The Trees have stolen Happy Lane

Happy Lane, off Ashley Down Road. A nice little buildout, ideal for parking - a fact we have celebrated in the past.

And what do we see today? A tree. With a fence round it. Where we park.

We know the evening post -rightfully- denounces the council for wasting taxpayers money on providing cycle parking and routes, because they take away the space we have paid for. Yet this, tree-planting frenzy does not get covered at all.

Why are they keeping it a secret. Only we, the Bristol Traffic site, remember and warn of this outrage

All over the city

the buildout parking spots are being taken out



We shall not see them free again  


in our time

Dirac's Antipermeability hypothesis

Dirac Road, off Ashley Down. Named after Paul Dirac, Nobel Prize winner for hypothesizing the existence of "anti matter"; something that was later proved to exist.

Dirac Road is named after him. Sadly, due to the large amounts of energy involved when antimatter collides with conventional matter, they cannot put any on display. Instead they have to focus on anti-permeability, the idea of making open space opaque to people on foot or bicycle

First on this corner we can see the car making the pavement antipermeable

Nothing profound there, you can see it anywhere in the city. What is more unique is this barrier over the footpath between Dirac Road and Lilstock Avenue -which connects with the famous "farm pub path". There is a risk that people might use this so called "access point" between the two roads to get to this path -or worse, come up here and then proceed safely on foot or bicycle to Brunel Technical College (scene of the "do not cycle on the pavement" signs and the Happy Road incident), or Sefton Park Primary school.

This barrier makes that hard, so ensuring that there are few high-energy collisions between conventional matter "cars" and anti-society matter "people on foot or bicycle".

It could be alleged that this is a temporary feature while the primary access point to the Farm Pub Path -station road- is closed for roadworks. Yet look at the base of this feature: it is embedded into the concrete

The allegation can be even more firmly disproved by looking in the opposite direction, and observing that the dropped kerb is actually placed to the side of the path.

This is a permanent fixture to celebrate Dirac's work on antimatter, by showing how Antipermeability can improve things.

Speaking of which, we hear rumours of a new Antipermeability project underway in South Gloucs. We will delegate this work to the People's cycling front of S. Gloucs, as an inspection up there would involve getting stuck in traffic jams in the newly widened A4174 ring road, which is a waste of our time.

St Werburgh's Schoolkids

This is the first time anyone has actually asked to be filmed or photographed by one of our reporters. For that reason alone, they get coverage:

Keeping the pavement free of bicycles

Ashley down road is one of the few roads with signs warning bicycles that they will be fined if they cycle on the pavement, so they should stay on the road.

Clearly that wasn't enough instead the road has been dug up with space for pedestrians to the side, and a sign direction the pedestrians around the large hole.

For the cyclists, there is double parked van for them to run into.

Trouble on Happy Lane

We've covered the Happy Lane buildout before, a nice place for a car with a lampost to protect your wing mirrors from passing traffic on Ashley Down Road. Not so happy today though.

Something has gone into the Fiesta FD03LLW hard enough to damage the front and trigger the airbags. What could do such damage to a car safely parked on the pavement?

Further up the road, we get a hint of the probable culprit: the ever present lycra-menace on our pavements

Warning

this means

NO CYCLING

on the pavement

It is only through enforcing such rules that our parked cars will be safe.

Safe Parking

This car shows how to park safely in the city, even if you don't have your own private parking area.

By parking inside of the lamppost, the vehicle owner knows that they have no worries about being clipped by passing cars, lorries or buses. Their one remaining concern is people cycling or walking along the pavement. If laws against cycling on the pavement were properly enforced, they would have much less to worry about.

Breakdown on Hurlingham Road

Regular contributor KL sends in this photo of someone pushing their bike up the hill, past the car J417LFJ parked entirely on the pavement of Hurlingham Road, St Andrews, just off Ashley Down Road.

From the front of the vehicle, you see the sign "Sorry, broken down, "

KL asks "why is it more acceptable to block the pavement than to block the road? Or was the car already parked on the pavement when it broke down?"

Actually, that bit of Hurlingham Road is a pavement that the cars have to drive up and down to get past the cars in the other direction. It was probably driving up the hill when it broke down, much to the annoyance of all the cars driving up the pavement behind it.

Incidentally, we hear a rumour -just a rumour- that Hurlingham Road is likely to be closed to through traffic, and that the closure will be at the top of the hill, not the bottom -which must mean near the junction with Cromwell Road. More details on this would be welcome.

Driver reporting

Someone asks on the Bristol Cycling Campaign mailing list, "can I report bad drivers"?

it was a maroon hyundai accent reg# T352VOA. I was cycling along Downend Road from Ashley Down Road at a fair clip when I heard a car coming up fast behind me. it's pretty tight there with cars parked on both sides. I turned around and the car was right by my back wheel. i shouted back my annoyance and rode defensively, not wanting to be in the path of an opening door with this aggressive driver right behind me. A couple of cars came towards us which allowed me to progress while she was held up. but as soon as they were clear she zoomed right up and didn't stop - basically pushed herself through forcing me towards the parked cars. All of which happened within 100 metres of the traffic lights. of course i was fuming and told her so, through her wound up window before she drove off.

RAC car check confirms there is a Hyndai of that number, ASKMID confirms it is insured. So if they had knocked you off, you may have got some money. This web site isn't really the place to complain about specific drivers, for which BetterDriving is a recommended location -Though we do like to know where in the city trouble lies. And on that note, we can re-assure you that the entertainment you get on your morning commute isn't likely to change in the near future, because Ashley Down Road remains a 30mph road on the 20mph-zone map; as will Muller Road: if a 20 mph zone ever went as far as Horfield, well, Downend road would run the risk of being one of those busy-back-roads-leave-it-fast routes, even though its part of the quiet road route from Filton, being between Dovercourt road and the one-way roads parallel to Gloucester Road).

A lot of those back roads have two roles. A quiet option for cyclist commuters who can't handle the A38 any more, and a fast option for car drivers in a hurry who can't handle the jams on the A38. That creates, well, tension. There's nothing like ambling down North road or suffering up Belmont Road to hear the sound of an over-revved clio 1.2 coming up fast behind you. What to do? Well, St Andrew's won't be 20mph either, so make the best of the bus lane on the A38.

The other email, "I was cycling on Cotham Brow when some car turned right in front of me, even though I had my lights on and shouted at them. Got a photo of the Peugeot N314MAF with my phone"


We like photos, and while we have low standards, this one is fairly close to not making the cut. Were you by any chance drinking before hand? And what is that strange light in the sky? All we can do is confirm this car exists, and show that clearly their actions didn't get them very far. We do hope that you did not shout anything that would give cyclists a bad name, and allow the E.P. to start complaining about cyclists swearing at passing traffic.

These alleged incidents show a problem with focusing on 20 mph back roads. They don't go anywhere. And the through roads, the 30mph roads, are things that you either have to cross -somehow- or actually use to get to places you need to. Keeping all the through roads 30 mph contains an implicit assumption that cyclists and pedestrians don't actually get out of their own street, or when they do, it's by car.

The other issue with a 30 mph road is that it makes people believe that the road is its fast. It creates unrealistic expectations. More honest would be for every road in the city to have a speed limit of 15 mph for cars, 18 mph for bicycles on the flat dropping to 8 mph for them uphill, and 47 mph for taxis.

Darker

October 17, MA02WVX enjoying their private piece of pavement off Ashley Down Road

Three weeks later. It's a bit darker, isn't it? More to the point, the flash makes it hard to read the registration, which ruins the whole datamining aspect of the project.

Less photos=less fun; expect a cut back on content. Unless we get more contributions. Photos to traffic at railwaypath.org please, or embrace the idea and take ownership of traffic and parking issues in your area, as Southville Parking have done.

Always room on the pavement for a small car

We've seen this little pavement parking area on Ashley Down Road before, again with a
Grant's Contractors van on it. Grants Contractors are based the other side of the underpass from here -2 minutes walk, 15 minutes drive. If someone does use this as the vehicle to get to and from work, they must want to keep an eye on the vehicle at night, as otherwise it is the slower option.


Today we can see that there is a small car, WA02WWX. Southville Roads have noted that
small cars park up on pavement too, and here we see the same behaviour: just because you have a small car, doesn't mean you don't value and want to keep it safe from scratches.

What you can see here is the benefit of small cars: they take up less space on the pavement. Look at the van: almost impossible for Sefton Park schoolkids to get past without stepping into the busy road. Whereas this little car? They could all dance happily by without even slowing down.

Crash Roadworks

There's some roadworks on all over St Andrews right now; traffic lights, bits of green in the middle of the road; someone has been running new power lines all the way from Locleaze. Currently bits of Ashley Down road are undergoing work. Work that leaves squares of the road fenced off for weeks on end.

Mostly this makes for some interesting traffic calming. Because the two directions of traffic are forced to take turns, you get lots of quiet time cycling followed by bursts of cars. Its good. But is it safe? Not here.

Here's the problem. When heading towards St Andrews, your way is blocked, by a big green barrier. The barrier shows that you have the right of way over oncoming vehicles. Which means it is OK to pull out; they will give way.


But look on the other side. There's no sign saying oncoming vehicles have right of way. All you get is a keep left sign, which means "keep to your side of the road". Which implies you have right of way unless otherwise stated.

This is a mess. If there was a contact number painted up I'd have photoed it and complained.

As it is, all I could do was move the barriers enough to create a bike lane, so when going towards St Andrews it was slightly safer. It's still pretty dodgy cycling in the other direction though.

Pavements are for vans

This is the junction of Happy Lane and Ashley Down road. Happy Lane is a little bike - and foot-path that connects up to Sefton Park school; it is so busy with kids in the morning that you can't cycle down it between 8:30 and 9 am. To increase safety for pedestrians, at the end of the lane, the pavement has been widened.

This is to provide visibility for pedestrians crossing the road, and presumably make it easier for bikes and cars to avoid hitting each other when the bikes go onto the road.

As an additional benefit, it provides parking for two or more cars.

These vehicles can park on the pavement, knowing that no passing bus will clip their wing mirrors. It's like private parking for the residents. {van: G2UNT; car: P610SEU}