Act now to stop the Living Streets subversives!

Steve Meek, lead subversive of the local Living Streets branch is at it again.

First, he has finally achieved his goal of getting a parking bollard put in in Picton Square, removing the Range-Rover parking facility from Montpelier, forcing vehicles to park out in the street instead, and making it hard for lorries to do three point turns in the area.

As you can see, the bollard is already tilted, but apparently it is more robust than its predecessor. Please submit photographs of any vehicles with matching bollard-shaped dents to bristol.traffic at gmail dot com.

You'd think that would be enough, taking away one or two parking spaces from Montpelier would be enough, and killing the Multi-Modal interchange but no. He wants more. He wants to make our entire city "safe to walk around", which is really subversive-speak for "hard to drive around and with no parking"

Here is his latest email, sent out to a mailing list we are secretly watching

Dear supporter

A couple of important points:

Firstly the 'obstructive parking' meeting mentioned in the last email is postponed, but the full open meeting is very much on -

Living Streets Bristol Open Meeting, Upstairs Room at Pizza Express, Corn St. 7.30pm, Thursday 23rd July.

This meeting is to discuss and agree the priorities - both a 'wish' and a 'work' list for the future

Secondly, If you cannot make it but want your views included, please tell us by email what you see as the priorities. Thanks to those who have already done so. Shortly after the meeting there will be a press release spelling out our vision of a walking - friendly city (want to help?). To be as representative as possible, we need your views.

The draft list of priorities is currently :

* Those on foot should be given priority over all other road users in street design (This is supposedly council policy but isn't followed)
* The 'zebra cull' must stop (the trend to replace zebra crossings with light controlled ones) - in addition, several new ones are needed
* Light controlled crossings should be reviewed and delays to pedestrians reduced where found to be excessive (needs us to find and time the worst examples)
* A citywide crackdown on pavement obstruction by vehicles and bins.
* More traffic free roads - the city centre on sundays as per Peter Abraham's suggestion, then ultimately every day for many roads.
* 'Shared space' or similar projects in community areas - such as 'Picton square', Montpelier
* 20mph default speed limit across the city

--
Steve Meek
0789 999 2398
Living Streets Bristol Area Chair
web: www.livingstreets.org.uk
livingstreetsbristol at gmail.com

Living Streets is the national charity working to create safe, attractive and enjoyable streets around the UK, that is, they are explicitly anti-car.

We think it is critical that everyone infiltrates this meeting to divert it from these goals. For anyone planning to do this, the closest parking to Corn Street is probably Trenchard Street or Queen's Square. Cabot Circus has dropped its parking fees recently, and it is 4x4 friendly (high ceilings), but you have a distance to walk, and that's dangerous.

The new Montpelier Multimodal Interchange -working as planned

here at 18:05 on a weekday, you can see the new Montpelier Multimodal Interchange (formally: the Montpelier bike crossing) at work

There's a scooter using the parking area in the foreground, the large van S217UVW using the primary van interchange area, and the stream of lights to its left are the tail reflection lights of a bike skirting past it. in the distance, the famed range rovers of Montpelier, LO08YXR and YJ52HYE.

It's so joyous to see a Bristol community at harmony with itself.

20 mph Bristol

It has been officially leaked to the local printed press: Bristol is to get two 20 mph zones. The plans have flaws, but what is interesting is their size: Montpelier and much of St Werburgh's are included in the East zone; Southville and Bedminster in the South Zone. Leaving only the North Zone, the West Zone and the Outer zones before we have city-wide coverage.

This means that it will be safer for parents to push their puschairs along the road in both areas. All the main roads are remaining full speed, so crossing the road at the back of this photo will be as dangerous as ever.

Oddly enough, St Werburghs north of the tunnel is 30mph, so bikes heading south can run into this van at full speed.


Presumably the speed limits will be enforced to same rigorousness as cars blocking crossings, parking on yellow lines or bike lanes/paths

This is a wonderful event in Bristol's transport history, and we look forward to the same positive experience that the Portsmouth 20 mph zones have been shown to deliver.

Look for more commentary on Green Bristol Blog and Southville Roads.

The Montpelier Multimodal Interchange at work

Even when you go past in the evening, the new Montpelier Multimodal Interchange (formally: the Montpelier bike crossing) is functional, here providing somewhere for two transit vans to park: one -S217UVW in the MMI, another on the double yellow lines behind it.

This vehicle-on-bike-path situation gives us an opportunity to explore police and parking enforcement measures, as a response to the PACT-initiated crack-down on bikes last December. If the police really do want to enforce laws to enhance cyclist safety, then stopping cars and vans from blocking bike lanes would seem an obvious first step.


Henceforth, parking in this bike lane has to stop. anyone encountering a vehicle parked here is authorized to call the Parking Services control room at 0117 903 8070 and say "there is car in our bike path between Picton Street and Richmond Road". The same goes for anyone blocking access to it on either road. It is now off-limits, at least for a week or so, until we get bored of calling it in. All participants welcome -add a comment to this entry of the call: date/time and we will see what kind of response it generates, or whether a crack down on pavement cyclists is considered a more useful activity by the authorities.

(Incidentally, the cyclist above is allowed to ride where they are, though they are not wearing a helmet. This puts them at risk if someone in a large transit van were to reverse without looking or open a door suddenly. What needless risk taking!)

The new Montpelier Multimodal Interchange

Yesterday, the Montpelier Multi-Modal Interchange was announced. What is it?

By the simple act of dropping the no-entry bollard to the bike-crossing, it is now possible to get your Range Rover all the way up the path, so park LO08YXR at the far end

This brings you up the bike and scooter park area, so making easier for a Range-Rover+bike or RR+scooter multimodal transport option. Drive the Range-Rover to Montpelier, then get out there and cycle or walk into the city.

Because the bike path is closed at one end to cars, it is still only usable as a cross route to bikes and pedestrians. By moving the Range-Rover from the yellow lines on Picton Street to the new MMI parking zone, Picton Street is now more easily negotiated by lorries -there was a recycling truck and a scaffolding truck successfully managing to squeeze past each other. The cyclists get better visibility when entering Picton Street, and are also slowed down when entering Richmond road, so improving safety there. Overall then, a valuable contribution to the city's transport problems.