Thursday 16 October 2008

the price of parking

One of the pressures for driveways in Bristol is that it gives you somewhere to park. The other is that you can more sure your car will be there the next day. Here, on Upper Belgrave Road, by the edge of the downs is evidence of what can go wrong.

Next to to the cyclist illegally cycling on the downs is a parked Corsa, first in the line of cars of residents on the houses on the other side of the road. This is an odd road: cars coming up from the Oortway will have had a chance to zip up Bridge Valley road, and with the park on one side, it doesn't feel urban. Some drivers come up here pretty fast.

And clearly someone one was coming up too fast, not paying attention, and -presumably at night- ploughed straight into the back of this parked car. Hopefully nobody was hurt, and the residents heard the sounds, came out to investigate, and got to exchange insurance details -with an insured driver.

It would be useful to have some data on average and peak vehicle speeds up Bridge Valley Road and along the edge of the downs. And perhaps instead of "improving" the blackboy hill junction with lights, add lights and red light/speed camera to the junction at with Ladies' Mile road, so that cars get to slow down, whether they want to or not

No comments: