Stolen Rat runs of the city: Fry's Close

Our coverage of Bristol before the war on motorists began got a lot of interest, so expect some intermittent coverage of places stolen from us.

Here then: Fry's Close.

This used to be a secret shortcut from Park Road, Stapledown, over to Blackberry Hill, bypassing a jam on Park Road and a mini-roundabout. A treasured rat-run of the early 1990s

And now: abandoned to cyclists, pedestrians and their pets. At the bottom of the vale, there's even a path linking Eastville Park (on the right) to a path leading to UWE. That is: students are being encouraged to cycle.



This is just wrong.

Now: does anyone actually remember when this road closed? One team member has distinct, fond memories of the queue of stationary traffic heading towards Blackberry Hill from about '89-90, but certainly by 2006: gone. At some point between those dates, the council stole it from us, the taxpayers.

Big Shout Out to SWC scaffolds van HK15FYH!

We don't normally go to S gloucs on the basis that it's boring.

Nice to see that today, the driver of SWC scaffolds van HK15FYH / HK15 YHF decided to lighten up the journey of our tax dodger by not bothering to slow down for the roundabout.



This isn't a great junction, so the cyclist lined up for a right turn, waited for the traffic coming from the MoD abbey wood direction to go, then set out, slowly enough to be able to react to problems. Which was good, as you can see that the van coming from the left doesn't appear to slow down at all, not until shouted at.

If you look at the still, you can see why: he's got his shiny gold iphone six in his hand



It's interesting to see the driver's reaction: they look up from the phone, look at the cyclist, then drive off, without even bothering to show a hint of remorse.



Which raises the question: report the driver to the police or not? Because that may be the only way to see some remorse, and perhaps even him stopping texting while driving.

A brand new Urban Village

We are keeping an eye one some newly proclaimed subversives, the People's Cycling Front of South Gloucestershire, whose goal is for S Gloucs to have cycle paths that the Dutch won't laugh at.

They have denounced the new cycle paths of the Tailspin housing estate between Lockleaze and the MoD as something the Dutch will laugh at, which apparently they did.

Well, let's drive out and see, as we were worried that this estate may be encouraging alternative transport instead of the joys of the A4174 ring road of a weekday evening.

Next to the sign advertising a new way of live in a Brand new Urban Village, we see a photo of a family all cycling without helmets on the path beside the estate. There are no houses in the photo as it was taken "before". There is some text in the advert about how wonderful it will be, but the ageing VW Polo hides it.

Nearby, it has that Urban Village flavour -maybe even a taste of Montpelier- as a VW Golf parks up on the pavement, some student cycles by, and the 20 mph roadsign has been twisted to one side by a passing truck.

Round the corner, as the subversives noted, yes, there is a new cycling path which is about 40 cm higher than the old one.

What has changed since last week's denunciation is the give way signs for traffic crossing this cycle path have been removed.

Nothing to fear here then. Business as usual. No happy families will be using these paths to get to the city, or even as far as crashing into the bollards by the MoD.

We hear the Cycling Front are planning a kind of competition one lunch time next week to see who can ride the path, mountain bikes with or without suspension recommended. Keep an eye on their @cyclingfront twitter feed for news.

Trouble in the Trees

Our coverage of forest sell off issues continues. Last week, how locking up the generally open forestry commission car parks will prevent us Bristolians from driving out of town to engage in casual sex with complete strangers.

This week, the mountain bikers join in. No, not with the casual sex with van drivers -they are too muddy and dress strange-  but with the sell off.

This time, it is the Bristol Trails Group, the people who build and maintain the MTB trails in Ashton Court, 50 acre wood, Leigh Woods and nearby, complaining that this will mean that most of the woods will be closed off to them. The problem is liability insurance, more than anything else. Who wants to pay for the insurance for letting bicycles in. Far more profitable to turn it over to private shooting facilities instead, for important people. This will ruin the plans to have a mountain bike centre near Bristol. While we obviously don't engage in any such actions ourselves, every MTB-er who cycles over to Ashton Court not only means one less car on the M4 heading to Wales, it provides entertainment for us in the city to see these people coming home again covered in mud.

We note the Conservative MP for the Forest of Dean will be appearing at a meeting in Coleford, at 7pm tonight. This sell off matters as much to Bristol as it does to the Forest of Dean, so attendance there may be fun.


We also note that there is a public consultation on the proposals, a consultation which invites feedback. And what is the address for feedback?

Forestry Commission England
620 Bristol Business Park
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol
BS16 1EJ

By our estimate, that is just over the Recognised Pedestrian Route from the UWE campus. If some ukuncut/no-to-tuition-fee-rises/no-to-forest-sell-off-event were to take place up there one weekday afternoon, it could be, well, entertaining.

Welcome to Bristol, Kayla Maratty!

We are pleased to welcome Bristol 24-7's correspondent, Kayla Maratty, who provides a well argued explanation of why cyclists deserve to be run over in her article "My homicidal tendencies towards cyclists".

Kayla manages to completely summarise how it is bicycles on Whiteladies Road and Blackboy hill that bring the city to a halt, as we have discussed previously. She says

"Part of me would take great pleasure in mowing them down when they choose to cycle in the middle of the road or are determined to peddle all the wayup Black Boy Hill. But obviously I would never do that; I can get by just on the thought of it to restrain my road rage."

We find driving really close behind them intimidating enough. Sadly, it is actually legal for them to cycle down the middle of a single lane road, which Whiteladies is. And when they are going over the Downs, they do need to pull to the right of the left turn only lane, so sounding your horn doesn't help.

Still, we are glad to see your fight against university tuition fees continue. Obviously this isn't an issue for you, as not only will the fee rise kick in after you have finished your course, if you can afford to drive and  park anywhere near the university, then you are clearly part of that set of students known as "well-funded", and we expect your parents to pay for all your living expenses. We look forward to your complaints about how the rollout of the RPZ is forcing you park and walk further. If you do not write such an article, we shall assume that the fact that Woodland Road and St Michael's Park now offer more short stay paid parking than ever before actually benefits you, as it makes it easier for you drive down to the university for a lecture and latte before heading home again, albeit held up by all the cyclists.

Can we take this opportunity to remind our readers that Bristol Traffic is not some satire or spoof. If it were, you'd have to conclude that the whole of the UK printed and online press is also some kind of spoof. The Daily Mail has been going on for over a hundred years now, so its time to own up to being a wind-up, if it really is.


Update 24-Jan: the original article has been pulled, the editor apologises and denounces the bullying by cyclists.

UWE to the Farm pub, by way of Purdown Camp

Someone posts us this (long and dull) video, with commentary.

They say:

You are always whining about bicycles in your way and how your road tax is wasted on bike lanes, but look at this. At 5pm I can get all the way from UWE to the Farm Pub, St Werburgh's, by bicycle, through fields, without using any tax-funded bike lane, public road or blocking any vans, fifteen minutes door to door. You try doing that in your white van. Apart from the 30s waiting for the lights to change on Muller Road so I can cross it, it's lovely and traffic free. So please, stop complaining so much.

Some of our team members also enjoy the fine beverages served by the farm pub; indeed, one of those white vans may be ours. We also agree, that at 17:00, to drive from UWE Frenchay to the Farm pub will take 30 minutes minimum, by either route:

1. A4174 to M32, round St Pauls Roundabout to Mina Road and then that new 20 mph zone to the pub.
2. Down to Stapleton Road then traffic lights and traffic jams to Mina Road.

Does this want to make us get out or van and start cycling? No. What it does is reinforce our demand for a new road from UWE to Lockleaze, and a re-opening of Boiling Wells Lane from Muller Road to St Werburgh's. This will stop both Lockleaze and Ashley Vale from being forgotten parts of the city.

Abbeywood bikes vs cars

Although we are clearly in the cars-not-students-on-bikes camp w.r.t the Abbey Wood and UWE bike paths, we are worried that those people trying to exercise their legal right to drive along the abbey wood path are entering dangerous ground.

You see this cyclist who is walking on the UWE path while holding a phone up to their ear? If they were a student then yes, sounding your horn as you clipped them with your wing mirror on a bike path to which you had inherited ancient access rights would be the right thing to do. But he's not in student clothes is he?

He's in full army uniform with cap and camouflaged rucksack, and that probably means he's spending a few months at abbey wood in between some posting in Iraq or Afghanistan -places where any perceived threat to the foot patrols is met by a fairly aggressive response.

Cut someone like this up in your car and he's going to use that phone to call in air support to deal with your mondeo, and as we are only 10 seconds flight from BAe Filton, a dispersal site for the UK airborne nuclear weapons fleet in the cuban missile crisis, that response could be pretty destructive.

We urge whoever it is who claims historical right to drive down the Abbey Wood bike lanes to show some sanity here, to show some restraint. The alternative is worse.

Before the war on motorists began: Splatts Abbey Wood

This is a before and after map series, full details of why to crop up later in the week.

First, the North Fringe, 1987. Congestion on the A4174, running through the middle of the photo: minimal. The roundabout centres on gridref ST6135787, apparently with trees on it. To south, a large blank space -the remains of some quarry or something. Crossing it, three power lines, one phone line, and a footpath from the sports grounds in the left side to some fields just E. of Splatts Abbey Wood, then roughly north. All of the area was under the control of Avon County Council; there are still some signs up in the area if you know where to look. In the S.E corner, just S. of Bonnington Walk, Sta (dis) remembers the existence of some station? Lockleaze Station? (no: Horfield Railway Station)

What is clear is this: No congestion on the ring road. No cycle lanes from the sports grounds to the ring road. Less traffic lights in the city. Not a coincidence.

Now, map two, printed in 1997, in the time the socialists were in power, and things were bleak.

The A4174 roundabout has moved to ST61607880, though not with the trees. South of it, the wasteland for motorbikers is now MoD abbey wood, with a moat on the NE side to eliminate the risk of anyone driving a truck full of explosives in, parking to the east and south-west and positioned to reduce the damage caused by anyone getting a car/truck full of explosives in there and blowing it up. Although the NI peace process was making progress, the tendency of the Provisional IRA to mark some kind of stalemate by blowing up prestigious targets on the mainland meant that these things were considered important. The disused station has been supplemented by the Abbey Wood railway station, which apparently has direct connections with Wales. The former Filton Junction station, north of the A4174, is now marked as Sta (dis) to indicate its new state.

South of the MoD facility, just north of where the Tailspin housing estate is still being built, a bike path. And what else has changed? Congestion. Is it any coincidence that there are traffic jams on the A4174 now that a bike path connects Lockleaze with the ring road, and that the new roundabout and the one by the M32 have traffic lights? We think not.

The final item of this note is the rights of way, the footpaths. These two maps imply that there was never any right to cycle through the rugby grounds, even the footpath doesn't go direct from Bonnington walk, but instead via Landseer Avenue. And here's the best bit: the right of way finishes by going through the MoD moat, through some of the building, and out the other side. We think pedestrians wanting to walk from Lockleaze to Sainsbury's should be made to walk this route, as it will reduce the number of them pressing the cross button on the pelican lights at the ring road.

SGloucs Cycle Route 10

South Gloucester is consulting on the proposed cycle route 10, consultation ends May 4.

The Bristol Traffic response will be:

While we appreciate the council's effort to mark cyclists as under-people by mandating cycle helmets for all people undergoing cycle training in the area, and the old filton road improvements: bikes on pavement enabling a walking/cycling route to be turned back into a rat-run to UWE, we are concerned that any attempt to encourage cycling on the proposed "10" route will increase the risk that cars parked on the shared pedestrian/bike pavement just South of UWE may have some of their paintwork or wingmirrors damaged by passing cyclists. Please can you make cyclists dismount at this popular parking destination -since the Filton B&Q started ticketing students and MoD staff parking in their car park all day, this is the last remaining free parking for UWE students. Don't ruin it!

If you are going ensure that the Cycle City funding allocated to your area helps us drivers, rather than hinders us, can you instead use it to create more road-side parking areas -best, or at least ensure, like the Abbey Wood bike path with big gates, that they do not encourage more cycling.

Abbey Wood MOD site parking

10:00 on a weekday morning and the MOD Abbey Wood car parks are full. Really full not as in "I can create a space at the end of a row" but full as in "site security have blocked the entrance and are standing outside, possibly armed."

The non-motoring options to getting to the site are pretty limited

• firstbus buses 
• U1-U5 to UWE and then a walk
• Train to parkway and then a walk
• Train to abbey wood and then a walk
• Cycle along segregated paths

These might seem a lot, but they all involve effort, and they don't substitute for the presence of the A4174 ring road, the A38, which is dualled from the M4/M5 interchange all the way down to the ring road, and the M32 a short distance away. S Gloucs commuting is optimised for cars. Except the haven't provided enough parking, not since the MOD expanded their staff here from January 2010.

Fortunately, there is a bit of space round the corner. Up until December, this was an empty dual lane road leading to the ill-fated "tailspin housing estate", housing for the 21st century, and what's left of HP. Now it has found a new use. Overflow MOD parking.

For those people cycling to HP, this is beneficial as it turns the slow lane into a bike-only lane. Well, until the end of course when the cars turning left are now in the lane to your right.

For people trying to use the bike paths between abbey wood and UWE, not quite so good. The kerb dropoff they used to use is an invaluable parking space that saves the first person to grab it five minutes of walking. It is a premium location, and not double yellowed or anything to imply its use  for parking is somehow forbidden.

We are disappointed, therefore, to hear news that the S Gloucs. Parking Team/MOD police were on this road the very day these photos were taken, ticketing this Saab S904SLK and vehicles further up the hill, the ones parked on the roundabout. Do the parking officers not realise that once these commuters have driven into the area, there is nowhere else for them to go! They had no choice but to park here! They would have liked to use the MOD Abbey Wood Car Park B, but the traffic cones and enforcement staff forced them up this back road, adding time to the journey and now the risk of being ticketed. This is persecution of commuters in the cars-come-first part of the city.

2010 Bristol Traffic antibicycle awards: UWE Nominated!

We are pleased to announce a new event for this web site, the Bristol Traffic anti-bicycle awards! These are for :

The development in the cycling-city coverage area which does its best to make bicycles feel unwanted and below other forms of movement. This development must have taken place in the previous calendar year

The UWE feature we are pleased to nominate is a new arrival, something that has been fenced off for a few months, but now visible in all its glory. It is the gateway between the main UWE campus and the former HP parking lots. Now the University of West of England's lease is expiring on some of its other lots, the old recognised pedestrian route can be withdrawn and staff/students directed here, so it is good that access is now provided. And what lovely anti-bicycle access it is!

We first get a hint that something is good by the signs everywhere, the ones saying "No pedestrian access", along with a little no bicycle sign. This says: pedestrians are not allowed on the road. But it says something better. It says "Bicycles are not a legitimate form of road transport". Presumably the Transport and Society team that are based there will be giving a talk on that very topic before long -perhaps even Josh Hart, who travelled all the way from San Francisco to UWE to learn about town planning.

Clearly bicycles are not allowed on the road, we take that as a given, but it is nice to see the infrastructure enforce this. And here is where it gets exciting. Because what will the tax-dodgers do when they see this? Obviously, they will try to use the pavement.

This is what lights up our eyes. Every bit of pavement here has an anti-bicycle gate on it, a Z-bend to force them to come off in the ice, to hit other bicycles, or at least know that students are not welcome to the UWE campus on bicycles, as it makes it harder for the drivers to get to any of the 25+ car parks!

And look, they are everywhere! Not just one gate, but a series of them, spaced about 5 metres apart. If every pavement in Bristol was kitted out this way, there would be no more letters to the E.P. about bicycles on the pavement!

The thing that really excites is is this, the route to the right in the photo above. This is not just some random path, this is the main bike route from the A4174 ring road to UWE and the HP-Lockleaze route! This is one of the S Gloucester Cycling City bike routes! These are the places where the council and cycling activists have been having their little meetings discussing how to improve walking and cycling in S. Gloucs and the North Fringe! Yet someone -and we'd love to know who, as they will be receiving the award if this feature wins the 2010 award- decided to ignore all that and put in:

• Gated access to the car parks
• "No pedestrians, no bicycles" signs on the road
• Anti-bicycle Gates across every single path other than the road, even when they don't lead to anywhere other than other paths!

This is fantastic. You can't say it is done to stop bicycles being hit by fast moving cars, as the cars are all stopping for the barrier anyway; it would have been cheaper to put a warning-bicycles sign up on the road instead.

You can't say it was done to stop bicycles being on a footpath, as these are bike lanes; they are the only way to get a bicycle from the old campus to the new area, including the vice-chancellor office. [Incidentally, not the old vice-chancellor, the ones whose activities got the Bristol Blogger's blog suspended recently]. Indeed, it is the only way to get a bicycle to wallscourt farm gym, which, with its bike parking and changing facilities would make a good North-Fringe-Cycling-Hub -which is precisely why access to it should be restricted to cars.

No, these barriers have gone in on top of cycling city infrastructure because whoever designed this junction loves cars, hates bicycles and knows that encouraging bicycles to cycle to or near UWE will create traffic jams on Filton Avenue, so slowing down those people who drive to UWE.

If there is one failing, it is this: because they have not planted any fences either side of the paths, there is nothing to stop mountain bikers taking the dirt at speed and then committing through the junction, as happens at the MOD site. This development needs to be finished off with fences and thorny bushes, to round off the routing.

Wilderness near UWE

We've celebrated this before: a bit of the wilderness near UWE. A river crossing. Something that forces pedestrians to turn back, and ensures that the only people who cycle through are doing it on mountain bikes. When they get to their destination they can feel pleased with themselves, and justify the extra expenditure on suspension and disc brakes.

We car drivers like it because it makes commuting by bicycle more miserable.

Which is why we have some bad news. This feature is no more. This week the builders of the housing estate behind MOD Abbey Wood dug some ditches, and as a result, the water feature has drained away.

This is part of a local anti-car conspiracy. They should be turning this path into a road for more driving options between Lockleaze and UWE and its business park, just as they did for the Old Filton Road, but instead this: wasting money on tax-dodging cyclists. Worse than that, tax-dodging student cyclists!

Bristol's First Residents Parking Scheme

There's two ways people use to preserve the parking in their street for the exclusive use of residents: (a) persuade the council to undertake expensive consultation and planning over months and years, or (b) get`together with fellow locals and 'just do it' 'JFDI'. Neither way is acceptable as it prevents those of us who prefer to drive in from south gloucs every day from finding a parking space.
St Werburghs residents chose the JFDI option a few years ago - banning climbers from taking up parking spaces outside the homes of tax paying residents in the roads around the Climbing Centre off Mina Rd. We raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
Now Oldbury Court Road in Fishponds has declared itself effectively a 'residents parking only' area by putting up signs suggesting that UWE, the council and, apparently, the police have banned students from parking there. If it works, they have created the perfect RPS - no fees or permits, and no problems for visiting tradesmen, delivery vehicles and elderly aunts. How on earth did they manage it?
The sign reads: 'UWE Students - please do not park in this road. Vehicles parked illegally may be clamped or towed by the police'. The sign is apparently written by the UWE transport office, presumably under pressure from resident groups. These are residents who have cars themselves and therefore should be on our side! Traitors!
We are very worried about the precedent this sets: Car owners are turning on each other under the onslaught from anticar campaigners. Maybe they though it acceptable as students are only marginally more popular than cyclists in Bristol... however we are very worried that a precedent has been established - which can be rolled out to include football fans attending the Memorial ground, dog walkers in Victoria Park, you, and me.
How is it enforced, we wondered. There are no cameras. Do wardens check cars for drug paraphanalia and empty vodka bottles in the footwells? Or is there a posse of curtain twitchers? We suspect the latter, having been passed this photo of an alleged student entering UWE who allegedly arrived in one of the cars on the left.


The person sending it in must have hoped we would support them and call for the student to be named and shamed.. No way - he is a hero, standing up for the right to park anywhere!

Hang on though. The sign is alarming, if you are a student, and cleverly suggests that it is illegal for students to park in this road. But in fact it simply states that illegally parked vehicles may be clamped or towed.

We patrolled this road regularly for a fortnight to log all the illegally parked vehicles, and see what happened to them..but the best we could find was this one, a long way from the college and without any drug or vodka-related items left in view.

Student car? Unlikely. We suspect this car belongs to a visitor more used to parking in narrow streets where use of the pavement is tolerated. Sensibly, they have chosen to take no risks with their wing mirrors as scores of land cruisers thunder past this spot, on their way to disgorge cyclist-eating dogs into Vassals Park.

Anti-car work at UWE

The secret back car park of UWE, the one known only to an elite few, has been taken away. How? Double yellow lines!

Fortunately, as the road is still private, it's not clear the lines are enforced.

And you can always park up on the grass instead.

A rural path -right in the city

We have a lovely video from GentleGreenGiant looking at a rural bike lane, right in the city.

This path is on coldharbour lane, linking down from UWE to Frenchay, where a lot of the UWE students live. On the basis that the students are all impoverished, and that UWE is in the sticks -and nowhere near the rest of Bristol- we can concede that some of these people should be allowed to cycle.

The video starts in South Gloucester, in a stretch of the road that is now 30 mph. There is an on pavement bike lane which we have noticed before, but this video looks at the downhill.

Downhill, the phrase that lights up the eye of a mountain biker. A descent, steepness, rough ground underneath, speed -danger. These are the kind of things that make DH work fun, the kind of thing that makes commuting entertaining. How then, do you give a on-road route the downhill experience?

Simple: leave the path alone so it returns to the wild. Looking at the video, you can see the county boundary. The S. Gloucs road team have tamed it -30 mph roads, lane markings, bicycles, double yellow lines. All the signage of bland suburbia.

Now look at the transition into Bristol -the city itself. At the county line the lane markings go away, the path goes from suburban to rural. Speed limit? gone. Lane markings - a memory. Surface -what was once tarmac, is now a thin layer of vegetation atop the tarmac base.

This is a downhill to cherish, especially for a bit of night work.

Lockleaze: the motorbike moves

A few days ago, a torched motorbike in the fields behind Lockleaze.

Within a week, the same bike has been dragged to the path by volunteers who care for the fields, where the bike has been burned more thoroughly.

There are some people who complain that the lockleaze-UWE bike path is unlit. We say - it finds its own illumination.

Uprating the route, downgrading the experience

Here are a couple of civil engineers surveying the riverside path from Eastville park and the (now closed to cars) Wickham Glen to Broomhill Road. You can ride it, its lovely, but you do then have to carry your bike up a flight of steps.

It's going to be uprated, with the steps removed, making it part of an extended route up to UWE and The North.

Problem is -those steps. The surveyors said that from where the photo was taken, it was going to need a 1 in 20 gradient to bring the path up to the road. Which means this lovely green path (admittedly, it becomes unusable for commuting in the rainy season), is going to change to something tarmaced that slowly rises up to the road.

In its favour, it will still be green and quiet. But at the same time, its urbanification. Just as with any upgrading of Purdown Camp routes, what you gain in bike friendliness, you lose in wilderness.

Hourbike hits BRS

In The Centre, there is now a stand for bicycles. At first glance, some more secure bike parking, but on a closer look, its less secure bike parking, but a way to rent a bike by the hour

There are instructions, apparently there are places in UWE and Bristol Parkway that join up too. That could make the short but not very exciting walk from Parkway to UWE easier.

In the town centre, there's not much you can do with it, not unless Templemeads and the bus station come into the story. Here in the centre, 3/4 of the roads have you endangered by car, bus, van and taxi, one bit is bus-only, but in that stretch the buses really don't think bikes should be there, and will pull out without looking.

The bikes are practical, some gearing, some luggage handling. QR saddles to adapt for customer height, though without the anti-theft cable to ensure the saddle will stay there overnight. Perhaps the width and styling of the saddle will discourage such thefts, for which the nearby watershed bike park area is infamous for.

Mr H is being somewhat critical of the process, but where it could be useful is if once you are registered, you are also entrusted with access to rental bikes in other places -London, Cardiff, Oxford, etc. That would mean when you visit one of these places, you can use a bike for the day.

No helmets, no high viz clothing, no discount aldi or lidl waterproof trousers. Users will be expected to bring those themselves. Or worse -go without!

Police over Lockleaze

For anyone wondering why the Avon and Somerset Police Helicopter was doing the rounds of Purdown and Stoke Park at 17:40, this is the reason. A motorbike lying on its side on the secret road that UWE students park on, the one with three footpaths running off -to Stoke Park behind the bike, UWE on the left, and Lockleaze behind the camera.

The police didn't quite know the area, so they were very grateful of a donation of a 2008 Bristol Bicycle map, which shows these paths. The ground forces were cornering bikes coming off the different paths and asking if they'd seen anyone, and before long the 'copter was overhead, scanning the woods.

The kids at the Lockleaze play area were amused by this story -presumably this wasn't one of that lot, who all know well that you need better tyres to take a moto cross-country towards Purdown, especially after the last couple of day's rain.

It's OK, my car has a disabled sticker

This car is not parked completely across a pavement in S. Gloucs near UWE , it is in fact parked completely across a shared bike path/pavement. You can just make out some tyre tracks underneath, leading up to the entrance of the bike path in the fence, an entrance slightly obscured by the vehicle HY03XEW. That path leads to Stoke Park and then Eastville; to the left of the picture is the path to UWE, behind the camera the path to Lockleaze. This vehicle, then, is blocking a three way junction of what is a key route in the Northern Fringe area of the Cycling City infrastructure

Some people may view blocking what is part of our new cycling city plan as an inordinately selfish activity. But this vehicle has a disabled sticker on it, from Bristol City Council. Which would make it OK -accept of course this is S. Gloucestershire, not Bristol, and we aren't sure if the disabled permit applies. Furthermore disabled parking normally has a time limit on it, which a vehicle that was here at 10:00 and still there at 14:30 would normally exceed. So there is the argument that disabled sticker or not, it would be OK to ticket or tow this car.

Except, the legal status of this road has been up in the air, as it was the HP Gate 2 entrance, now sold off and ultimately to become a public highway on the route to the tailspin housing estate. Thus the appearance of this car completely blocking the road is something to be grateful for, as it has provided incentive for everyone to come up with a plan for dealing with it. As the email from S Gloucs. council says

"at present the Police still have the power to deal with this type of issue using laws of 'Obstruction'. Apparently under the traffic management act of 2004 some local authorities have taken on this role but not SGC so far."

So there you have it.

1. The number for South Gloucestershire Parking enforcement is 01454 868000.
2. The phone number for Avon and Somerset Police is 0845 456 7000

Rather than have people try and remember this number, some people have -thanks to the actions of this very car- now created a quick reference sheet with these numbers. In fact, it is a quick note to put under the car windscreen warning them that you will be doing this, so that even they turn up and drive off before parking services or the police turn up, they get notified they were doing something wrong. The phone numbers on the sheet are there for the cyclist.

You are illegally blocking a bike lane or path

Starting in the next few days, we will be reporting vehicles doing this
to the local councils' parking services groups —for ticketing and towing!
To avoid cost and inconvenience, please stop parking here.

Bristol Parking Services Control Room: 0117 903 8070
Bristol Parking Services General queries: 0117 922 2198
South Gloucestershire Parking Services: 01454 868000
Avon and Somerset Police: 0845 456 7000

Versions of this handout will be presented at all forthcoming events where the Bristol Cycling Campaign has a stall, but there is nothing to stop all interested parties in the area from printing their own copies and distributing as they see fit.