20 mph: it's OK to support it if you have a fast car

There are a few days left to tell BCC you support 20 mph and don't want the zones to be crippled for the benefit of firstbus and few angry drivers from the suburbs. It'll be interesting to see the outcome. If Marvin Rees does roll it back, he will have to justify spending the money to do so, and the potential cost in lives.

We've sent in our feedback "happy with 20 mph", which raises a question with some of our acquaintances, the question being "but you have a fast car"

For the record: in the Important Car for Important People, it is no harder to drive at 20 mph than 30. Petrol consumption is the same at ~20 mpg; as the engine switches off when idle the stationary bits are free.

We've repeatedly claimed that we are important, yet people have accused us of being arrogant self-entitled car hating-wanker cyclists. Not so: the Important Car for Important People is not fictional, it's a BMW 3-series estate with a 2L twin-turbo engine hooked up to the rear wheels via an 8 speed automatic gearbox.



That said, the difference between the two is quite subtle:

	Cyclist	BMW Driver
Arrogant	Y	Y
self-entitled	Y	Y
Wanker	Y	Y
Think they own the roads	Y	Y
Park where they want	Y	Y
Ignore Highway code	Y	Y

The Important Car for Important People is actually speed limited to 250 km/h; 156 mph. That's a mostly abstract value, visible only in the cost of manufacturer approved W-rated homogulated run-flat tyres you need to buy on the off-chance you take a wrong turn from Cribbs Causeway, get on the M5, and, after a few missed turns, end up on the A8 autobahn between München and Stuttgart. But it is there: the speed you could drive at if you weren't held back by speed limits and slow-moving cars.

Look at the difference between that theoretical maximum speed and those of Bristol urban roads

Max Speed	Limit	Difference
156 mph	30	126
156 mph	20	136

See that? Noise.

It may matter to Ford Fiesta drivers who get upset being stuck behind someone cycling 20 mph in the 20 mph zone, but from the perspective of a BMW owner, you are crawling along at either speed. And so: you may as well embrace that crawling along, in order to have a city better to live, walk and cycle in.

Having fiesta drivers tailgate you flashing their lights for you driving at 20 mph is then quaintly amusing, given that it's Fiesta drivers who can't go above 85 mph which hold you back on the M4. For that is where trying to stay close to the limit is hard. Not enough cues around you, you need to keep an eye on the speedo, tell the car itself to beep above 85, waze to chime at 80, and, with attention, you can drive vaguely close to the limit when heading up and down the motorways.

In town: much, much easier

1. Get in car
2. Turn Waze on to beep at speed + 5.
3. Set off, gently tapping the accelerator.
4. Look at speed of car, compare with speedo, get to 20 mph, or, if too high, coast down.
5. Carry on at this speed so you get familiar with how it feels.
6. Keep driving round town, do whatever you intended to do.
7. If waze beeps, it means you are going too fast, or you think you are driving in a 30 zone where it is really 20. Most useful when coming off a faster road (M32) into town.

You don't need to look at the speedo all the time as it doesn't take long to calibrate your driving at the start of the journey. With the whole inner city at 20 mph, it is easy to get used to it, and straightforward to know what the limit on every road is.

Make the bus routes 30 mph, and all that calibration goes away. You'll end up driving at 35 in a 20 zone, and that's how you earn speeding points. And let's be honest: there's nothing impressive about those kind of speeding tickets. Try showing off to other BMW drivers about getting a ticket at 33 mph —you'll only get laughed at.

Twenty mph works great in Bristol, because it is everywhere. You can calibrate driving at that speed with ease, and you don't have to worry about whether you are on a 20 road while doing 30.

Save your speeding for the M4! Get your response in today!

BMW: please don't drive like utter wankers

As the arrogant self entitled owners of an Important Car for Important People, we recently received a communication from the manufacturer. Here it is, unabridged

---

Dear BMW Owner

Due to the large number of people who have been killed recently by drivers —especially pedestrians and cyclists in hit-and-run incidents— the transport minister Jesse Norman has been in touch with us. He would like to pass on a message

"It’s great that driving has become so popular in recent years but we need to make sure that our road safety rules keep pace with this change.

"We have some laws that ensure that drivers who kill others are rarely punished, but, given recent cases, it is only right for us to look at whether dangerous drivers should face the consequences."

We at BMW would like to remind our drivers that all of us are representatives of the BMW family; whenever one of us drives like an utter wanker, we are all tarred in the brush of shame. We must strive to ensure that the badge of utter-wanker-driver continues to be held by Audi drivers alone.

Please, study the highway code, and remember that you should be prepared to stop at "Give Way" signs rather than slow down slightly. In particular, when joining a roundabout you are expected to yield to all users, including cyclists. The Highway code also covers other signs worth learning, what the orange light in traffic lightss, and the rules of zebra crossings.

The next time your BMW is due in for a scheduled service, please get in touch to attend one of our free "safe BMW driving" seminars, whose topics include:

1. Speed limits: what, why and how.
2. Indicators: the politer way to communicate.
3. Overtaking: when you shouldn't.

We also offer to recalibrate the speed warning to 90 mph —just ask the service team to lower it.


Finally, when on a motorway, please leave at least two metres difference between you and vehicle in front —even when an owner of Ford Fiesta has mistakenly pulled into the fast lane while only doing 75 mph. It's safer for everyone.

---

There you have it. We'll try and drive better than others, and even explore the do-not-disturb option or our phones. We should be able to keep it up for a few weeks to see whether you can get used to it. Motorway speeds are probably going to be the tough one, given that even Corsa drivers will end up passing us —that's not what we paid for.

PS: Why are we getting email from Jaguar Land Rover Australia saying "Congratulations on the recent purchase of your Evoque, and welcome to Land Rover."? Some mistake surely.

Bristol Drivers: always giving cyclists a hand

There are always complaints in the cycling community (all eight of them) about some war-on-cyclists taking place in Bristol. We know that's untrue: the war being conducted in Bristol is by cyclists, against Motorists!

Innocent motorists, we may add —law abiding, invariably polite and considerate.

Here we one such example, a BMW driver going out of their way to give the cyclist a helping hand up the road



See how they swerved to make sure they were able to help the cyclist? See how they carefully reached out and gently tried to assist the cyclist? Admittedly, they were try to help the cyclist fall over and injure themselves —but they were still trying to do their bit for a cycling city.

We've said before, that Bristol is split between those who like cycling and those who, well, hate it.



We suspect the driver of BMW MX64JWU may have been one of the people in the survey who expressed negative opinions about cycling. We may also suspect they aren't in favour of 20 mph limits.

Well, we always value those prepared to stand up for their principals, or here, lean out the window and try to push someone over for those same principals. We feel this driver should be congratulated with the publicity their action deserves. Does anyone know who they are?

Location: Horfield/Lockleaze border, Wordsworth Road.; that bit which the #24 bus covers.

Video from Dave Edmonds. See the BCyC facebook posting.

Bristol's 20 mph zones: it's the hot cars that lose

The 20 mph zone has been up for a year now, so it's time to review it as drivers

1. It doesn't make things slower. Really. It's the delays at junctions & in queues that increase journey time.
2. It makes things calmer. There's less pressure to put your foot down when you do clear a junction.
3. Similarly, as you approach a junction, you can coast down more gently. 
4. As you are going a bit slower, you can take time to look around, which gives you a better view of pedestrians. This is tangibly better at night.
5. It actually helps you pulling out from side roads to main roads. Why? As everyone is moving slower, the time window for you to do things like pull a right turn with cars approaching from both directions is larger.
6. Fuel economy? No obvious difference. The engine may be less efficient in 3rd than 4th, but you don't have to accelerate so hard, and can coast down. Of course, anyone in a hybrid car is laughing as their petrol engine can work even less, and gain more regenerative braking from the gentle slow down.
7. Keeping track of your speed? Third gear low RPM seems to work. If you feel the need to go to 4th, you are going too fast. 
8. Does everyone follow 20 mph? 22-25 is more realistic daytime speed; at night the speed goes up to 30 until the minicabs come out, when it ramps up 40 mph just when the drunk people start walking home.
9. Increased road rage? No obvious difference. As the average commute speed is < 20 mph in Bristol (TomTom's unverified data, not ours), it's hard to see how it could be made worse.
10. Collapse of businesses due to increased white van journey time. Not obvious. Congestion is the limiting factor, not maximum speed.
11. Passing Bicycles? No harder or easier. It's still irritating to be behind someone going along at 12 mph. But the speed limit doesn't make passing harder. We just want fitter cyclists out there.
12. Then there's the "two shopping trolley" man wandering round the streets these days. We have no idea why he has two shopping trollies full of his entire belongings, but he does, he goes down the roads (not the pavements) at about 4 mph. Again, 20 mph doesn't make a difference.

So who loses? People who spent money on fast cars. You shell out all that cash for a nimble toy, for an extra digit or two at the end of your car brand logo —"i", "GT", etc—, tinted windows and some wheels that just scrape easily.  The key "performance" benefits are tighter suspension, and most of all the ability to accelerate better. 

Which is now utterly wasted, as most vehicle's 0-20 numbers are relatively similar. And pootling around at 20 mph means no need for suspension that lets you do 90 degree turns at 35 mph.

That's enough to drive you to road rage: not the fact that you are doing 20 mph, but the fact you spent a lot of money on your status toy and are doing 20 mph.  Even if you want to go faster, there'll be someone in front who doesn't, who appears to drive at exactly 20 mph on a fast ratrun road  like Ashley Down, Pembroke Road or Filton Ave. It's almost as if some people, on noticing an important person driving a high-end Audi or BMW SUV actually take their foot off the accelerator, dropping from 24 mph to 20. Which we consider unacceptable and strongly condemn anyone doing this.

For those people who have spent the money, they expect something in return.

Fortunately, every so often the opportunity arises. Here is one our instrumented tax-dodgers going down Nugent Hill, Cotham, using the bike contraflow to get to the Arley Hill evening traffic jam, and so on to Stokes Croft. As they join the Arley Hill queue, you can see a green light allowing some traffic to slowly get out to places more interesting.

And here you can see the BMW 3 series YF57KTE getting some return on investment. First they can come off the speed bump while accelerating (suspension), then put their foot down to catch up with the cars in front. Those cars in front who are going through on orange we note.  But as the BMW is now almost joined up with them, it can do the "part of the same group" gambit and carry on through on the red light.

That tactic has given them a bit more speed than the vehicles in front, forcing them to negotiate what is effectively a chicaned right turn fairly aggressively: that suspension at work again.

They then need to put their brakes on, not because of the speed limit but because they've caught up with the car in front.

There: 15 seconds of real driving, out of probably 30 minutes of suffering. Not much —but that's all a 20 mph zone offers, at least during the early evening commute.

Tablets in the car are the new status symbol

Anyone can text and drive; here on Arley Hill on a weekday you see about 1 car in 4 texting.

What do you do if you want to show that you are really important?

Step 1 is the expensive car, like the BMW

That's good, but it's not enough, now that phones have become the new status device. What else can you do?

That's right: a tablet, here put away when they noticed someone taking photos of them.

They shouldn't be self-conscious! They should be proud! Tablets are something to show off!

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

RTC on WLR

Showing we are more timely than the Evening Post with a publishing process that involves shipping paper in from outside Bristol -and so getting stuck on the M4- here are some pics of a collision between a BMW and a Toyota (Auris?) on Whiteladies Road from 08:10; twenty minutes ago.
 
The front of the Toyota looks toast, the airbags haven't deployed so it looks like a low-kinetic energy event.

The BMW bodywork has come out a lot more unscathed, though we suspect that if the driver took it to the BMW dealer in St Philips it would be the one coming out costing the most. The driver (belt and white shirt) was holding something up to the top of his head, implying he'd bashed it on the wheel or windscreen. That reg of BMW may not have airbags, and the driver may not have had a seatbelt or helmet. Yet as this is clearly a below-12mph crash, a cycling helmet would have reduce injuries.

 
The two people with rucksacks are a cyclist on the left and possibly a pedestrian on the right. It'd be tempting to blame the cyclist, but that's not the case, he pulled over after the event and was either being a witness or offering medical support.


What happened? The BMW RJ52AEM was crossing Whiteladies from Oakfield Road. At this point you need to pull across the road to get to West Park if you are heading across Bristol; this is a nice little west-east rat-run option from Clifton to Cotham that avoids the St Pauls Road/Tyndall's Park Road junction, where the traffic lights manufacture congestion.
 

You do need to pull out fairly aggressively as the gaps are quite tight. The main provider of gaps is actually the zebra crossing -whenever a pedestrian uses it the outbound traffic halts in a queue and there's an empty space on the other side of the road; once you get over that outbound lane you can go quite fast over the road, down west park and you are in Cotham Hill in a flash.
Today it went wrong. Looks like either the BMW pulled out expecting the Toyota to give way, and it didn't. Perhaps one or other weren't looking, perhaps the right-of-way negotiation process failed.

Either way, hope all is uninjured and that both are insured. Photos available to either party on request.

The last days of summer at St Georges Park

Contributor "NT" mails us this lovely photograph of autumn sunshine

Hello, I was cycling down Park Crescent adjacent to St George's Park at 5:30pm this evening and saw some inspired parking - I thought you might like to see it and maybe share it on the blog.

Given that the weather is about to go from heatwave to blizzards very shortly I'm sure the driver was just trying to save precious seconds in parking their car properly and walking the width of Park Crescent to reach the grassy haven of the park; this way they got straight into enjoying the last of the unexpected sunshine the second they stepped from their car.

Yes, we think WR58JXK is making the most of the late summer evenings, though we wouldn't park under trees ourselves -can make the roof and windscreen sticky. Better to use the wide green space behind it.

GPS: the rest of the press catch up

There's a lot of fuss in the press about a new paper arguing that Satellite Navigation, in the form of the US GPS system, ex-Soviet GLONASS and the EU Galileo system are all vulnerable to failure, and that the country now depends on them working.

This doesn't surprise us, because we made this claim back in 2001, in our article "BMW - No Joy: GPS is a SPOF", using Volpe 2001 as the reference paper. We pointed out that BMW made naive or misleading comments about the reliability of GPS, helping to retain an unrealistic expectation of the failure modes of a tool designed to prosecute a conventional war or the opening exchange of a nuclear war rather than help you get home in time.

We've never mentioned it, but we did get a reply from the ASA on the 29 of November 2009 -a paper one- in which they stated that:

1. We were the only people that complained.
2. It was meant to be metaphor, and therefore the fact that the failure of GPS could cause widescale destruction to the national transportation infrastructure was unimportant.

This is somewhat disappointing. The Bristol Traffic project was seventeen months ahead of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and yet the ASA dismissed us because we were the only people in the country who knew what they were talking about. The fact that we were the only organisation to complain is a sign that we are more competent than the rest of the national media, not some daft troublemakers.

Resisting Oppression

There are some new signs up on Aberdeen Road, outside St Peter and Paul RC Primary School. They say no parking on the school-keep-clear area on weekdays 08:00 to 17:00.

This is more of the city's simply insane anti-car activities, something everyone should resist. We have discovered a loophole.

By banning parking on weekdays, there is nothing to stop any local parking entirely on the pavement on a weekend.

This will protect wing mirrors, and with the bollard, ensure the body-coloured bumper of OY05LNW won't suffer any damage from other vehicles reversing into it while parking.

It will even benefit the schoolchildren, as more snow is scheduled for the evening -this car will ensure the area will be snow- and later ice- free. With such selfless drivers, it doesn't matter than the council appears scared to grit paths.

Selfish Parking

There is room for two cars on this build out, yet the mini VN02ZGU has taken up the middle of the build out, blocking all other vehicle access. Yet we have seen that there is room for two cars here.

They may protect their bodywork and mirrors, but one other Clifton Resident will have to park their car further away from where they live.

Of course, the real blame goes to the council. If they did not have those needless bollards on the build out, it would be much easier to squeeze a second car in.

Branding

We can't come out and say "premium German-branded cars park worse". All we can say is "premium German-branded cars appear a lot in our database", but that's a self-selected dataset and not defensible. What we really need is access to a (suitably anonymised) dataset from Parking Services, say a week's worth of issued ticket data, with all the number plates replaced with random numbers and some other tweaks to prevent de-anonymizing, but with car make/model retained. We'd also need to know the percentage of these brands in use in the city compared to other models, to see if there was a significant variation. Then we'd know.

And, being city-wide, it would stop us being picking on particular schools. Like Christchurch School, Clifton, that appears to have a serious parking problem. The problem being: not enough space for everyone driving in. And seemingly everyone who does drop their kid off there uses Ein Auto aus Deutschland.

X21SJC may actually be a resident's car parked on the school-keep-clear zone, so denying parents their rightful place.


The parents are forced to park round the corner, the red BMW H674HJO narrowly avoiding being scraped by a small child having the audacity to cycle to school with a parent -neither of them wearing a helmet. We are shocked and appalled by the risks these people are taking.

Further along, another Mercedes R116KTC.


At least the disabled parking area is left alone.

Some of these cars could belong to residents. We'd need to audit the street on a Sunday morning to build up a better model of who is parking where round these narrow streets -streets that voted against becoming residents parking, incidentally. Presumably because it was obvious to all that an RPZ would take the pavements on these roads out of play, which would be unacceptable.

Vehicle types

There's been some debate in the comments as to whether its the faster German cars that tend to be the ones that park the worst. We don't have enough unbiased data. We do think that 4X4s park badly, but that's for physical reasons: they are wider and reverse really badly -you can't park them into small spaces and are forced onto the yellow lines and the pavements.

German cars are just like any other: they need somewhere to park. Here in Clifton, this BMW H837GLM has found a nice spot on the pedestrian buildout on Royal York Crescent.

That could be endangering pedestrians. Someone might try crossing from the other side of the road, and not be able to get safely onto the pavement. That could be hazardous.

Fortunately, a driver of a BMW Mini has seen the risk and selflessly parked their car YH57URU in such a way as to block anyone from running out.

Only a small car like a mini would be able to parallel park on this buildout -it has done it without damage to its wingmirrors or bodywork. Nicely done.

This is a German brand, but the Austin Mini comes from Cowley, 100+ miles or so east of Bristol. Does its presence on the pavement prove or disprove the "fast German cars park worse" hypothesis?

The Future!

We live in the Present.

Q. What does one do when all the parking spaces are already taken?

A. Simple: Park on the pavement. As the residents of Bristol know, and as the driver of CU04NRJ illustrates. This is in Redland, a genteel and sustainable part of the city.

Down in the Peoples Republic of Stokes Croft, however, cars have generally been banished from the pavements and now reside in the cycle lanes. This doesn't matter, though, as many citizens of this area are clearly ahead of the curve, having abandoned four wheels in favour of two. These right-thinking people are the Future.

So witness the Future:

To ask the question again, then:

Q. What does one do when all the parking spaces are all taken?

A. Simple. Park on the pavement. As the Present elite vanguard of Bristol's cycling citizens already do.

This, then, is the Future for the rest of us. Yet more pavement parking.

In the Past, no one would have thought that the two Sheffield stands near the Croft would ever be used at night, let alone be full by nine pm and result in such selfish nocturnal knock-on pavement parking by Bristol's gig-going elite....

By the way, the two stands on Nine Tree Hill provide effective parking for four bicycles. Or an incredible eight unicycles, for those with an eye even further into the Future!

Ashley Road improvements

The new contributor "AW" has promised to send us more details on the secret driving and parking tips of Ashley Road and nearby areas. That's handy, as a lot of the searches that come to this site are looking for "secret parking bristol" or areas inside Bristol, and we don't want to disappoint them. Their first contribution is some secret out-the-door restaurant parking, as modelled by  the BMW W612TRX

At first glance, the large potted trees and similar street furniture may appear to be creating a pedestrian area. But they are really there to force pedestrians and bicycles in to the narrow bit right in front of the shops, leaving the widened pavement as a safe place to park a vehicle, safe from both pedestrians and passing cars. It is also well-lit at night, to help ensure your car remains secure.

Stereotyping

A reader called SP left a couple of comments implying maybe were over-sterotyping BMW drivers. Interesting thought. Yes, there is a fair amount of sterotyping going on, but mainly of range rovers. BMW drivers are just like any other local driver. They need somewhere to park on weekday, here the car RF55NAE outside Christchurch School, Clifton.

The take kids to school in the car, a car they have to park near the school, here N707WJB outside Christchurch School, Clifton.

And they sometimes leave their car with the door open while they do the child dropoff, so as to make sure no kid with a scooter or bike dares to scrape the car RE52ZKO while they take their primary-school age child to Christchurch School.

Or on the keep clear zones at the corner, by -wait for it- Christchurch School, Clifton.

Sterotyping? No, documenting. None of these cars are on double yellow lines, only one (EZJ8266) in a keep clear zone. The rest are just up on the pavement by the school entrance, leaving enough room for through traffic and generally blending in. Which is why their coverage is actually fairly minimal. It's not as entertaining as the problem of how to park a Range Rover in Montpelier, or as ironic as driving school cars parking where they shouldn't. And it's certainly not as photogenic as an ice cream van driving down a bus lane. Maybe we could start sterotyping them, but well, it's been done already, hasn't it? Maybe once we've got bored of making fun of range rovers or driver deadlock outside schools at dropoff time.

Pavement Work

The Evening Post is always complaining about bicycles on pavements.

A few dedicated car drivers do their best to discourage this by parking on the pavement, here at the zebra crossing between Cotham Road and Cotham Road South/Cotham Brow. There is about enough room to walk through, but not for bicycles. Well done BMW J2LXX! Thank you for standing up to pedestrian's rights! A lot of kids cycle down here on their way to and from school, and families with push chairs, but today they get to go in the road -where they belong!

[The reason the pavement is so wide here is to improve pedestrian safety, and to make the corner sharper; the one whose visibility is now hampered. O2 keep trying to put in a phone mast disguised as a lamp post twice the height of the trees, but keep getting turned down as the wall abuts some listed pillars. I almost phoned this one in to Bristol Parking Services, as I was annoyed that they were on the pavement by the zebra crossing. But as the office closes at 17:00, at 17:02, you can park where you like]

playing it safe

as has recently been pointed out, replacing door mirrors on triumphs of Teutonic engineering like X86BLB pictured here is a challenge likely to require Central Bank intervention. Best, then, to park well onto the pavement to minimise the danger of any passing vehicle (even on a quiet cul-de-sac behind the bus station) clipping your car.

The parked BMW is providing a valuable safety service

This black BMW on stokes croft may appear to be a classic example of a selfish car driver, more concerned with a short walk to their destination than the safety and convenience of others. By blocking the bike lane it forces cyclists into the single lane highway alongside it.
But in fact, this is a safety facility.

Because look the other way. As the junction is approached, cars pull in to the bike lane before making a left turn. If you were cycling down there, you'd be at risk of having the left-turning vehicles squashing you.

By making you merge into the single lane -and stopping that left turn lane beginning early, the BMW is creating a safe junction for everyone. Which goes to show -appearances can be deceptive.

Why pavement parking helps the school run

Here, up in the premium car corner of Bristol that is Clifton, we see why parking your BMW or 4x4 on the pavement helps the school run go so smoothly. First, 'the Avenue', where everyone has parked their cars up on the pavement. The traffic flows, so even late parents can drop their kids off at Clifton College on time, including the Jeep WR05MHL.

But just round the corner, on Guthrie Road, the BMW parked on the double yellow lines is not on the pavement, so these range-rover driving parents have to wait for the oncoming car before they can get home.


Similarly, round the corner on College road, cars parked on the road create congestion and making access to Clifton High School trickier.

This slows down child drop off and creates frustrated parents and children, which can not be a good start to a school day. And it risks your vehicle's wing mirror getting scraped.