Support the Mall Residents by Double Parking Only

With the Goldfish "I don't remember what Murdoch said" Party council candidate saying more imagination is needed to solve Clifton's problems, well, let's see what can be imagined on the Mall.

Here we see a small car (a smartcar variant WR06EDP) double parked in front of a disabled car. It's not blocking that car, once they've managed to get in 10-15 minutes of zig-zagging will get them out.

Nearby, a little Nissan is echelon parked. There's a note in its windscreen.

On the other side, a Ford Focus CA60BHD double parked, a smaller car echeloned up to the pavement. The latter has the note in the windscreen.

Let's take a look at the note

Mall Gardens Residents Association

(MGRA)

Neighbourhood Watch

IMPORTANT NOTICE

CHEVRON/ECHELON PARKING

IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT OR REGULARLY

PARK IN THE MALL GARDENS YOU WILL BE

AWARE THAT THE MAJORITY OF RESIDENTS OPPOSE CHEVRON

PARKING NOT LEAST FROM HEALTH AND

SAFETY CONCERNS AND DAMAGE. YOU WILL

ALSO NOTICE THAT THE NUMBER OF CARS

CHEVRON PARKED IS DOWN TO A HANDFUL

INCLUDING YOURS. THE AVON FIRE SERVICES

ARE CONCERNED ABOUT ACCESS TO

EMERGENCIES IN THE AREA DUE TO THE

POOR PARKING

PLEASE HAVE CONSIDERATION FOR OTHERS

HAVE PATIENCE AND FIND A PLACE TO 

PARALLEL PARK

PLEASE SUPPORT THE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

There you have it. Echelon Parking is a health and safety hazard, which is why some of the residents are so concerned about it that they have put together a lovely A4 note printed in colour which they carefully place in the windscreen of every echelon parked car, so as to encourage people to double parallel park instead.

Now, some cynics may note that echelon parking works well for small cars, whereas double parking works well for big cars too, so perhaps it's not a concern about health and safety so much as the owners of the big cars wanting to be able to park, and if everyone in a small car echelon parked they wouldn't be able to. We don't believe this. If the fire services are concerned about poor parking in the area then clearly it is echelon parking to which they are referring, and it is critical for these people to invest their own time and money into discouraging these selfish echelon parkers from endangering everyone.

Side streets

Just as in Bristol, there isn't enough space for all the important customers, even with echelon parking.

Here is where the Palo Alto council have realised the problem, and corrected by adding free two hour parking in open parking lots. Even there, someone has tried to sneak a bicycle in.

The side streets also offer unrestricted parking, making it easy to get from your SUV to your restaurant.

As with the main road, "University", there is no space in a city with such narrow roads to add any bicycle lanes.

None at all.

Yet what do we see? Somone has snuck in a bicycle and chained it -probably illegally- to a bus stop. They should be reported to the police!

Traffic Calming by YK06USX

This little mini convertible, YK06USX, has managed to make the most of the tiny area allocated to parking here, by almost, but not quite fitting in to the gap, so resorting to a bit of echelon-parking.

The result is nice bit of traffic calming, not just because it creates a pinch point, but because approaching traffic can't be sure that the mini isn't actually pulling out without bothering to indicate. This reduces traffic speeds on Zetland Road.

From a distance, the nature of the park-out can be observed. It adds a pinch point to a pinch point.

Given the risk to this vehicle's paintwork, such selfless dedication to road safety must be congratulated.

Making Echelon Parking Safer

A lot of cyclists complain about "Echelon parking" as the cars and vans reversing out can hit cyclists. Our solution: ban cyclists, isn't being taken up, here on Whiteladies Road, so alternative solutions are being investigated.

We are pleased to see that the Saab KC03TKN and the Range-Rover behind it are doing their best to reduce risk here by double parking alongside the echelon-parked vehicles. Any bicycle that can get past them will be confident that no vehicles will reverse into them during the operation.

Such cyclists may be pleased to know that some extra echelon parking will be provided behind the camera, so ensuring that the roll-out of a bus lane doesn't remove any parking spaces from the urban realm. Indeed, when combined with the double parking option seen above, there may actually be more short-stay parking than ever before.

Portsmouth Seafront -keeping it British

Now that the leader of Portsmouth council has managed to stop bicycles from endangering themselves and pedestrians, how can they get along the seafront? Ideally, they wouldn't be allowed to. But if they must, there is all we need already there.

There is a road along the seafront, right behind all these echelon-parked vehicles. Yes, the risk of a car reversing into you is high -but stop whinging, at least nobody will open a door into you, so you can cycle in the far left of the car lane, letting tax-paying cars past without inconveniencing us.

There is even a bike lane leading whole families up to this stretch of vehicles

Further along, at Eastney, there is more bike lane. Here we can see it under the car V40NFR, while some pre-teen subversives-in-waiting cycle down the pavement defiantly. Apparently the beach police do stop and fine cyclists for violating the bye laws, but sadly there are none about on this Sunday morning.

No doubt the cycling activists will come back with some proposal, like move from echelon to parallel parking. This is wrong and must be opposed.

It is not just that this will drastically reduce the amount of available parking , leading to an equivalent collapse in council revenues (year round parking fees, something like £8/day), being able to park facing the water is an inalienable right of the British.

Other countries have warm beaches, attractive people with fit bodies in skimpy swimwear sunbathing on them. We in Britain have a cold wind blowing rain over pebbles, with the car being the only place to sit and enjoy the view.

Even on the day these photos were taken, one of the hottest May days in Portsmouth for years, the cars are full of people sitting in their cars. The only concession to the blistering heat is to let down the windows.

Driving to the beach and sitting in your car is a lifestyle choice. But it is more than that -it is the British lifestyle.

If you can't face the water it doesn't work. If your view of the sea is interrupted by happy cyclists it doesn't work. All attempts to put bike lanes in on the road, or to allow bikes along the seafront pavement are attempts by the EU to undermine what Britain stands for. They are trying to make us pedal round our cities like Dutch or Danish people, buying healthy fruit by the kilogram and paying for it in Euros. It is all part of the same continental conspiracy.

Here on the Southsea seafront, we can see in the background the D-Day monument, a memorial to all the people who left from this harbour and died on the continent purely to preserve our way of life. We cannot let these bicycle-pedalling EU-officials take it away from us.

More of the Portsmouth Seafront

More on the Portsmouth Seafront, in a cycling town.

This is the Eastern end of the area, Eastney. Formerly fairly navy-centric -the building is the navy swimming pool, now open to the public.

At the end of this 30mph stretch of road -a road which closes due to storms in winter- there's a bend. On this bend, there is a hint of a bike lane. A hint. The dashed line on it means that cars are free to cut across the corner, which is what anyone taking the corner at speed would do.

The safe and sensible action for any fit cyclist would be to pull out, acquire the lane and so have no concern about cars swinging into you, but giving you more exit strategies if there turns out to be something like a parked car round the corner.

Which is not that unusual, given the way the bike lane ends, the road narrows and the first free-parking area near the seafront opens up. If even here, midwinter, there are cars in the way, high summer is going to be worse.

This is a bike lane for those willing to die, or at least injure themselves. Not for commuting, not for leisure work. You can't even bank into the corner at speed, what with the wall on the left-hand side. It has no value whatsoever. The only possible explanation for its existence is to push bicycles out of the way of cars. But even that is less than ideal, as they will still get in the way of taking the corner at speed, and then they will swerve out unexpectedly once the lane ends. Which makes it of limited value to anyone.

Portsmouth: the seafront

There's a presentation up on Portsmouth's Web site, talking about their cycling town plans, in which they wonder why the money spent on adding a no cycling sign to every lamp post hasn't reduced the amount of sea front cycling.

There are so many signs, it could almost become the logo of the cycling town.

Yet, as Galileo is claimed to have said: E pur si muove! -and yet it moves, or in this case, and yet they move, they being the cyclists on the seafront path.

Why do these pavement-criminals cycle down the wide seafront enjoying a pleasant conversation, when there is a perfectly safe road alongside?

Maybe they don't percieve the road as safe? All along the seafront lies vast swathes of echelon parking, drive in-reverse out parking, here with a car showing exactly the problems it raises. This minivan managed to scrape its front bumper driving in, yet still poked further out the back than the other vehicles, and when it moved, even approaching car traffic had to hit the brakes.

Given a choice between a road with cars reversing into you without looking, and a wide, safe seafront, the only people who are going to choose the road are the fit ones who can go up to 20-25 mph and don't want to waste time swerving around dogs being walked.

The surprising thing for Pompey then, is not why the presence of some anti-bike signs and intermittend persecution of teenagers haven't stopped the majority of the seafront cyclists to stop cycling down the path, but

1. why some people don't cycle along the path, but choose the road instead.
   
2. why the cycling team were surprised that the signs had no effect whatsoever.