There's a wonderful track about 200m off the beach over by Mar Bella. Can hear the waves on the backstretch. Again, you will have to pay to enter, but you might perhaps also look into joining the FC Barcelona track club there. They usually meet around 4-5 pm, depending on the time of year. There are also weight facilities and locker rooms that you can use.

Where I live (Portland), there are 5 tracks (1 college, 2 high schools and 2 middle schools) within a 10 minute drive time. They are all open except for one high school. I've found that college tracks are more lax for public use than high schools.

Find a high school track and jump the fence like the rest of us.

So what! wrote:

If it's a public HS, and you are a resident of the community the track is in, and you're paying taxes...some of which goes to that Hs, then you should have access to that track. If they so "no". Get a lawyer!

This is why the track by me is open to the public. The year before I moved out here, somebody brought a lawsuit over it always being locked up. It was a special situation though, because the bond measure to pay for the track specifically said it would be open to the public outside of school and team hours, which left them pretty open to the lawsuit.

If you are somewhere that doesn't have that kind of language associated with the bond measure/taxes that paid for facilities, you are somewhat at the whim of what the district thinks is in the public's best interest. If the district decides it is best for the community as a whole that the track is locked up and only used by the school, there isn't much you can do about it unless a lot of people agree and are willing to show their support fir the facility being accessible.

Avenida Diagonal wrote:

This has also been my experience in Spain, and especially Barcelona. There's a wonderful track about 200m off the beach over by Mar Bella. Can hear the waves on the backstretch. Again, you will have to pay to enter, but you might perhaps also look into joining the FC Barcelona track club there. They usually meet around 4-5 pm, depending on the time of year. There are also weight facilities and locker rooms that you can use.

I have seen that track on the google satellite view. It is a bit off my range though, I live in poble sec. The track I used yesterday next to the jardi botanic will suit my needs until I get bounced for not paying. I am up and down montjuic every day already anyway.

Though I probably, for social reasons, should join the track club you mention, I almost certainly won't. I have no background in either of track or running culture, and exist right in that miserable sweet-spot between being just serious enough about running to be too fast for pretty much every hobby jogger out there, but not serious enough to be anywhere near able to hang with an actual runner. There would be no place for me in a real track club.

I pay to use my local track but then I tend to only go once a week. It's about the price of a pint of beer so I don't see it as a big deal.

How do you pay for track maintenance if nobody pays a fee to use it?

Most tracks in the UK are quite cheap, £2-4 per session which I think is fine especially if you're getting coaching as well.

Free tracks open for everyone is a nice idea but the reality is that most would be vandalised and fall into a state of disrepair pretty soon.