Hotwells: the Westernmost Outpost of Greater Bedminster

Hotwells -for that is the name of the undeveloped western harbour area- is part of Greater Bedminster.

Yes, much of it is north of the harbour, but it is on the flatlands, just north of the harbour.

While Clifton isn't that far away, it's a brutal climb up that Hill -and when you get there, there's only Clifton Village to show for it. Apart from the pubs, a chip shop, a very small library, and an underwhelming convenience store, there is not much there. If you live in Hotwells, and you choose to head south, you can you make your way to Asda, and buy food amongst the friendly community that always seems to be wandering those aisles. And nowadays, you have all of Southville to explore. Your parks and green spaces are also south of the Avon.

That's why the council plans for the Cumberland flyover are more than just changes in Hotwells, they are an attack on South Bristol. In particular, to propose putting a two- or four lane road alongside the Avon, through that green space which connects the Avon to Grenville park, is something straight out of 1970s Bristol road planning. Even Glasgow has backed off doing things that awful since the early 1990s (M77 and Pollok Estate, for the curious).

Our mayor is proposing destroying the unspoiled nature of the southern gorge. Proposing building a four-lane road over what today is the best view you get to the Clifton suspension bridge. Proposing making today's walking and cycling route from Hotwells to Bemmy yet another multi-lane bridge where are all walking and cycling facilities and be an afterthought. Yes, they mention "improvements to cycling", but without spelling them out -you know they'll be afterthoughts or extra lights we have to wait 15 minutes to cross the junction. And you know that as the cost of the project overruns, as the schedule overruns start to be measured in years -the "value engineering" of the project will result in the exact outcome which Avon Crescent got from their Metrobus promises: fuck all.

Why is he doing this? Because it is obvious to everyone with a spreadsheet, that large amounts of money could be made by building houses on the land which the flyover currently uses. The only way to turn flyover into profit is if you can think up another way to get people across the river. Clearly, and attempt to estimate how much a tunnel would cost to build has shown that even before you include the inevitable massive cost overruns, it's too expensive for the people hoping to profit from the land sales to fund -and nobody else is willing to. The only way you can convert that bridge into housing is if you find someone else to put the bridge. A nearby park and the side of the gorge which doesn't have traffic jams is the obvious solution -and if that doesn't work, there is always the bridge to Spike Island, which combined with knocking down some of the historical buildings of the harbour, gives you another place for the bridge. Obviously, if the council proposed building the houses on that parkland, they'd expect some resistance. Selling off the Plimsoll Bridge land space and then handwringing over how about road now need to go somewhere else lets some people make their money -too bad that South Bristol will lose a bit more of its green space and that the nice bits of Hotwells destroyed to put in the bridge which will be needed once the current bridge has been sold off for redevelopment.

So yes, we are opposed to this. Expect more coverage on this topic to follow

MTB trail: "The Corrie Road"

We've not done much coverage of the mountain bike trails in the area for a while, trails such as Nova, Super Nova of Ashton Court, along with Yer Tiz in Leigh Woods.

To catch up then, lets look at another council-manufactured technical trail through the trees, "Corrie Road".

This trail starts at the local village of "Beddmynster-upon-Avon", known locally as "Bemmy". It can be reached by train from Bedminster Station, or directly from Templemeads via the new Clarence Road segregated path. There also is parking by the local store, "Asda". They sell food and fresh bread there —visit it if you haven't already! Note that while this shop is surviving, the adjacent library is at risk of being shut down and converted to gentrified housing.

As well as food from the local store, you can also buy bicycle spares at that eclectic Bristol chain, Motorman. You can also get waterproofs, footwear and other things from the friendly folk at Taunton Leisure. For anyone planning to make a weekend of it, there is some accommodation right in front of the trail itself. (warning: some of those reviews are a bit negative)

The trail itself is an all weather off-road surface. There are a number of tree obstacles to "work"; making for a very swoopy course. It is probably the easiest to do as a nighttime-excursion, primarily because of the streetlights placed in the middle of the trail itself! You won't be needing any helmet lights here!

It's also flat and straight: no real navigational problems. We'd recommend it as an intro to MTB-ing for children, were it not for the fact that if they get an obstacle wrong and fall left, they will end up going under the wheels of an HGV —this road is notable in that it is still a 30 mph road; the 20 mph zone begins behind it.

Here then is the trail done at near-race speed, though the rider doesn't clear every slalom gate correctly.



Sadly, the trail does peter about rather abruptly, leaving you with a choice of where to go next. Turn right to get to The Chocolate Path, where you can head to the Avon Gorge, the pump trail, or Ashton Court itself via the "metrobus wasteland" —formerly known as Festival Way. Alternative options are head back towards the starting point of the road via the Chocolate path and a non-technical pavement route, or simply return the way you came. Yes, The Corrie Road path is two way —do watch out for oncoming cyclists as you commit into the bend around a tree.

After a ride, we recommend the pub "The Windmill" in Bedminster, or the Nova Scotia at the end of the Chocolate Path—both of which are fine establishments to consume a beer or three.

Residents Parking: Bristol's Poll Tax?

According to the evening post, opposition in Montpelier and St Pauls is rising to the point where civil disobedience is contemplated. Already we have an unnamed pensioner pushing for active resistance: "We need to paint out the lines and pull down the signs."

Well, being able to park outside your house is a fundamental right -and when you consider that the troubles in Northern Ireland grew out of a failure of the civil rights movement there, it is better to accede to such demands before they get out of hand.

Even so, hopefully the area will go for rasta colours on the kerbstones, not royalty.

We'd like to highlight a particularly insightful solution to the problem from "Pogo_T_Clown :

Given the tendency of communities to descend into NIMBYism when they're tasked with self-policing, I think this is a flawed idea. However, I do believe that it would create quite a burden for the council to determine the needs of each street in the city. As such, I would suggest a "Street-twinning" system where, for example, a street in Clifton would be twinned with one from Bedminster. The residents of the Clifton street could drive over to Bedminster and provide an objective view on the level of parking required. The people from Bedminster could catch a series of buses to Clifton and return the favour. This would save the council money and improve ties between the communities in Bristol, which could only be a good thing.

This is an innovative approach which we hope the leaders of The Parking Rebellion embrace.

Bedminster Gentrification

A saturday lunchtime and what do we see parallel to East Street?

Not one, but two BMW SUVs on double yellow lines: MV06FUE and SG04TRU. This road, "Little paradise" is on the malago cycle route, hence the small bicycles on the road, showing where cyclists need to be if they want to get doored by the BMWs

If any doubted the fact that Bedminster was now becoming part of the greater southville gentrification quarter -or that residents of Southville didn't secretly drive over to Bedminster to shop, they are wrong
 
What you don't get is people cycling there, as apart from the 12 bicycles filling the six racks that Asda provides, there are no more bicycles in the entire, vast, car park

Cr*p parking

We don't normally resort to foul language here in the traffic blog, but this literally is cra*p parking. Here we can see the driver has thought about non-car owning pedestrians and left just enough space for them to squeeze past on a sliver of asphalt or face the doggy-do gravel run. Interesting fun for blind and partially sighted people heading to the RNIB office just a bit further along the lane. Thank goodness there aren't any tax-dodging pavement cyclists around to cause even more trouble!.

British School of Motoring: teaching you how to shop

It's not enough to learn how to drive, you need to know the lifestyle -how to sprint round the city, which signs to ignore, where best to buy some discounted vodka. This is why we are please to get a photo from cyclista, showing the Bristol School of Motoring car WR59OJY on the double yellow lines outside the Tesco Express on Bedminster North Street.

Some people are surprised that Tesco Expresses -which target passing motorists- are always on main roads with double yellow lines outside. Those people miss the point. Those double yellow lines ensure short-stay parking for passing customers. They put the shops on main roads as that is where the passing customers are.

Returning to the car, look how perfectly it is aligned with the pavement, the wheels perfectly straight. That is skilled parking!

Yellow Cab Taxis: transport for South Bristol

Over the bicycle blogs, there's a lot of anti-taxi rhetoric. Well, that probably goes back centuries, since the first important people -our ancestors- rode horses and so differentiated themselves from you, the little people.

But if you spend time talking to anyone who worked as a taxi driver, you realise life is hard. One of their big fears is will the passengers do a runner, and if they do, will they just run or try and rob you in the process. Nobody likes picking up passengers to some parts of the city at night. It's the Bristol equivalent of London's "I aint goin souf of the river".

Except for one company. Yellow Cab of Bedminster aren't scared of South Bristol; they will take you wherever they want to go.

Even better they will pick you up from where you want to be picked up from. And on a Saturday, that means Bedminster.

Here DN05KFD is awaiting any passengers on the corner of Boot Lane and East Street.

For those people who can't cross the Boot Lane, their colleague in BD53MYX will pick you up.

Now, some people worry who is not capable of crossing the road, but Boot Lane is the home to the local RNIB branch, whose issues with Pavement Cycling have been covered by both us and the Evening Post before.

Down Boot Lane itself, KR08YJK not only helps keep the pavements clear of bicycles, they ensure that those people whose eyesight problems prevent them from driving their own cars, will be able to enjoy the convenience of having their own vehicle on the pavement just where they need it.

(One of the taxi people was a bit upset about the cars being photographed, but to respect their privacy we didn't include photos of them. We would encourage others to keep an eye on this area to see that Yellow Cabs are providing taxis for shoppers and visitors to the RNIB offices on a regular basis, so they get more used to such activities).

Coronation Road Cycle Path

The Coronation Road bike path is a source of excellent photographs. It is also an item of regular contention in the comments section of evening post articles, the key comment being "why aren't you tax dodging cyclists using it instead of holding us up", apart from when the comment is "why are you cycle terrorists trying to run us pedestrians over all the time"

Well, we sent someone on a bicycle (it's OK, it was a Sunday) to ride the route. At the Bedminster End, we can see some tourist signs clearly marking the split between the pedestrian area (on the right), and the cyclist route -the faded markings to the left.

The approaching cyclist is on the wrong side, though the presence of the Bristol Traffic van (we were unloading the bicycle) may have been a factor. Note, however, the new signs up on the walkers side showing them the route to the Malago stream/footpath/bike path. We aren't entirely sure why anyone walking or cycling would cross just there, rather than at the pelican crossing right behind the camera, and we aren't convinced that signage was something this path was short of.

Anyway, on to the path. As you can see, the presence of large trees down the centre of the path does complicate things, as do the lamp posts, the road signs and other pavement features. Fortunately, for both us drivers and those cyclists, there no 20 mph signs. This road is deliberately kept at 30 mph, because the council recognises it is a key traffic route in and out the city, especially for somerset commuters coming in on the A370, A369 or even A4/Avonmouth Road. Since the council stole the Queen's Road dual carriageway, this is a faster route to drive to the Templemeads area from the nice places out of town.

Because of its critical nature as a key traffic route, it is essential that cyclists stay out the way, yet many of them don't. This video of the cycle route shows that anyone complaining about it is a whining troublemaker who should be grateful for what they get doled out for free. It also shows that they have forgotten the time when the path stopped at every tree and diverted them roadward, not pavementward. This not only annoyed the cyclists, but could inconvenience us drivers too, so we are slightly more pleased that now it is the pedestrians who are held up.

The big problem is the trees, not only do they force cyclists to swerve into the pedestrians lane at speed, they hide the signs in the middle of the path behind them, and could increase risk at night, especially from unlit cyclists. Fortunately, the many street lights positioned in the middle of the lane reduce the risk of a cyclist not seeing any of the many pieces of street furniture. Furthermore, there are now banners up round the city encouraging cyclists not to cycle without lights to reduce the risk of them hitting any of the trees here.

Looking back, we see no alternative option for this road. As we have seen from the Muller Road build-out which attempts to provide a safe cycle route on a main thoroughfare, that just creates congestion on a key access route for the city.

A better option would be to remove this route, and ban bicycles from Coronation Road. Even if they do cycle up the path, we know later on they will be in our way, in town. Saying "No bicycles welcome here", sets everyone expectations up clearly, but this this path only does it halfheartedly.

The Polis come to Bemmy

We welcome a new contributor, "B", who snapped them at the Asda end of Bedminster, and says "Probably parked there because of a terrorist shoplifter scare..."

That's certainly conceivable. We suspect the Basics Campaigners, who are #1 of about 47,100 results in Google's index of the phrase "campaign against sainsbury's". However, we don't think they plan to escalate their protest to Asda, architectural merits notwithstanding.

One thing all readers should remember is that the police can park where they want when on call, and they aren't people to upset. It is their right to park here. What is more frustrating to us is that we can't copy them. And why's that? Because it is illegal to impersonate a police officer, and that includes putting "POLICE" and "HEDDLU" on your white van and then expecting to park wherever you need to unload in Bristol, the South West, and Wales. Some people notice the ladder on top of the van and get suspicious, call the police, and then its serious problems. This is utterly unfair.

However, we have some news, something we will follow up next week: something you can legally put on your van so you can park on zig-zags by zebra and pedestrian crossings. Wait and see.

They have stolen our Bemmy

A quick drive to Asda Bedminster, best car park near the city centre.

Only parking for six bikes, not under-cover, unlike the trolley parks. Keeping trolleys dry: important. Keeping bicycles dry: not important.

Even the access system makes it hard for bicycles to get back towards Southville afterwards without forcing them to encounter Coronation Road or North Street.

Yet look! Just round the corner: a 20 mph zone!

One that covers the area. The whole of Bedminster and Southville south of  Coronation Road, is now 20 mph. This is so wrong.

Fortunately, Asda's one-way system forces bicycles onto the 30 mph roads, so discouraging anyone from shopping that way. Customers who don't drive can't buy as much, yet still take up resources in the supermarket: space, queue time. They should be discouraged on the grounds of commercial profitability.

The RNIB/bicycle conflict: speaking the unspeakable

We are really enjoying the debate started by that the Evening Post's insightful article showing how cyclists endanger blind people on our pavements. Clearly it's something we agree with.

However, one of those cycling troublemakers, went out trying to get some photographs of the tax-dodging criminals, and failed miserably, picking up lots of photographs on cars on pavements and bus and bike lanes instead. Well yes, there were a lot of them in the photograph -and that's precisely why there were no bikes on the pavement. It was only the selfless effort by many of Bristol's car drivers that they managed to keep the areas that Dru cycled to free of bikes on the pavement. She should be grateful, rather than implying that the whole story was made up.

Question is, what about the RNIB, down by their offices on Boot Lane, Bedminster. What is their bike-on-pavement problem really like? We sent one of our reporters down there.

We can conclude that whatever the problem was, some selfless work by the drivers of vehicles like SA06YVJ keep bicycles away from blind and partially sighted people.


Similarly another car SJ04WDB? selfless endangers its wing mirrors to ensure that no bicycles can even consider coming down this pavement at speed.


Such selfless actions by the community show how, given the complete failure of the police to enforce the cycling rules, locals are forced to take actions into their own hands.

Returning to the debate, things have moved on. The Bristol Cycling Campaign wrote a letter to the paper, complaining about their persecution in the paper. Not once did the tax dodgers complain about the wrongs their members may have done, such as cycling on the pavement or going past the ASL stop lines. Instead they whine that the reporting by ourselves and the evening post are encouraging anti-cycling feelings. Fortunately, the readers of the paper see through this, as can be seen by the many comments. The most seminal has to be from, apparently, one James Carmichael of Highridge:

We've spent years rationally asking cyclists to behave better, and to indicate they're not welcome on our roads, but like all vermin that are left unchecked they continue to multiply.

So, maybe now is the time to get a bit more 'direct' in our action. I am not condoning breaking the laws, or doing anything that endangers life. However, maybe a little more assertive driving around cyclists or some 'verbal feedback' is the only way to get the message through. I for one, will continue to make my point to the cyclists that get in my way.

We hope he's using an assumed name, because James has come out and spoken the truth they dare not print. The issue here isn't really bikes on pavement, that's just an excuse we use to make them look worse. The real issue is this: bikes on the road. And there isn't (yet) anything we can legally do about that. Instead we have to complain about the pavement cycling, or drive more aggressively. Just a bit of "verbal feedback", nothing illegal. Or "assertive driving". You know the sort. Drive at speed right behind the bike, or on a narrow road, pull out wider when coming towards them. When passing, cut in early. Nothing illegal, just enough to make them feel threatened, to feel unwelcome. To know the truth: they don't belong in Britain.

Bus Passengers cost shops money

We are shocked to see that bus passengers are damaging the economy in Bedminster.

This is the sign on the bus shelter

Passenger Notice

Please queue to the left

of the shelter when

waiting for buses

Please do not obstruct

the frontages of local

businesses when

waiting for buses

This selfish behaviour of bus passengers is destroying the local economy

Not only do they not shop in the Sextons' car audio showroom or motaman car parts, they block sight of Star News and Booze from passing cars.

Christmas shopping in Bedminster

Look at this: the bike parking outside Asda, Bedminster, is full, with cyclists having to struggle to get their bicycles in an out of the six racks assigned to them.

This is the only bike parking on this side of the supermarket, the rest of area is dedicated to people who drive there.

It may seem a bit odd for a supermarket in a Cycling City to only have room for twelve bicycles and what appears to be thousands of cars. But consider this. Asda is owned by Walmart, the world's largest retailer. Do you seriously think that Walmart got so big by people cycling to the shops? Of course not. Their business model is built on bulk purchases, for which you need a car, ideally a proper 4x4.

Look more closely at the cyclists and compare them to the people making their way to and from the car park.

The cyclists: little bags, barely big enough to hold a snack. The car drivers: trolleys full of goods. Walmart's business model is based on high-volume low-margin sales, and cyclists bringing at most a rucksack just aren't buying enough food or other goods. These cyclists should be grateful that Asda has provided any parking, instead of turning this space over to support two more cars, especially on a busy weekend in the runup to Xmas.

The Incredible Vanishing Cycle Lane

York Road heading into Bedminster on my morning commute. Nice to see several weeks of roadworks are coming to an end with the road being widened. But hang on a minute - where's the cycle lane which should be where the plastic fencing is?. Have the workmen forgotten to put it back or will it be reinstated?. The double yellow lines are back. Technically, the Advance Stop Line should have a feeder lane so that you can ride into it. This is very inconvenient. How are motorcyclists supposed to get into the ASL without a feeder lane?. Honestly- it's bad enough for them when those pesky cyclists occupy the box. Now they'll have to ride all the way down the right hand side of the traffic jam and barge into the box, scattering those no-good, liberal, non-polluting tree hugging lazy hippy cyclists.

Best place to pick up pedestrians

If you are taxi, you make a living by picking up pedestrians. People walking. And where's the best place to find pedestrians? That's right.

On the pavement. Here taxi PK55JWC, taxi #2127 is doing exactly that on Commercial Road, leading up to the Bedminster Bridge Roundabout.

Parking enforcement changes at schools

This event made the E.P. last week, although this photo dates from the week before: it's a sign up outside a school warning that the parking rules will be changed according to plans CAE/MLS/P/586, listing half the primary schools in the city

What's interesting is that this plan is not up online. An email to the planning people came up negative. A quick email to the planning people got bounced over to traffic management, and since then, silence. Perhaps they too don't believe in this email thing.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: customerservices ptsd
Date: Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: School stopping order proposal CAE/MLS/P/586


Hello
I have forwarded your email to Traffic Management as I believe they arrange stopping up orders. You can contact them on 0117 9036822 email traffic.management
regards
Claire
Customer Services

>>> 27/04/2009 18:58 >>>
Hello,

I'm trying to find out about the School stopping order proposal
CAE/MLS/P/586, whose details I have seen pinned up outside a school. I
can't seem to find it under the planning portal Does it exist
somewhere else on the web site?

Since then, the string "CAE/MLS/P/586" does turn up one interesting article, namely a discussion in the Bemmy Forum on the topic. The schools will be going from a voluntary yellow zig zag to something enforceable.

Judging by the discussion, everyone in Bemmy thinks it is good, though it may inconvenience people driving to George Ferguson's Theatre down there. It will be interesting to see what the reaction elsewhere is.

Incidentally, there is also the problem that "theoretically enforceable" does not imply "enforced". Most parents quite happily park on double yellows near schools today because they know that unless they see a parking services team standing there, all is well. If this enforced school parking plan coincides with rollout of CCTV enforcement from passing vehicles, it would become possible for BPS to do a drive-by enforcement of these zones at dropoff and pickup time of every primary school once or twice a fortnight. Which would be frequent enough for the markings to be considered real.

Could you squeeze it onto the pavement a bit more please?

Here's a lovely example of crass illegal parking which plagues Bristol. Doubtless the owner has some ready made excuses, which we will now examine:

1) Its doing no harm. Sorry, but it's encouraging others to do the same. It's illegal,anti social and you have no right to use the pavement as a private parking space.

2) You can walk around it. Yes I can, and so can folk on their way to the RNIB (institute for the blind)centre down the street. Why should they have to walk in the road or through the dog-muck strewn gravel?. Oh, and would you mind if I parked my bicycle in your hallway?. I'm sure you can 'walk around' it.

3)I don't want my car damaged. Still doesn't give you the right to park on the pavement. If you live in the flats opposite then you should have thought about living in a narrow street before buying a car. If you work locally, others park larger vehicles legally so this excuse is void.

Pavements are for pedestrians, not cars. red car owner take note, you're just as bad.

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.

Wing mirror worries

Even when it's perfectly possible to park legally with enough space, Bristolian drivers prefer to use the alternative free car park which used to be known as the pavement. Apparently, the need to protect your wing mirrors from getting broken is greater than access for pedestrians. You'd think drivers would be more familiar with the mechanical aspects of their vehicles and that wing mirrors can be turned in towards the vehicle. Obviously not in this case.

Range Rover roundup

Three submissions for our 'legally parked range-rover' competition, none of them winners.

Not the vehicle 7RWL in Cotham

H5ERV or the two Picton-Street range rovers, that appear resident in Montpelier during daylight hours, probably as this stretch of open road is they only place they can park.

These could be photoed every day, but that would make for a boring site. The only reason this photograph gets included as today one of the drivers is trying a smart-car style right-angles parking technique, which clearly lets a rangey fit into a parking gap only wide enough for an estate car. Yes, it does stick out slightly, but only cyclists suffer from that. If the bikes merge in with the main traffic flow, it won't be an issue.