good enough for the sustrans founder

We know that people have been complaining that the concorde way still forces people to cycle through bicycle-unfriendly roads in horfield. However, we have hard evidence that John Grimshaw is happy to use it. Here we see him on Dovercourt Road, looking perfectly happy.

Furthermore we see the shared-space concept being rolled out, as the bus stop provides short stay paveparking for motor vehicles, parking which provides a space for bicycles to get buy

Such shared spaces are clearly to be encouraged, even if the Guide Dogs for the Blind charity is complaining about such things.They say: how can you tell where the pavement ends? We say: when you walk into a car it means you are about 50cm from the pavement. Next question?

North Fringe Route Update

Both cyclists who read this site will be interested to hear that the North Fringe cycle route, linking Abbey Wood with the Farm Pub, will be installed this weekend; the schedule still says "February". Here is the view from the B&Q side.

Sadly, for those cyclists, the council is still looking at selling off the land, so the greenery may not last for long.

Further up the route, the council is preparing for the event by parking vans saying "look out for cyclists" up on the pavement.

By parking directly opposite a road junction, the council van CN06CXR ensures traffic approaching Wordsworth Road will know to look out for bicycles.

Cyclists: losers or gentry?

Our coverage of cycle-friendly hairdressers in Cheltenham Road raised a comment from a known subversive: are cyclists therefore gentry? Good point. We hadn't considered the origin of the word gentrification before now.

1. Really important people: they drive.
2. Poor, under funded students: they drive.
3. Outside the inner city, people don't walk.

Cyclists are interesting. While cinema shows that any adult riding a bicycle is a loser, there is some discussion about how best to manage this conflict of images between cyclist-as-loser and cyclist-as-posh-git-with-fancy-bike. The answer is both images are true. Some have money, but not the intelligence to realise they can get a car for the amount they spend bicycles. All are losers.

That's why were horrified to see this footage from Horfield.


Within a couple of seconds, our van encountered two pedestrians and a cyclist -with one of the pedestrians walking in the road as if they had the right to. This is not Montpelier! This is a nice fast road where people park up on the pavement to let passing traffic through. Yet today, somebody walking. Here!

We had to drive up the rest of the road in shock, until the sight of all the cars and vans up on the pavement reassured us that this was a temporary event.

A local driving school discusses the highway code

Our coverage of the anti-car streets of Horfield generated some comments from 2nd2none driving school, who seemed to misinterpret our photos of one of their instructors cars parked on the pavement as some form of criticism. Nothing could be further from the truth! We are merely jealous that the instructor who lives in the area has some empty pavement outside their house that they can call their own. In the inner city we can spend twenty minutes driving round looking for some space on a buildout or zebra crossing, yet in the suburbs, there is a bit of pavement every household can call their own. The only time we've ever said anything mildly critical of this driving school was when we caught them parking legally in Montpelier, because that's failing to teach people the local skills. Robbies driving school never gets caught doing that.

First, they say:

by this comment you dont actually drive and are simply a busy body with nothing better to do than ride around complaining about trivial things like this.

Bristol Traffic is a community project that exists to document, not take sides. You appear to have taken our coverage as some form of criticism, for which we must apologise.

Anyway, the driving school made some valid points, the first one being:

we teach our pupils to park correctly but anyone can clearly see that these roads are far to small to do that.
...
at times parking on the pavement is unavoidable as to keep the road clear for other users.

Exactly. There is the theory "don't park on places you aren't allowed to", and practice "park where you need to" -and its the difference between the two which we find fascinating, and why driving school and L-plated cars get extra coverage that normal cars don't usually merit. We aren't criticising, merely observing and documenting.

Now, -and this is where it gets interesting- some people replies to the driving school's comments, not agreeing with them, but instead pointing out the bit of the highway code that discusses parking on pavements! This is shocking! Even more so when at more than one of the people replying claimed to be a contributor to the site! We shall have to pay more attention to who we let submit photographs and videos, as some of them clearly hold different opinions from our own -and the rest of the tax paying motorists in the city who subsidise their pedestrian lifestyle. See that? Pedestrian. It's come to mean "slow". There's a hint there.

Fortunately, the driving school replied and made a key point that wins the argument:

as for the highway code, this is a rule book that was written in 1931 with approximately 2 million cars on the road and the motor car being a non essential commodity, not the 27 million cars that now exist on this small island. There simply isnt enough road space for driving or parking and Bristol has one of the worst managed road systems of any city's.

This is precisely what we think, which is why we exist to document how utterly out of touch the highway code is, such as its complete lack of exemptions for anyone like us doing deliveries in town.

Look at this white van, WP57WGW, parked over a zebra crossing at the bottom of Cotham Hill December 8 2010! Zebra crossings and belisha beacons are a 1930s idea -time to move on!

Look at N&C deliveries truck N6MOV, who know that unloading pallets takes priority over solid white "do not cross lines" and double yellow lines alongside them on the Cotham Hill on December 8. Yellow lines? Obsolete! Time to move on!

Again -what a coincidence- here on Cotham Brow, December 8, Falafel King's delivery van WR58GWG is parked up on the pavement on double yellow lines. Yes, the old highway code says you must not do this, but if you need to get falafels into van, what else can you do? Double yellow lines? Pavements wide enough for pedestrians? Obsolete! Time to move on!

We close, however, with this video of the streets in Horfield round where the 2nd2none car was spotted, giving viewers from outside the city a harsh introduction to this area's problems. The roads aren't wide enough for cars to park two abreast, and the alternative -park on one side walking a bit- would involve walking a bit. As for double parking -forget it! These aren't the wide streets of Clifton.

The 2nd2none driving school must feel so proud as they drive round these streets, seeing what may be many former happy customers, not only having got past the test, but parking in the streets the way people in our city really need to do -even in the parts of town where there are still spaces on the other side of the road.

And of course, if you want to get new customers for your motor vehicles, there is the tilleys tactic, namely co-opting the bike path, footpath or pavement to sell your wares. Every pedestrian whose route is obstructed by a driving school vehicle will realise that driving not only gets them round town better, it lets them park conveniently afterwards, and so will be more tempted to spend the money to learn to drive.

Keiths Driving and Parking School

Along dovercourt road, we see a member of Keiths Driving School and a paying customer getting their paveparking right.

Note how

• the wheels are all aligned
• it is further in than the nissan micra, so should avoid being scraped by passing traffic
• the driver has left enough space for a pedestrian to pass

Learning such skills are what makes the difference between a low-end driving school and a high-end one. We just hope that the driving examiner recognises the harsh truth about Horfield's parking problems, and doesn't live a noddy-land world where people park on the roads and even then not opposite junctions or within 50 feet of a corner.

2nd2none shows how it's done

Yes we've seen this car before. The miracle that is an internet-scale index/search engine tells us we saw WR08HXK in exactly the same place in Chedworth Road, Horfield, back in March.

Well, before your customers are ready for the pavements of Monty, you need to teach them how to get on and off the kerb safely, and quiet roads like this with plenty of dropped kerbs are ideal. One issue though: six months? And their customer is still learning? That's not good.

Police don't have a problem with pavement parking

A heartwarming letter from someone on the opposing team reaches our inbox, with photos.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Slug
Date: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 4:26 PM
Subject: Police don't have a problem with pavement parking
To: bristol.traffic


I hope you are pleased that you now have the police on your side with regards to pavement parking.

I reported this car V298FAN at 9 am this morning, and to my surprise found it was still in the same place with no sign of a ticket on 7 hours later, so I phoned up the police and found out they had been to Tilling Road and looked at the car during the day and decided that it wasn't blocking the road and that there was enough room for pedestrians to get by. 

I have re-reported it as several parents found it difficult getting their children past this obstruction right on the inside of quite a blind bend. The policeman is obviously narrower than me (must find out what diet he is on), and because he has been provided with special work clothes he doesn't mind brushing up against the prickly beriberis plant (whereas I don't want to spoil my cashmere cycling jacket). The lady on a disabled scooter/wheelchair couldn't fit through either (maybe she could also go on the policeman's diet).

Slug

As usual, complaints from alternative transport enthusiast are a metric by both we and HMG's Minister for Cars, the Rt Hon Philip Hammond are measured: the more the better.

We must remind our supporters that this is why they must attend their local PACT meetings, here the one on October 11, to make our priorities known, and not those of people like this "slug" person, who is clearly wasting police time just when the country can afford it least.

Tilford road is handy for Southmead Hospital, incidentally.

Friday Quiz

A lot of the cyclists complain about cars parking on the pavement, while we, the majority of the city defend our need to this and complain about the cyclists on the pavement.

But what if those who park on the pavement are cyclists? This car, R471EJW, has an "I'd rather be cycling" sticker in the back of it, up on the pavement of Dovercourt Road.

Do we defend their right to park here while denouncing their urge to cycle? And what about the cyclists? What do they say?

Letting down the white-van side

White vans. It's not just a great vehicle for urban use, it's a lifestyle choice. Buy one, and you are part of a community.You drive around with your copy of the sun, a stack of yellow parking tickets and the remains of a bacon butty on your dashboard, you stick one elbow out the window holding a phone to your ear -and you belong. A friendly nod to the other vans, cutting each other a bit of slack. Not just a transport options, we, the under-respected white van drivers are the ones who hold our city together. Regardless of whether its a big job or something that just needs an AA battery, taking the van out makes a statement.

Which is why we are sad to have this photograph -taken from our van- of someone clearly carrying building equipment on a bicycle up Dovercourt road.

If he'd been in a van, he'd have been one of us, welcomed. Instead, well, of course we had to cut him up while sounding our horn. He didn't have a helmet on, did he?

Dovercourt Road -less forgotten?

There's an interesting sentence  in the council proposal to sell off the Dovercourt Open Space

it could be used in conjunction with the redevelopment of adjoining sites if proposed in the future.

Not wanting to do research ourselves, one of our reporters drove their van to the bottom of Dovercourt Road, the cul-de-sac where nothing happens, and waited for a pedestrian to come by, where we doored them (pavement side) and asked them some questions as they recovered. The open space area is to the left of this photo, incidentally.

Apparently the plan is to sell of the Muller Road bus station, knock down the three bungalows you can see behind our white van, and open up a direct link between Dovercourt Road and Muller road, instead of the turn off and traffic lights you have to deal with today. Looking up the road (open space on the right) you can see there is room to put your foot down here.

This finally gives people a reason to drive down this road. Fast. Normally the only visitors are outsiders who don't see the small turnoff that leads to the city and carry on down at speed. We know this as Josh Hart used this road as his sample of "a quiet road" in his comparison of three roads of equal widths and different traffic rates: Dovercourt Road, Filton Avenue and Muller Road. This was the road where people knew their neighbours across the road, where they talked to each other, something so unusual it made the national press, as well as the local magazine.

Josh's survey showed this road only gets 140 vehicles/day, which leaves them out from the vibrant heart of the city.
The opening up of this road to through traffic would let Josh write a followup paper, showing how social relationships change when a road that was a quiet cul-de-sac suddenly becomes busy.

It also has some very interesting implications for the North Fringe route. The cycle path was planned to bridge over the stream, meander through the open space and then the cyclists can turn right onto this dead end road. But if the Muller Road terminal really does go away

1. This won't be a quiet turning any more, it will be turning right over through traffic.
2. The road won't be quiet
3. They may reroute the bike path

Frankly, we think they should just kill the bike route plan now. With direct car access to Muller Road there's no need for it,; the crossing of the former open space just reduces its resale value. And, with a nice fast route all the way to the rugby grounds, why cycle? Why not drive up? Park and walk, or, if we can get that historical access to Abbey Wood sorted out, drive all the way up to the MoD site?

Bacon Roll opportunities off Muller Road

At last there is a use for the widened pavement on Muller Road -part of the North Fringe Cycle Path, which is still ongoing.

The sign lets passing motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists know the current cost of a bacon roll at the van round the corner, in front of B&Q. As you can see, this is popular. The van itself is the one in front, two Sita vehicles behind it, more in the B&Q parking area.

And there's the problem, see. Parking. This van and its customers need more space than this side road can provide. What to do?

Well, when we turn the camera round 180 degrees, we get an idea.


There's a bit of a stream, then a large amount of space. Unused space. Well, technically it's parkland, but as the council say, "it is little used other than by dog walkers" . They say that in the document which discusses selling off the site for development.,
Possible open space disposals in the Horfield and Lockleaze Neighbourhood Partnership Area.

In Horfield Lockleaze, two spaces have been identified as low value and are proposed for disposal. In some cases the value of a space could be improved by its partial development, allowing housing to be built facing onto the space and providing natural surveillance to the remainder. Then, what is often a poorly and misused backland site, can become of greater value to the local community and attract more people to use it.

See that? An underused bit of green space can be be made useful by development. Because a big wide bit of greenery, without housing overlooking, it's too scary to visit. We don't propose housing though, we propose expanded car parking for the bacon buttery van.

There you have it then. Wasted greenery -grass and trees- which could be redeveloped.


There's just one small flaw in the plan. As they say in their document

Planning permission has been granted for a cycle route through this space to connect Dovercourt Road with the road alongside B & Q and from there to Muller Road, this includes a long bridge over the stream. This will effectively divide the space into two.

Yes, while the parks team have been busy working out how to save the council money by selling off parkland, those road-tax-funded cycle route planner people have been busy getting a cycle route designed here with a bridge going over the stream. Oh, the irony! We relish in it! There they were, thinking they designing a nice route to cycle through greenery, using Bristol Council land over the railway land option -because it would be easier- when someone else was trying to work out how best to sell off the land, and, because there currently isn't any cycle traffic through here apart from the odd MTB-er who does the stream at the top, ignoring the extra throughput planned. We laughing, obviously, while the locals and cyclists are probably wailing and gnashing their teeth. Just think -if people drove onto this parkland for picnics, like they do on The Downs, it wouldn't be up for sale!

What do we think? Well, those people who like a bit of greenery and a bike lane through it ought be dropping a note to the Lockleaze Voice people, saying, how do we stop this? But we, well, we are thinking how best to salvage what could turn out to be a completely wasted foot/bike bridge. Our solution: use the bridge to get to and from the bacon roll van! Our road tax, put to use!

Shared Space at work

Lovely photo of how the Shared Space idea, where the lines between pavement and road are blurred to produce a safer environment, helps on Dovercourt road between Horfield and Lockleaze -this road is also going to be part of the North Fringe cycle route, if funding for the bridge at the bottom doesn't get taken away and used for something useful like parking by a school.

Look how this stretch of pavement not only provides somewhere safe for children to play, but parking for a van, the minivan K648EJH -and a bus stop!

If you look at the full size image, you can see the woman in the photo is happy, she really must appreciate this shared-space infrastructure, giving her somewhere pleasant to stand while waiting for a FirstBus bus to turn up.

Pull up! Pull up!

What should we see this morning but a hot air balloon apparently doing an unscheduled landing somewhere in Horfield, just by the gas towers. There is some parkland there, we think.

We hope they landed safely. We'd also like some pics that anyone has of that time one had to land on the railway line at the Arches -something straight of Thomas the Tank Engine there.

The Muller Road disaster

While some of the cycling troublemakers complain that the Cycling City money isn't having any effect, our complaint is that in the parts of the city where we drive -clearly not places the troublemakers go- it is impacting our commute.

Take Muller road, the high-speed, high-traffic-volume route from Horfield to the M32. It is for this road alone, that the M32 includes signs for Horfield. Yet what is happening?

At the end of the Farm Pub Path, they really are putting in a wide, separate, bike lane. We had hoped that the money would be frittered on a bike lane with trees in the middle of it, as with Coronation Road. One that is no use to bicycles, but justifies us beeping our horns when there are cyclists on the road.

Fortunately, it seems to run out after a short distance, forcing the bicycles to do some kind of crossing thing, or run into whatever vehicle will be parked on the road where it widens.

As well as this long-term disaster, we are pretty unhappy with the traffic chaos. Yet this roadworks didn't get a mention in the EP's "city under siege from roadworks" article. Look at this -the M32 traffic jam is beginning about 500 metres before it normally does.

One car has broken down and only just managed to get to the pavement, where the AA Van EU58LYW has come out to rescue it.

What we fail to understand is why the Farm Pub should merit such a path, if it will only encourage people to go there, drink Doom Bar Bitter, and cycle home drunk afterwards. How will that improve road safety?

Muller Roadworks

Here are the some roadworks on Muller Road, a key M32 access route. We have proposed widening this road in the past, by using up the under-exploited pavement and bits of greenery on the side -here some allotments.

Is this happening? Has the council seen reason, realised that a wider road would help traffic to get to and from the motorway, and so even boost bus journey times? Not a chance

This is the current end of the Farm Pub Path route. They are narrowing the road, adding some raised bike lane leading up to some light-controlled crossing that will slow down us, the tax paying economic backbone of the city, while the cyclists and pedestrians, the underpeople, pootle over.

Yet look at this pavement. There is perfectly enough room to the right of the pedestrian to fit bicycles. True, there are trees in the way at regular intervals -yet this has not been a barrier to on-pavement bike paths elsewhere in the city, coronation road in particular!

If a bike path with trees along the middle of it kept bicycles out of the way of into-city commuter traffic in South Bristol, there's no reason why it wouldn't work here as well.

Avonmouth from above

Here is a photo of Avonmouth docks taken in March 2009, camera focal length 55mm

All those built up areas on the edges of the docks are car parks full of cars that have been unloaded and are now sitting, awaiting purchase -purchases nobody is making.

Here is a photo of Bristol from above, focal length still 55mm. That green strip is Purdown camp; the M32 is to the right of it, Lockleaze and Horfield to the left. The proposed new north-fringe cycle city route comes through there.

Without altimeter data there is no way to be sure, but unless the plane was losing height after take-off, the amount of space dedicated to unsold cars at Avonmouth, is about the same as Horfield and Lockleaze combined.

No doubt, then the owners of Avonmouth Docks will be pleased by the announcement that the government is offering 2000 pounds for scrapping an old car when you buy a new one. Why not offer the same amount for anyone who scraps an old car and joins a car club? Or gets a year-long train season ticket? Or even, dare we say it, a bicycle?

The best bit is that it doesn't matter how bad the CO2/mile rating of the car is, any new car will do. If this was to be a green budget, then restricting it to low CO2 emission vehicles would be the way to do it.