Two cyclists killed in Hanham

As has been nationally reported, two cyclists were killed in Hanham on Sunday afternoon. The driver of the car has turned themselves in.

The thoughts and condolences of most Bristolians, whether they cycle or not, will be with the friends and families of the deceased.

Bristol is a much smaller town than London; you end up recognising and becoming acquainted with many people, just because you pass them and meet them more often. For that reason, its possible that one of the regular Bristol Traffic submitters may know of them -or know someone who does. Right now: uncertainty; the only news anyone has are the snippets that come out on the press. On that topic, the Evening Post has shown the decency to turn off comments in their coverage of the tragedy. Having idiots post comments about helmets is not appropriate or welcome.

For those people outside the city who don't know Hanham, well, it's unappealling to cycle through. Kingswood has long had a tradition of being outside Bristol; Hanham similar -and it's not far from St George -one of whose resident's was convicted last year of a "moment of madness" road rage attack on a cyclist. That's not representative of the area; another way to view it is as "a part of the city that is not yet a cycling city".  The A431 may be a more direct route from Bitton to the city centre, but the Railway Path is preferred by cycle. Even there, the Kingswood stretch is the one where you are most likely to encounter a teenager on a motorbike.

There's no reason to speculate on the killing itself, except we will use that term: killing. Someone made some decisions on Sunday that resulted in the death of two people.

Assuming it was the driver who drove off after the crash who made those decisions, the track record of the UK legal system's ability to deliver justice in death-by-car killings is very awful. Sometimes the penalty can be less expensive than a parking ticket.

We've seen the Avon and Somerset police to be supportive of cyclists in the past, what we shall wait to see is if the CPS and judiciary are also supportive. Certainly we don't think that any crime that results in death -even if is "just" a car accident - should be handled by a magistrate alone.

Let's wait and see.

In the meantime, we extend our condolences to those who knew the deceased.

EP concerns: are they becoming pro-cyclist?

We're a bit worried about the Evening Post this week, after they published an article criticising a white van for failing to stop after knocking a cyclist off their bike on the St Pauls roundabout.

All we can say here is that it is fortunate that the E.P. commenting team managed to point out the obvious: that most cyclists are law-breaking criminals, therefore the statement by the cyclist is probably untrue, and even if it is, they deserved it.

What nobody seems to have picked up on, here on the St Pauls roundabout itself, is a new sign that you can just see in the distant verge looking towards the Lawrence Hill roundabout: the speed limit on the dual carriageway has been dropped to 40 mph. This not only adds to our journey time, it will encourage more cyclists to try and use the road, to try and cycle across this junction -which it is clearly not safe to do! Lowering this speed limit on a busy motorway approach route will only encourage non motorised traffic, and so endanger them.

What's even worse, when an article showing how Gary Hopkins, our new council cabinet member for transport had to park at a bus stop to nip into some shops, some of the commenters actually criticised Gary, even though most -rightfully- blamed passing cyclists.

The fact is, if you drive round the city, the only short stay parking places are the ones where it is not technically legal: the double yellows, the bus stops, the school-keep-clear zones, the ambulance-only areas, the zebra crossings. Anyone who drives round the city, who tries to contribute to the local economy by nipping into shops or pubs on the way in or out knows that. Yet the E.P, rather than say Yes! We have a man on the inside! Finally someone who understands our problems! they criticise him, they say this is wrong, he should stop it.

Gary Hopkins is not a criminal. Being Gary Hopkins is not a crime

We just think we should say that. So we can say that we were first when the T-shirts using these slogans appear.

Now, here is where it gets weird. After the denouncement of Gary went up, all the commenters started blaming cyclists or even joining in the denouncement -yet now those comments have gone. All of them. It's as if nobody ever said anything on the topic. They have been uncommented. All that is left is a couple of letters on the letters page, both of which blame Gary, rather than the failure of the city to provide short-stay parking by our cities newsagents, off-licenses and takeaway outlets. What has happened? Why are those people who dare to say the truth being censored by the E.P?

The polis on fishponds road

Police van up on the zig-zags on Fishponds Road by Alcove Road

Could be a speed camera, van, perhaps?

On the lampost to the right of the picture is the forlorn looking incident-witnesses-wanted sign from May's Mercedes hit-and-run collision with a bike heading in the same direction as the police van is pointing. The authorities are apparently still looking for the blue Mercedes.