Treegate: the disaster unfolds!

If there was one satisfying part of the wake, it was breaking the news to Jon Rogers that his secret plans for more trees on Bristol's streets were recorded -and seeing the despair on his face without him noticing the camera was out again!

(photo removed as we got pissed off about people using it without permission. We'll happily send you photos of other politicians, but this was taken at Chris's funeral, and to use it just to slag off the LibDem policies isn't fair. Not the criticism, just the photo)

He was devastated. After Bigotgate, after Twittergate, now this, Treegate, could be what decides the vote in Bristol.

If there is one thing that cheers us up even more, it is the Daily Telegraph Motorist's Interview with David Cameron, with some lovely quotes

One of Cameron's minders tries to warn him that he's probably said enough, but he ignores her, looks me in the eye and says: "I'm a friend of the motorist. Why wouldn't I be? Like I said, I'm a motorist myself."

What's more, he's not embarrassed by the fact that he is good friends with an unapologetic, politically incorrect petrolhead named Jeremy Clarkson.

It's not my job to suggest which way you might vote next Thursday. But of all the would-be or serving prime ministers (including Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Blair) I've interviewed over three decades, I can honestly say I've never met one as pro-motorist as David Cameron.

We also like Cameron's proposal of a fair use tax on foreign lorries, though it fails to include extending the tax to cyclists, or pedestrians, with that big slice of the road "The pavement" which is denied us except in Montpelier, Southville and bits of Fishponds. Even then, it lacks the formal painting of parking bays the way Waltham Forest has. Maybe a tax on bicycles and pedestrians was the secret "hard decisions" he was being so vague about on TV last night. We hope so.

That and the thought of John Redwood being a position of power and appearing on TV to tell off the single mothers for having their husbands leave them and the poor people off for not being born into wealthy families made us so tingly we had to nip off to that special Stokes Croft massage parlour where for an extra fee they wear fox-hunting clothes as they beat you.

The whole Telegraph interview is pretty heart-warming, and we particularly like the way the paper recognises it's really spin doctors who are trying to make Cameron seem friendly to city-folk, places where someone riding a bicycle or two men holding hands aren't considered legitimate-in-a-court-of-law reasons for you to go back to your Range Rover and get the shotgun out. But even so, the paper has a concern:

Cameron spoils it by admitting that he will start building a high-speed rail line between London and, eventually, the far north of Britain

That would really spoil it for us drivers: a fast alternative to the M1/M6 where non-drivers can drink their lattes as they check their emails on their laptops. Have you ever tried to do the M5/M6/M74 run while writing a set of powerpoint slides and steering with the knees while texting ahead your schedule? The laptop batteries never last past Lancashire and you have to pull off at Chernobyl-B services to charge them up again. A high speed train link would give the tax dodgers an edge, and that would never do.

Christ Hutt funeral part 3: Post-funeral activities

After the funeral, the cyclists meandered down to King Street, which has plenty short-stay parking for our vans, and a large area of teh street -our street- wasted on bicycles. If they are to have bike parking, it should be on pavements, preferably ones not used by cars to park. As it was, not only today did the cycle park fill up, some of the BCyC troublemakers ended up chaining four or five bicycles up on the other side of the road -again, our road and not the pavement. This is insensitive to the needs of other road users.

Chris's children: Chris Jr and Alice turned up with Chris Jr riding Chris's own bicycle.

He also brought extra biscuits in the classic "bag on handlebar" luggage style. For some reason the cycle press is scared to come out and acknowledge the effectiveness of supermarket bags from handlebars. We not only think it works -we believe if the supermarkets made carrier bags out of more visible and reflective material than the classic Sainsbury's orange, it would improve cyclist safety, especially those of students.

Chris's bike ended up in the room itself, which may have seemed a bit odd to some, but it was very apt for Chris. Generally, Chris Hutt and his bright pink bike were rarely separated, so bringing it in as a memento was appropriate.

Chris Hutt: the last ride

This, then, was Chris's last bicycle ride. Here are many of his fellow travellers. the Martins from the BCyC, Sarah of the Save the Railway Path campaign; Cecilia, Terry M and one of the Steves from that group were also present, among the many others -and those look like Sustrans people loitering to the left of the frame.

At the traffic lights, we can see Eric, ex-ByC and now involved in Cycle City work, Rob Gallagher, and various other people none of who have registration numbers for us to complain about -especially Terry Miller, who is standing on the pavement with his bicycle.

Here's the final approach to the crematorium. Notice how little hi-viz clothing was to be seen, and how they didn't get out the way of our van, despite its obvious importance. Do they not realise how dangerous it is to cycle next to a van whose driver is filming while driving?

Here we can see Jon Rogers; he also gave an excellent tribute, one which mentioned his disappointment with Chris awarding him the second place in the Bristol Traffic anti-bicycle awards.  He hasn't yet discovered we caught his secret tree plans on camera yet, something that he was only told of later on in the day.

Finally, the coffin is unloaded and taken in to the crematorium, leaving Kevin and Sylvie to take the empty vehicle away and stand guard over it. We believe that these peoplehave plans to make the September Bristol Cycle Festival more interesting -and are even behind a planned meeting on that topic, which obviously concerns us. Were he to link up with Quercus, whom we saw later on descending from St Michael's Hill with some of those critical mass people on funny bicycles, we fear for the city.

No coverage of the event inside, except to say it was pretty hard for a lot of people there -and there were a lot of people there. Furthermore, nobody seemed to have picked up on the fact that the cover photo of Chris shows him cycling the wrong way up a one way street!

Chris Hutt Funeral, part 1

One of our team members participated in the funeral procession.

The cycle hearse was supplied by Cap'n Bikebeard, a festival bike that was decorated for the event by Chris Hutt Junior.

The hearse was actually encountered on the approach to the funeral directors, with it and the support vehicle, they brought westbury to their knees.

Indeed, it was very hard to take these photographs from a motor vehicle while handling a phone call and sounding the horn, especially as more cyclists kept joining the route. By the time we were in Westbury on Trym proper, the roundabout was taken over by these troublemakers.

Out in the roundabout, artist and writer, Dru Marland. On the left, with purple jacket: John Grimshaw of Sustrans -who gave a very moving tribute.

At the head of the procession, Chris Junior is on the front left of the hearse, Cap'n Bikebeard behind in the back row. Chris senior gets to take a rest on his last bike journey. Behind the hearse, Steve K of the cycling campaign and the CTC, with some of the CTC people in their roadie clothes.

Before anyone points out that by participating in this event we must be part of some kind of vast cycling conspiracy, we will point them to this video. As you can see, bringing up the tail of the parade is a large white van: us.

Such a vehicle actually benefits the cyclists as it ensures that nobody aggressive would try and overtake them, so we hope our contribution was appreciated. It is rare -indeed this is a precedent- that we did not try overtaking them, but then the sheer number of them made it tricky.

More coverage in parts two and three.

Chris Hutt Funeral

Chris Hutt's funeral details have been announced. Cremation, wake, followed by a bike ride

Dear All

Chris Hutt's funeral will be at Canford Crematorium, 1pm on Friday 30 April.

This will be followed at 2pm by a wake at 35 King Street (ground floor) for tea/coffee, etc.

Catering numbers are limited at the wake, but nonetheless please let Chris's son (Chris Jnr) know by email (bathroombuild at yahoo dot co dot uk) or text (07894 164038) in good time if you wish to attend either or both.

Bristol Cycling Campaign are planning a memorial bike ride after the wake to celebrate Chris's life and achievements, taking in the Bristol-Bath railway path.

The date also coincides with the monthly Critical Mass ride so we could look to join forces on this one.

Please send me any suggestions you may have for a route, timing and suitable venue to end up at where we can raise a glass to Chris.

Martin Tweddell

Chair, Bristol Cycling Campaign

Until then, here are a couple of shots of Chris at last year's council elections; he was one of the reporters for The Bristol Blogger, and a fun evening was had by all. We turned up, said "we are press, where do we sit" and got a table to plug the laptop in, free wifi, and enough legitimacy that all expenditure on Bristol Traffic activities (computers, cameras, amsterdam sex tour weekends) could be declared tax deductible. The best bit: getting news out to the BB from the room where the results were announced by laptop, and hearing the twitter fans' phones go off -Chris's included- as the the BB's news feed confirmed what they were hearing in the same room

Below we see Chris with Charlie Bolton, grabbing some food. Professional political parties bring their own edibles and alcohol to these events. Only the Green party would share theirs: even the LibDems told us it was our own fault for not planning ahead. There's probably a message there.

Because Chris knew many of the councillor and politicians at the event, we ended up providing a bit of background info to the Guardian reporter who didn't know the city. If there is one regret here: failing to describe Clifton East as an edgy inner city estate where people were scared to walk the streets at night. Sometimes the truth is best kept secret.

Bristol 24-7, who published a lovely obituary, would love people to take on this part of Chris's work this coming May: a couple of people in every counting station, with camera and laptop, would give the city the best election coverage it's ever had. Get in touch with them if you can help -it would be a great way of remembering Chris through deeds.
 

BristleKRS has listed the local press and blog coverage. Chris also got a mention on Crap Cycling and Walking in Waltham Forest, which would have pleased him no-end, as the identity of the elusive Freewheeler was of great interest.

Finally, for anyone wondering why Chris would have anything to do with a blatantly anti-cyclist organisation like Bristol Traffic, here is a secret. In exchange for technical support related to web browsers (details some other time) -he was our Clifton correspondent! You wouldn't expect us to go there ourselves -there's nowhere to park!

Chris Hutt: died, march 2010

Down at Zetland Road Last Month, we were comparing illnesses. Jon Rogers, has to nip down to the BRI with chest pains, one of our B.T reporters awakes to discover a paramedic in the room on account of an "incident" in their sleep, and Chris Hutt was considering an electric bicycle because of his newly developed Angina.

Sadly, it turns out that Chris's problem wasn't going to cause that much inconvenience. Jon Rogers sent an email out this morning breaking the news that Chris was found dead:

Terrible news

Chris Hutt was found dead yesterday.

Friday 26th February was the last time I saw him, when we were all together at Zetland Road.

John Grimshaw sent me this,

"Cycling has lost a doughty champion. He was also the best plumber in the west!

"I have lost a colleague of so many years, the best of route devisers and cycling companion, and a friend indeed.

"I know he was seen as a thorn in your side, but without his support I doubt that key cycle routes we now take for granted would have been built so well, or even at all.

"His last two messages concerned the ongoing threat to the railway path and the beautiful River Avon route to Hanham. Might you consider as a fitting tribute to this so dedicated Bristol Citizen, declaring the railway path inviolate and rebuilding the riverside path to a standard he would have enjoyed?"

As John says, there is already so much around Bristol that is the better for Chris's work and energy, and those two suggestions would add to his legacy. As far as I am concerned, the railway path is already inviolate, and the riverside path would be brilliant.

My last email to him said, "Aware that not heard from you for a week or so. Trust you are well and taking a well earned break!"

We will miss him.

Jon

Here are some of our photos from the Zetland Road visit; Chris is pointedly refusing to wear hi-viz or a helmet; his bike is the pink tourer chained to the railings.

Chris was not only prepared to argue the technical details of bike/pedestrian paths and crossings, he understood that a junction or stretch of bike lane is meaningless on his own -and that for Bristol to be a city you could live in without needing to drive, everything needed to join up, so you could walk or pedal around the city.

He helped found the Bristol Traffic site, as discussed in an email in May 2008:

I carry around a cheapo digital camera and use it to similar effect, although sometimes you've got to be quick. I've posted a few on my blog , but it would be good to have a site where we could all post such pics, something like "Bad driving in Bristol". It would be a public record which could be referred to the police and authorities

Obviously Chris missed the point, our site exists to praise our fellow drivers rather than criticise them, but we happily accepted his photos, and even have a couple in the pipeline. Chris did eventually come to see things our way, and so embrace our anti-cycling award process which he was unable to give to Jon Rogers:

While most known in recent years for his Green Bristol Blog and regular appearances on the Evening Post, where his role as Agent Provocateur to the E.P.'s usual stance was there to upset the readers, his key contribution to the city was -and will continue to be- the Bristol-Bath Railway Path. With John Grimshaw and others in the Cyclebag group, they built the Railway Path while nobody was looking. It was the West of England Partnership's plans to run BRT down this route that brought him back into the cycling activists world again, and ensured that the current generation of traffic planners came to fear his name. The R.P. not only gave East Bristol a better pedestrian/cyclist route than any other part of the city, it showed the country what a city could become.

He also organised some other rides, last year his Discover Bristol route took in the M32 underpasses, the Frome Valley and led to a lovely showdown between John Grimshaw and Chris regarding routing options.

We shall miss Chris, but we shall also remember him. Everyone who walks or cycles the Railway Path is benefiting from the work he and others put in to building that path, and it exists as a wonderful memorial to everyone who wanted to change our city, to make it a better place.

The Bristol Traffic Team.

Antibicycle Awards: Bristol Zoo wins, Bristol Council loses

The judges met on site and have decided to give the Bristol Traffic antibicycle award to Bristol Zoo and Bristol Downs together for their 600 car parking spaces on the Downs with 6 bike racks that don't work for towing children to the zoo.

To make this an unbiased process, what we did was invite some of the cycling activists in the city to see what feature they hated the most, and gave the prize to that feature. Here they are, Terry and Chris on the right, talking to Adam Crowther of Bristol Council, about the Zetland Road junction that got nominated for the award.

This is where Bristol Council lost the race. Because they are going to try and fix things by changing the signal times slightly. Not just for the cyclists, but pedestrians too. While the troublemakers were loitering, one of these pedestrian people came up and joined in. She saw the hi-viz people with clipboards and assumed they were professionals, so came up and joined in with her own problems.

Apparently vehicles turning right from Zetland Road have nearly run over pedestrians who have the green man to cross the bit of the A38 the cars are using. She wanted it fixed, yet the obvious solution: don't give pedestrians a cross phase, didn't get a mention. That was it, the final straw.

Here is Cllr Jon Rogers, still smiling, still thinking he is in with a chance at winning the prize a junction where the police ticket bicycles for cycling on a pavement that cars can park on, and a light sequence designed to kill tax dodgers. But if they plan to stop the tax dodgers dying, it's lost our vote.

Chris Hutt breaks the news. Apologies for the sound quality and wobbly camera, but we had to get out of our truck for the video, and we were shivering a bit in the bitterly cold wind. The key point: he promises to do better next year.

We must also say, gracious in defeat. Always handy in a politician that.

Zoo transport

A late-breaking entry for the antibicycle awards, Bristol Zoo.

At first glance, you would think "what does the zoo do wrong, they have provided lots of bike racks". In fact we have a quote from Chris Hutt who thinks its excellent:

"There are two sets of 6 racks, so parking for 24 bicycles.
Can't complain about that." 

Given that Mr Hutt is the official complainer for the Bristol Cycling Campaign, the fact he isn't complaining about it is so unusual that it makes us suspicious. Was it a bribe? If so, how much?

There are two things odd with this picture. The light controlled pelican crossing of an important commuter route, and the strange cobbles on the pavement, just at the back wheel of the tagalong. Their cobbles' role can be a bit clearer from the other side, especially if we move the sign.

The two marked out rectangles on the pavement are in fact two of the very few disabled parking spaces in the zoo, and as they are the ones closest to the main entrance, very popular and in constant use weekends, bank holidays and throughout the summer. With two motor vehicles parked in these spaces, it is therefore impossible to park a bike with a trailer or a tagalong at any of the bike stands during peak zoo visit hours. If one were actually trying to encourage cycling to the zoo, this would be unfortunate, because nobody in their right minds goes to the zoo except with small children.

Anyone cycling would have to have some means of getting the children there, and by preventing trailers or tagalongs from using the facilities, the zoo can discourage anyone from cycling. All without troublemakers like Chris Hutt even suspecting, which makes it particularly amusing. How can the evening post run a controversy article on the zoo without any good quotes?

Well, this is where it gets fun, and where the real award nomination kicks in. The zoo doesn't want cyclists. In fact, it doesn't want any visitors to the city who don't come and park in the zoo's revenue-earning parking spaces. We know this, as they have written it down in their sustainability report. You see, there are some small problems with the zoo's plan to earn parking revenue from visitors

1. There isn't enough space in the zoo's parking space to make much money
2. The area nearby isn't resident parking, so visitors can and do park for free once the paid parking area is full

These are problems, but not insurmountable. The secret is the large unused wasteland nearby, often known as Durdham Downs. Part managed by the council, part owned by the Merchant Venturers, and somewhere we like because of its strong anti bicycle policy. Every path where a child may cycle has a big sign warning them off.

This leads to large amounts of empty space. Space that can be used. And what better use of open city parkland in the height of summer than providing parking for the zoo? It is a long standing arrangement that  at weekends and summers, currently gets turned into paid parking for the zoo.

There's a small problem with that -it's not clear that this is what was meant when the downs were to be kept for the people of the city "in perpetuity". This is why a year ago the Zoo was told that instead of this right to park here being a permanent feature, they had one year to come up with a plan.

They have had a year, and they have a plan. It is: park on the downs, add some signs.

This has taken some effort to pull off, and we will have to see what happens this week when the planning committee reviews it. What we are impressed by, however, is how the Zoo managed to hire some traffic consultants to produce a transport report which makes the case that allowing people to park on the downs is the most sustainable form of transit, all other options (walking, cycling, public transport) can be dismissed, and that Park and Ride isn't economic.

That's a good report. Read it.

First, they look at visitor traffic on a bank holiday

24%	Drove
67%	Passenger
2.6%	Walked or Cycled
3.8%	Bus
2.8%	Train or Train and bus

When you consider how many visitors they have on a bank holiday (hint, the Downs parking area has room for 600 cars), the fact that 2.6% managed to walk or cycle is pretty impressive. Presumably after the 12 bicycles parked with the child carrier poking into the main road, everyone else walked.

What is more surprising for us that nearly 7% used public transport, despite the surveyors choosing a bank holiday, the day in which all forms of public transport are at their least functional. Yet even by choosing a day when you are most likely to get visitors from outside the city, 7% used "legacy" public transport,  nearly three times the number who walked or cycled. Wow.

The surveyors, Pinnacle Transportation, to give them their credit, used this as evidence that driving was the only viable option, but because most people drove with family, it was sustainable. That's good. That legitimises us driving to school to do the sprog dropoff. Yes, it may only be 500 metres, yes we park on the school keep lines and half the pavement -but it's sustainable! We shall use that to dispute the next tickets we receive.

So, what to do? Pinnacle Transportation, whom we presume were well paid for their troubles, looked at the option for Park and Ride, and decided that it would cost too much as £1750/day. Why? First, P&R doesn't run at weekends, external visitors to the city on weekends are expected to drive in, so the zoo pays all P&R costs. That's £1450 a day. Secondly, the consultants estimate that adding P&R would reduce zoo parking revenue -on the Downs- by £300/day. That is: people choosing not to park on the downs are an expense.

That is beautiful, and it reinforces our beliefs that tax-dodging pedestrians and cyclists should be banned from the city. We've long argued they don't benefit central government's coffers, but this zoo transport report is the first time someone has spelled out that people who don't drive and park their cars on one of the city's parks cost money. If there is one fault, the report doesn't come out and denounce the 2.6% who walked or cycled, those who came by bus or train, or those who -worst of all- parked somewhere where it is free to park.

By marking down all lost parking revenue as an expense on the P+R, the transport plans can then say "too expensive". What they do propose instead is

1. Have a park and ride, but if it proves too expensive, stop it.
2. Provide better (permanent) signage to the Downs parking area for visitors

Option #1 may look good, but because of that offset-expense trick, the zoo knows that it won't be hard to make it look uneconomic, so it will die a death "we tried that, it didn't work". Instead the Downs parking area will remain, and with the better signage get even more visitors, because they won't get lost and accidentally park somewhere like Pembroke Road or College Road where it won't cost them anything. Which will make residents of those roads happy too.

Now, how does the Downs committee react? Let us look at the Nov 2009 meeting minutes. There's a fairly brutal submission from the Ramblers who argue that turning the downs over to parking is a fundamental abuse of the city's parkland, but what do they know? They may think that somewhere they like to walk is denied them -but nobody is stopping them from parking in the zoo parking area either. That leaves the "Friends of the Downs", who come out in favour not just of giving the Zoo the parking area they deserve, but making a rolling five year lease, which effectively means "forever". We are curious as to what the membership of the Friends group is, as one would, if one actually cared about the green stuff, be a bit concerned that they were more "Enemies of the Downs".

This then, is why the zoo is up for an antibicycle award. Not for the bike racks that don't actually work once there are some disabled visitors. But for the way they've managed to get the Downs friends and committee -the same people who spend so much of their paint budget on ensuring there is no safe way to cycle across most of the Downs.- to support the zoo's plans for 600-650 parking spaces there in high summer weekends and bank holidays, the dates when park visitors would be highest. That is, they have got these people to sell out the entire notion of park and replace it with parking. When you then look at the transport report, where the consultants argue, with a completely straight face, that having 600 cars drive to the city and park on the Downs is sustainable, that these people cannot walk or cycle, and that all lost parking revenue must constitute an expense for a park and ride scheme, well, it just rounds it off!

SCOOTing near Zetland Road

We are too lazy to go there ourselves, but Chris Hutt did our bidding and cycled (sorry, we will beat him soundly later!) to get some pictures of the Zetland Road/Gloucester Road nomination for our anti-bicycle awards. First look how this cyclist is riding without a helmet, and to the left of the designated cycling area.

That said, it is kind of ambiguous what bicycles are meant to do at this give way point? Ride, dismount, or get fined by the police. This is the junction where the police were doing exactly that way back in 2008, and it is still an issue at the local PACT meetings.

The cycling rules are clearer at the junction, where you can see the green light saying it is OK to go forwards and onto the A38, hoping the cars coming off Zetland Road aren't turning left towards Cromwell Road at the time.

Which today, at least one car is. Fortunately the cyclist was slow and did not get in the way, as they rarely have third party insurance, and it would be a complicated argument over liability at this junction. Normally if a car hits a bicycle running a light: the bike's fault. But here, the green light says go. So damage to your front bumper might be something you have to pay for yourself.

What say the council? As part of our anti-bicycle awards, we want to make sure the winning feature is not some transient accident which will shortly be fixed, but is in fact a deliberate design decision, implemented according to the plan. It looks good here.

Here is the answer from Adam Crowther, Head of Traffic Signals. 

"The sequence was changed recently to improve capacity thereby reducing the cycle time and reducing delay to pedestrians. We have also introduced SCOOT to better coordinate the signals.

A right turn filter was installed on Zetland Rd so that when the green man at the bottom of Elton Rd runs traffic from Zetland Rd is allowed to turn right - traffic cannot turn left. When the green man goes out traffic from Zetland Rd is allowed to turn right and left.

Cyclists will therefore only be in conflict with traffic from Zetland Rd that is turning right and they will not be in conflict with traffic turning left from Zetland Rd. Although this sounds a bit pedantic cyclists should remain between the studs - although this is not really a good idea as the opposite pavement is too narrow for shared use. Prior to the changes if cyclists turned right from Elton Rd into Zetland Rd they would have been in conflict with the green man. This indicates that the cycle crossing is essentially there to allow cyclists to go inbound on the Gloucester Rd not right into Zetland Rd.

This was a minor change to signal timings so we did not go to TAA as there seemed little point. I can understand that this is not perfect for cyclists but I do not feel it is particularly unsafe as cyclists have good visibility of right turning traffic and can merge in with it.

Signal priorities/sequence changed signs have been erected around the junction to inform people that the sequence has changed.

Whilst in hindsight it would have been beneficial to inform cycle stakeholders of the proposed changes I do not think we would have changed our proposals in any significant way. There are significant benefits to all users of the junction aside possibly from cyclists from Elton Rd. Buses have seen significant improvement in their reliability and after the changes all buses were running on time between the St James Barton roundabout and this junction. Similarly as the capacity has been improved the cycle time is lower and pedestrians experience less delay. It is also likely that rat running will be reduced over time due to the increased capacity. Cyclists have also benefited on most approaches due to the increased capacity and shorter cycle time. In particular the outbound Gloucester Rd movement receives significantly more green time, this is a movement heavily used by cyclists.

I apologise for not informing the cycle stakeholders but we did not consider this a significant change. The benefits to all road users including cyclists are clear. There are no similar signal phasing changes planned in the near future. Let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks,

Adam"

This is wonderful, the best quote yet from one traffic planner who is clearly on our side.

1. It manages to ignore the fact that of the destinations of bicycles coming off Elton Road, into-town is the main one, as anyone heading North would stay in Bishopston until later, on account of the bike lane being full of parked cars, and the pavement also being full of parked cars. 
2. The second option would be up Zetland Road; this is no longer possible as you would cycle across traffic.
3. It notes that prior to the sequence changes, bicycles on the shared bike/pedestrian light would have been in conflict "Prior to the changes if cyclists turned right from Elton Rd into Zetland Rd they would have been in conflict with the green man." -and uses this as justification for the feature. They really don't think anyone should be using this route except to get to the bike park across the road, or to turn left onto Gloucester Road northbound.
4. It states that signing that priorities have changed is sufficient cues of the changes "Signal priorities/sequence changed signs have been erected around the junction to inform people that the sequence has changed.". This is subtle, as the signs don't tell bikes that they can now get run over by traffic coming from the right, yet it is enough of a disclaimer "we put signs up" that the council avoids liability.
5. It argues that bicycles benefit, The benefits to all road users including cyclists are clear., because the cycle time at the junction has decreased. To be explicit, there used to be a longer delay between the period in which it was safe to cross the road, now there is a shorter delay between times you can get run over by passing cars.
6. It reminds bicycle people that they aren't important "we did not consider this a significant change", while clearly implies that the bus companies are in-loop on these decisions.
7. Because they didn't bother involving the bicycle people, it is unlikely that anyone bothered to count the volume of bicycle traffic leaving this junction, or their destinations. It is now too late to do so and make defensible accusations of the number of cyclists who are now at risk, because the feature has been rolled out. Nobody will try turning right into Zetland Road; less people will use the junction at all. 
8. Discouraging people from cycling down the A38 will benefit bus times on a showcase bus route, so bring benefits to FirstBus.

Lovely. The best bits come when you think about cycling city. This contraflow, Elton Road, is the primary route for people from Bishopston, the target cycle city community. This change makes it clear that these people shouldn't think about cycling in, they should use a bus instead. FirstBus 1, bicycle troublemakers 0.

This is a showcase bus route remember? And the council's side of the cycle city funding was to come from dual-counted bus lane improvements as well as s106 building development funds. Which means any costs of this improvement may be something we can bill the bicycles for!

We are hoping to get some feedback from UWE about their feature, to round off the pre-award event. In the meantime, can we thank Redland People for their coverage of our site, but point out that we do not consider ourselves local cyclists. They are missing the point entirely. Yes, some local troublemakers like Chris Hutt may be complaining, but Bristol Traffic? We celebrate the irony of a junction where the police have been fining cyclists for cycling through red lights having the signals changed so that cyclists have to cycle through red lights. We relish even more the delicious thought that not only does this stop anyone from Bishopston, the cycling city target area, wanting to cycle into the city, costs related to this junction may be billable as part of the council's contributions to Cycling City.

If we were cyclists we'd be upset, miffed. Feeling neglected, abandoned and perhaps even disappointed. Maybe even angry. But no, we aren't. We are laughing at the profound difference a bit of signal tweaking can make between making a commute by bike if not pleasant, at least survivable, and making it something where only the brave or the stupid will try and cycle round. We are also over the moon about the implications this has for the council's traffic department, where the cycling officers clearly aren't even involved in these kind of day-to-day decisions, and nor are the councillors.

We shall return to "SCOOT" at some other time, it looks interesting, and have engaged in some discourse with the people at the Transport Research Laboratory on its details. They are not yet scared of us, and are answering politely.

Bristol Snow Chaos: Breaking News

It seems that the blogosphere does have a use. Here at Bristol Traffic we use it to promote the car and pavement parking, whilst relentlessly pursuing an anti-cyling agenda.

Others, however, appear to use blogging as some sort of way getting messages across, to Bristol City Council, for example. Over on the BristolGreenBlog Chris Hutt managed to be challenged to a dual by Cllr Jon Rogers.

It seems that today, possibly as a result of that dual, we motorists are now being scorned as Bristol City Council begin to actually clear the pavements. We have photographic evidence, gathered by our roaming reporter, that highly visible gangs of ex-Street Cleaners are actively trying to improve the conditions of Bristol's pavements.

When will this nanny state pandering stop?

A hint of Dirac

The question "where do they worry about cryogenic fluid transportation processes" was guessed correctly by Chris Hutt: the University. In fact, the Physics, department, the big building at the top of the hill that looks like a castle. An interesting place to visit.

The follow-on question "why do they transport cryogenic fluids" wasn't picked up on, the answer being "a lot of physics experiments use it, often to keep the detectors supercool". We have no data on which specific experiment they were using, though our walkabout did turn up this room with a light on in front of the door, up on the top floor, with the tower in the background.

Let's take a closer look

"Positron Research", "Caution Radiation" and "No admittance". Not entering sounds good.

Positrons are the antimatter equivalent of electrons; they have the same mass, but carry a positive charge, and when they come into contact with normal matter they cease to exist in an event that yields more energy/gram than your basic fission or fusion processes (technically that's not true, it's just that in an matter/antimatter event everything ceases to exist, whereas both fission and fusion only use up a small fraction of the fuel.

Looking north from the facility, we see the top of St Michael's Hill, someone standing on some buildings in a hi-viz top, then Redland (church+school), and in the distance the hills of Wales. The two white dots in front of Wales are the peaks of the Second Severn Crossing.

This photo is appropriate, because it looks to where Dirac grew up: Bishopston. He and Higgs both went to Cotham School, which is just to the right the church in the foreground. Paul Dirac got a Nobel Prize for the work that proposed the existence of antimatter; the Dirac equations are apparently quite profound to those people that understand them.

It's amusing that there is a branch of society that chooses to dispute some bits of science because they don't like the results: Evolution and Global Warming being the current conflict points, humanity having moved on from the argument about whether or not the Earth goes round the sun. The Dirac Equations, now their conclusions are quite clearly wrong, how could you have "negative particles" that cannot exist together with normal matter? Yet the unbelievers, be they the US religious right or the Daily Mail, they steer clear of the hard stuff, the stuff that really doesn't make sense, leaving the physicists undisturbed as they ship cryogenic fluid up to the positron experiments.

For further reading: AIMStar: Antimatter Initiated Microfusion For Pre-cursor Interstellar Missions".

Progress on Prince Street Bridge

Southville Parking posts us this lovely snap from this summer (Summer 2009 was a Tuesday in September, as you may recall), showing how part of the evolution of Prince Street Bridge is going on

A year ago: two lanes for cars, bikes and buses, narrow pavements on both sides. Then, change: the western side/northern direction was blocked off to be bike+pedestrian, while the other direction became alternating all-vehicles. This makes for some interesting options for tax-dodgers who insist on cycling.

Together with Forest Pines, Chris "known subversive" Hutt has shown that the long term plan is driven by Bus Rapid Transit; the eastern lane will have the pavement removed and the route made bus/bike only, despite the inconvenience this will be to the forthcoming 8000 Ashton Vale commuters and people who will discover that Tesco Sainsburys Southville is going to be the best supermarket the city has seen.

What's not been covered is how the rollout will be -will it be one big day when cars are banned from the bridge, and bikes are forced into the road, rather than the pavement? This picture answers the question.

The careful placement of an ice-cream van not only brings in revenue for those ice-cream vans who failed to win the Banksy franchise, it discourages bicycles from using the bike/pedestrian side, and so gets them used to it being taken away. As an added bonus, northbound cars awaiting the green light can buy some ice cream too.

Radio4 on Cycling City

Many of the well known subversives have been given airtime on Radio 4, with a program on the Cycling City initiative.

We in Bristol Traffic are upset that the entire article discusses what is the best way to make cycling safe, rather than what punishment the legal system should apply for "cycling in a built up area"

We were not invited to place our views, those of the motorist. We are fully aligned with the AA's views that driving to school is what makes us British, and that encouraging walking and cycling is multicultural bollocks.

This is our city:



Having listened to the program, here are our observations:

• The drivers are not looking at the reporter because he is talking to himself as he cycles along. They are looking at him for riding a bicycle and trying to decide what to do with him.
  
• The person criticising the cyclists, "a load of flies" makes a valid point. Delivery vehicles are more important than commuters.
• We are worried about Chris Hutt -we now have photographic evidence of him talking to recumbent riders.
  

Driving Standards

That prominent subversive, Chris Hutt, has been wondering whether people should be a higher standard of driving from professional drivers -buses, taxis -and if it is not met, have some way of complaining. Presumably he was thinking of taking photographs of buses and taxis parked in ASL lanes and such-like, and complaining to the council.

We in Bristol Traffic think such persecution would be needless. They are trying to make a living. It would not be fair to report this taxi, purely for parking over a build-out in front of Cotham Grammar school at 08:30 on a schoolday morning, to complain that the taxi WN57JZA was endangering schoolkids such as the one crossing the road.

Because it would not be fair. That schoolkid was actually dropped off by the car WM56FMP also on the buildout five seconds earlier.

Dissent in the cycling community

Being an underground documentary project, we in Bristol Traffic are secretly infiltrating the cycling and walking groups, to identify the troublemakers, and stir up dissent. Here we are pleased to see John Grimshaw of Sustrans publicly apologising to Chris Hutt of Green Bristol Blog (out of picture to the right).

Chris had stated that a road crossing of the A4174 was part of the Cycling City plans, John corrected him, then Chris corrected John. We like to see such disagreement, as it stops them co-ordinating their efforts against our plans.

But who do we see in the foreground? Laughing? Cllr Jon Rogers, that's who. We shall have to find some more embarrassing photos of him, to stop him interfering with our plans to make Bristol a Car Friendly City.

Railway Path: 24 years old

That known subversive, Chris Hutt, is celebrating 24 years of the Bristol-Bath railway path's existence. He may celebrate it, having helped build it, having snuck out with other troublemakers like John Grimshaw, and built the country's premier walking/cycling path while British Rail wasn't looking.

But think of the damage it has done for the city. A stretch of Bristol is forever deprived the option of a railway line. When our strategic partners, the West of England Partnership, tried to reclaim this wasteland for bus use, all those whining tax-dodgers got together and fought it off. Yet it was built for such public transport in the first place.

We do like to visit the R.P., primarily as it is a good way of keeping our eye on those subversives: Chris Hutt, Josh Hart, Steve Meek and others. Here, on the first Sunday in August, we have one of the original subversives, John Grimshaw, cycling from Bath to Bristol.

Why exactly is he cycling on the path? Is he enjoying the first sunny day for six weeks? No, it is part of a train journey from Wiltshire. Apparently he and three others were thrown off the train at Bath, because there were more than the official number of bicycles (2) on the train.

From John's perspective, he is probably thinking that it was lucky that he had the foresight to build a 15 mile walking/cycling path, just in case such an event should occur. But look at it from the train company's perspective: this man stole a line from them, the least they can do is make him use it.

Elsewhere we see that some subversive is advocating boycotting the cafe at Bitton, because the hobbyists want to extend the railway line. It was a railway line once, it can be again. A volunteer-run train service running one train a day could be a valuable contribution to our city's transport needs.

Stealth Parking a SmartCar in Bath

Chris Hutt sent this one in -it's of a car hiding in the tunnel under Pulteney Bridge

in Bath, on the footway and double yellow lines.

Were it not for the flash of the camera bringing up the number plate -X391LKV- so clearly, you wouldn't know the car was there. Which shows why SmartCars are so suited to the city: you can get them onto bits of pavement no other car will fit, into places the parking enforcement teams don't bother to go to. Nicely done.

Match Day

Chris Hutt was down near Ashton Gate on match day, observing the solutions supporters and residents have to come up with to find somewhere nearby to park

The Audi TT V960JBH has managed to take advantage of the lowered kerb and so get onto the pavement without threatening the bodywork on the low-clearance toy. And its wing mirrors are well protected from passing cars.

Enclosure

This web site likes to be shallow and entertaining: focus on irony over insight.

But sometimes we have crossover posts, and today is one, based on information discovered by Chris Hutt.

The Chocolate Factory development includes money to traffic calm the railway path, and the speeding bicycles


That's right, not satisifed with turning swathes of the greenery that constitutes the parkland of the path, they now want to slow down the bicycles going past. Presumably that's their workaround for the problem that has been noted in all public consultations: having a row of staircases accessing the path is a stupid idea. Rather than fix the idea -access via a shared route, the architects want to retain the staircases, and then somehow traffic calm the cyclists.

Because there is no way to safely build cycle houses alongside a bicycle and pedestrian route, without doing something about all those pesky bicycles.

This makes a complete mockery of the cycle housing. Everyone who saw the plans thought the steps were two things: an attempt to enclose the greenery, and a stupid idea. This new plan is even more stupid, and an attempt to take over the path itself.

It's also another form of gentrification. That's always the problem. Take a run down area, turn the nice-but-abandoned factories, dockland housing, empty greenery into nice houses for nice people, and they start wanting to change details of the area. Some things are for the better -its nice to have pubs where you can survive a night without having to deal with two knife fights and a glassing. But some things are for the worse. That pub stops being your convenient place to buy your week's worth of cooking-ganja; it starts to be sit-down-meal gastropub. It stops letting you in.

Trying to traffic calm the bristol-bath railway path is an example of this. The designers loved the theory of an urban walking/biking path through greenery, but didn't like the details: the greenery made for good plots of building land, and as for the biking, well, its' too fast for people trying to live alongside the path. Presumably next the walking will become an issue, with the residents reporting suspicious looking people walking up and down the path. For resident's safety they will ban walkers and try and run a bus along it instead.

St Michael's Hill on skis

St Michael's Hill, as noted, was closed to cars except those that felt they were exempt from the road closed sign. It means that pedestrians had somewhere to walk -the middle of the road

Chris Hutt posts a link to an E.P. article, showing that earlier on that day, someone skied down the hill.

This skier is showing some good avalanche/mountain safety by descending early in the morning, when the avalanche risk is lowest and snowbridges hold up. However, the photographs do show that he had no lights on, and therefore was a threat to traffic. Furthermore he was not wearing a helmet. This was a dangerous example to other skiers, and we are surprised and disappointed that the local press is praising this person, rather than condemning him.