Aberystwyth Road, Bishopston

Time to catch up with the Aberystwyth Faction's proposals for an improved Gloucester Road -one that makes the bus lane tidal and so adds short-stay parking in the opposite direction.

We have now heard from the councillor behind the petition:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Willingham <David.Willingham@bristol.gov.uk>
Date: 17 December 2013 13:48
Subject: RE: Gloucester Road Parking Changes

  The petition neither mentions nor proposes making any changes to bus or cycle lanes as that is not what it is asking the council to change. 

  If you visit Gloucester Road, then you will find that there are various parking bays that could be brought into use to allow the traders to benefit from more passing trade during the peaks, without having a detrimental effect on cyclist safety.

  As a local cyclist who uses the Gloucester Road, I have no intention of trying to make it more dangerous for cyclists, and if done carefully and in the right locations, I believe the proposed change would make it possible to share the limited road space a little more efficiently.

  If the council do decide to act on this petition, then they would be required to perform a highways safety audit of any locations they intend to change, as well as statutory consultation on any changes, so all road users, local residents or traders could have their say.

Regards,

David
--
Cllr Dr David Willingham
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Bishopston ward

So there you go: it's about sharing the limited road space a little more efficiently.

If you look at the petition, it does call out the recessed parking bays outside  288 Gloucester Road -the original Maplins site -these changes are non-controversial and likely to be unopposed, except perhaps matched by some demands for bike parking alongside.

What is a flash point is going to be the sentence "Furthermore we call upon Bristol City Council to implement "tidal" parking on Gloucester Road,". Because its goals, "Parking on the inbound carriageway during the evening peak" means "no bus or bike lane inbound in the evening rush hour", while "Parking on the outbound carriageway during the morning peak." means the same in opposite direction.

This is where the controversy lies. What is being proposed here implies no bus lane to-and-from the North Fringe commute, which means

1. No bike lane for anyone heading to the north fringe
2. No bus lane for anyone trying to get the Wessex red busses. These are the ones used to get to and from UWE -and if the students can't go by bus or bike, that leaves car. We don't want that. They don't pay enough taxes to deserve any tarmac.
3. Anyone commuting by car up the north fringe is now going to get held up by congestion on the A38. As that's something that wasn't covered in the C4 documentary: what it was like to drive down Gloucester Road before the showcase routes were launched. It was much, much, worse. The buses would have to stop in your lane to let passengers on and off, and if there was a bus heading north stuck behind a minicab with its hazards  on near the minicab office, your road would block as the two buses would never be able to pass each other. Gloucester Road was only viable as a driving commute option on those days that the council was actually enforcing parking. Which is something you wouldn't know on the commute until you were committed. 

See that? No matter how you get to the North Fringe, car, bus or even bicycle, the showcase bus route benefits. We don't expect the motoring advocate groups to realise that, as Bob Bull of portishead, official spokesman of the ABD in the evening post, is too busy complaining about his journey along the portway to appreciate how the bus lane helps commuting by car.

We do fear that the bus companies will pick up on this -as will UWE. And the cyclists, well they are the all-powerful-cycle-lobby.

Gloucester Road is going to be flash point there.

• Statistics imply that Gloucester Road has the highest number of reporting cycling incidents. -if you add Cheltenham Road to the figures, the A38 stands out as either the busiest cycling route in the city, or one of the more hazardous. Notable is that the Railway Path, which has the highest use, doesn't appear on the list at all.
• Bristol Cycling Campaign's followups on police involvement in any of these incidents imply the outcome is "not interested". This has the potential to be an issue in its own right.
• Even the mountain bikers are getting involved in this. Because while they are happy doing things like the red bits on the Super Nova trail, they at least know if they do get it wrong, they won't have somebody on the phone drive straight over them.
• A lot of the North Fringe employers have Bicycle User Groups with group mailing lists -easily organised, and capable of co-opting driving colleagues into the battle.
• The cyclists have more influence in the national press.

Putting it together, the shops may think that a review of the bus lane and a tidal system may get wide support -after their success in ensuring they retain their commuter parking in the RPZ-, but they are potentially getting into trouble. How are they going to react if cycling campaigners start handing out leaflets saying "email your councillor" to cyclists waiting at junctions on gloucester road? Can they take the trade of cyclists for granted -or are they going to have to deal with people coming into the shops, creating queues at peak hours, then when they get to the counter announcing they won't shop there as the shopkeepers are endangering their lives.

This is going to one to watch.

As for now, at the time of writing (16:02, Wednesday December 18), the petitions stand at

• Cyclists for a better bike lane: 135
• Aberystwyth: 73.

That's gone in a week from about 62-63 each -the cycling petition doubling, the shopkeeper's going by ten. This should be a warning sign to the councillors: they run a risk of making more enemies than friends here.

The Aberystwyth Faction: short stay parking matters more than life

This is just a first post on what is going to brew up into the next story to keep the Evening Post readers suitably outraged. Remember: we covered it first.

Regular readers may recall our coverage of a recent channel4 documentary, one that showed how the council was enforcing the parking restrictions in the showcase bus route at peak hours -and worse than that, by doing it with CCTV, ensuring that people really really didn't stop there, rather than "stop for 10 minutes -no harm done" stopping.

Well, now it's got national coverage, it's going to blow up

The "more parking" campaigners did manage to hold off the rollout of resident parking zones nearby, so ensuring that the parking areas will be available for staff and other commuters -leaving a remaining problem: where do shoppers go?

The answer is obvious: the bus and bike lanes.

Hence a petition: Fairer parking on Gloucester Road.

This is The Aberystwyth Faction's petition

We call upon Bristol City Council to remove peak parking restrictions from all parking bays that do not cause obstruction to traffic lanes of Gloucester Road, 

...
Furthermore we call upon Bristol City Council to implement "tidal" parking on Gloucester Road, and to permit the following:
•Parking on the inbound carriageway during the evening peak.
•Parking on the outbound carriageway during the morning peak.

This is pretty significant as if they get their way, it means that the bike lanes will be dead, and the bus lanes will only work for people heading towards town in the morning, away in the evening.

Which means that anyone trying to cycle in the opposite direction, say to school, or even to work on the North Fringe -and get there alive, are stuffed.

The right to park outside a shop is more important than the rights of others to live

In the other corner, just warming up, are the people who mistakenly believe that their right to live is more important than allowing people to get a bag of chips without having to park round the corner and walk 100 paces.

Their petition: Petition: Uninterrupted Cycle Lane on both sides along entire Gloucester Road

This is going to go head to head -two pressure groups, seeing who can be the loudest. Those demanding that Gloucester Road becomes like Aberystwyth: free range parking, or those who don't want the cycling clock pushed backwards -but instead want the bike lane expanded and enforced.

It's going to get exciting!

Gloucester road bike v car times 2

An indymedia posting from BristolCyclista -a regular reader of our site, judging by their comments- about two bicycle-related incidents on Gloucester Road one day this week

I was concerned to see two cyclists lying on the road being treated by paramedics as I cycled to work today. The first one was near to The old swimming pool and the other was just a bit further up next to the Junction with Bryland Avenue.

Does anyone know what happened?

It's a crazy world out there and we would all be a lot better off if we al showed considerably more tolerance an patience towards other road users.

I hope that all concerned make a speedy recovery.

BristolCyclista

We'd also be interested in any details, and hope that anyone who was injured wasn't seriously injured, and that they recover fast.

HSS Hire Bristol: Traffic Calming the cyclists

Sainsbury's Local is now open in Gloucester Road, so you can "shop locally" without having to go into local shops. Of course, any one who does this will miss out on the pain-au-chocolat which the Bread Store has raised to an art, but sometimes you're in too much of a hurry to queue for them or talk to the staff.

What the new shop does have, and presumably will have the cyclists and students of Bishopston happy, is a contraflow bike lane just next to the shop, here on Elton Road. You can just see it under the HSS Hire van NA09EZJ.

Presumably the driver was worried about cyclists in a hurry endangering these new shoppers, who would be unused to such things, so he has positioned himself for the safety of these pedestrians. The fact that he is wearing hi-viz shows he recognises how cyclists on a the pavement can endanger pedestrians, and how it is important to be visible to them.

Bishopston Enforcement Priorities

Bishopston. Site of the infamous Gloucester Road bicycle enforcement program. It is also near to Elton Road, where the need for residents to park forces them to double park in front of the entrance to the Elton Road bike lane, as these cars X393DMR and V885EYA have done.

Some people -and we know who they are- have expressed concern that it is somewhat hypocritical for the police to enforce pavement cycling at one end of a road when it is not possible to use the road option due to the car lane in the way. These people are also of the suspicion that it is the probably the same people who park this way that attend the local PACT meetings and push the anti-cycling agenda, one which -correctly, in our opinion- tries to prevent bicycles from using either the road or the pavement.

Indeed, the spring newsletter from the Bristol Cycling Campaign, contains an article on the PACT meetings which does say these things, highlighting the difference between the Kingsdown PACT area -police stopping cars driving the wrong way down Nugent hill- with the Bishopston PACT area -say no to bicycles-. The article finishes with a call to action to attend the PACT meetings, and after infiltrating the meetings, steering the police away from the Evening Post's approved agenda to one that tries to support cycling city through police enforcement of anti-car rules.

Is the attempt by those subversives working? Well, If you look at the latest Bishopsworth PACT priorities, you can see that they are trying to have their way -but failing.

1. Inconsiderate cycling - Gloucester Road (A38)
   

   Request to continue action to promote safe cycling on Gloucester Road, particularly the junctions with Ashley Down Road and Sommerville Road, where failing to stop at red lights has been identified as a danger. (Also requested to continue action against cycling on the pavement and cycling at night no lights).
   PCSO Faulkner will conduct two operations a month on Gloucester Road to issue safety advice, educate cyclists about offences, issue ASB forms and prosecute if necessary.

2. Vehicle offences - Tortworth Road (parking, tax disks, contraflowing)
   
3. Obstruction of cycle routes - Gloucester Road (A38)
   

   Cyclists and residents requesting that the Gloucester Road cycle route, a main arterial route into the city, is kept free of parked vehicles. Parked vehicles obstruct the cycle route, making the route redundant and increasing the risk of cyclists being involved in collisions with moving vehicles.
   PCSO Faulkner to conduct a one hour daily patrol on Gloucester Road at varying times, ensure that the cycle route is kept clear and issue tickets for 'failing to comply with indication given by a traffic sign namely a cycle route sign' or 'unnecessary obstruction of a cycle route' if a cyclist is seen to be obstructed.

They also note that the cycle enforcement has been successful:

Response from the public has been positive with coverage in the Evening Post.

It looks like the bicycle subversives tried to infiltrate the PACT meeting. Fortunately, enough residents managed to attend to achieve some kind of balanced enforcement on Gloucester Road, and no mention of the bike routes that carry bicycles to and from the A38, which can stay as resident parking. No doubt the next edition of the Bristol Cycling Campaign newsletter will contain more subversive propaganda, more calls to action urging in the Bishopston area -which is clearly becoming a flash point in the clash between car+walk and bicycling citizens.

But look at this video. This family negotiating the parked cars on their Saturday morning Gloucester Road chocolate croissant run do not have any difficulties.

They just swing out in the oncoming traffic lane before curving in to the bicycle contraflow area. If the mother at front felt that these cars were somehow endangering her children, she would be driving them round to the Saturday out-of-school engagements, rather than trying to cycle around the city. The presence of families negotiating this route by bike shows that there is no hazard, and that the focus of Bishopston enforcement should be bicycles on pavements on Gloucester Road.

Bishopston says no to bicycles!

Persecution

The latest copy of the Bristol Cycling Campaign magazine is out -it appears to be using some of the collected photos of this site. We give them permission, even if the article is somewhat critical of the cars featured therein. More to the point, the article speaks highly of infiltrating the police and community PACT meetings to push a subversive agenda. Kingsdown is one such area -though Bishopston is holding out strong.

Here we see the effects of such an infiltration. The car WR51PFG has a ticket for parking on a corner in Fremantle Square.

1. It's a square, and full of corners. What do they expect?

2. You can hardly notice this car sticking out from the corner. It is perfectly in line with the vehicle in front.

The Cycling Campaign will be having their monthly meeting at the Cornubia Pub, 8pm, Thursday. Perhaps we should infiltrate it, sit in the corner drinking Hidden Quest beers and disrupting their whole plan to overthrow the city by asking questions about helmets and watching the fights.

Align and Commit

It may seem that these cars are double parking in front of a bike lane, and certainly there is a bike lane just behind, in Elton Road, which now has a google street view, one which forever documents this parking option.

If you look closely, you will see they are not blocking bicycles. The clio PE05CUH has positioned itself perfectly to stop cars turning into the one-way street, so avoiding the problems which plague Nugent Hill. It has put enough of a gap between it and the BMW parked alongside for a bike to get through.

It would be tight, because your handlebars need to get through the gap between the two wing-mirrors, which rules out ultra-wide MTB handlebars. MTB bars would still be recommended though, as after you get past the cars you will either need to bunny hop over the kerb build-out or zig-zag round the corner tightly. This will make the commute into town more entertaining for anyone, yet as they are parked cars, far less hazardous than having to deal with oncoming vehicles giving you the same amount of room, which is what you would get if you went through Montpelier in the morning rush hour.

This is not Monty, it is Bishopston; the part of town where the local residents have been successfully campaigning for the council to do something about inconsiderate cycling. Do be careful then, when solving this "problem" by hopping the kerb, that there are no PCSOs around to ticket you for abusing the pavement.

Doubling up in Bishopston

A nice little email from "KB" turns up to look at this pair of cars, TG05TOM and YE56YUG that apparently double park regularly on Elton Road, Bishopston. They aren't interfering with left-turning cars, because it's a one way road: no left turn.

The apparent problem here is that little buildout you see in the right of the picture. It is not, as one might think, a pedestrian crossing. It's a contraflow for bikes, and with the two cars parked here, there is no way to enter the contraflow. This may be a bit inconvenient.

But where does the contraflow go? Gloucester Road. At the infamous Gloucester Road/Zetland Road junction where the police now come out and ticket cyclists who cycle on the pavement and through red lights. And how does this cycle contraflow end? With a pavement route followed by a green light to cycle while the pedestrians get the little man. If you could cycle down here, you would end up doing both the activities that the police were stamping down on. These cars are parking where they are for the sake of the cyclists, not themselves.