Helmet legislation

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bristol Traffic
Date: 1 February 2011 22:31
Subject: Helmet legislation
To: p.ramsey@sdlp.ie


The Bristol Traffic project exists to document the traffic issues in the city, of Bristol England ones we normally blame on pedestrians and cyclists.

Yet occasionally we use photographs from out of our fair city, "abroad", to provide commentary, and we have covered both Northern Ireland and your constituency town and its issues have surfaced
http://bristolcars.blogspot.com/search/label/ireland
http://bristolcars.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-cause.html

On that topic then, can the team thank you for giving us something new to make fun of. We love the idea of a country coming out the thirty years of darkness, picking on unified enemies, and cyclists make such a wonderful outgroup, we can imagine everyone all unified, all marching (or at least driving) with a common narrative for the region: cyclists are the common enemy. Except the cyclists of course, but that's not your problem or ours.

Thank you for giving us something new to talk about, sorry if it means you get more email criticising you!

The Bristol Traffic Project!
http://bristolcars.blogspot.com/

The Troubles come to Montpelier #1

The whole Northern Ireland low-intensity civil war theme is such a source of content we have to keep milking it for all it is worth.

Today, The Troubles. If you talk to the unionists, they pine for the days before the Troubles began, when they could march their Orangemen marches and the Catholics would come out and join in and everyone was happy. If you talk to the nationalists, they tell you how they'd stay in their cottages on the Garvaghy Road, in fear of the marches. From their perspective it was their attempt to mimic the US Civil Rights movement -and the unwillingness of the opposing party to adapt- that led to them adopting that other popular US idea: firearms, and so The Troubles proper began. What is key is this: attempted assertion of legal rights led to 30 years of armed conflict.

Here in Montpelier, 20 Feb 2009, something happened that may well be as significant. The PCSOs are going round ticketing cars. Here is Brook Hill -three cars on the pavement have notes on their windscreens telling W763VBO and VA53LVC amongst others to stop parking there.

They are not alone. On the corner with York Road, more cars have leaflets

This is persecution. The cars WR56YZM and DY02UXL have historically acquired the right to park on the pavements and on corners. Yet, here, on Fairfield road, all around this quarter of the city, the leaflets are out. And more than just the leaflets, the tickets.

What has happened? According to conversation with the PCSOs someone -and we think we know who they are- has been complaining to the police about the issue, and the police -not Bristol Parking Services- has come out to act.

This is exactly the kind of assertion of rights that leads to trouble, or even worse, The Troubles.

The new Cause

There is a shadow over [London]Derry

Despite so much progress towards peace, a republican spinoff group that refuses to accept the peace settlement, Bogside Republican Action Group, has come out and threatened the British oppressors. That is, they have declared that TV license and parking officials are "legitimate targets".

This is such wonderful progress. Really.

Whereas before, the "oppressors" came in form of army helicopters, armoured personnel carriers and armed foot patrols by the UK Land Forces, and the issue under dispute was whether the 1921 partition of Ireland was accepted as legitimate, now the outstanding issue is whether parking on double yellow lines is a crime.

The best thing about this is that while the previous issue divided the country/occupied six counties fairly irreconcilably, both sides of the conflict now have a common enemy. Whereas before the Nationalists could not get many Unionists to embrace their viewpoint, parking is as much an issue in the British quarters as the Irish ones

Hopefully this adoption of a common enemy will create unity within the country. Perhaps even the classic songs of either side could be updated appropriately. The Orange Order's song, "The sash my father wore" could be updated to become "The 4x4 my dad drove me to school in"


Even that republican anthem of internment, "The men behind the wire", could have its lyrics updated.

Old: "Armoured cars and tanks and guns, came to take away our sons. But every man must stand behind, the men behind the wire."

New: "Derry city council parking enforcement officers came to ticket our sons for illegal parking. But every man must stand behind, the vehicles parked on the double yellow lines"

It is only through such modernisation of both group's narratives that peace and reconciliation can be achieved.

Apparently the local police are looking at the threat, and even Sinn Fein have condemned it -presumably because it is their council's revenue which is now threatened. Here on the mainland the concern must be how much ex-PIRA armaments the Bogside Republican Action Group has access to, and whether they have linked up with mainland groups with similar aims, such as Captain Gatso or the Association of British Drivers. Here on the mainland we've been isolated from the Troubles for nearly a decade, and it would be good if it stayed that way.

Cotham goes Unionist

In past months, the community spirit and cost-effective taxi services of the segregated unionist/nationalist estates of Northern Ireland have been a source of inspiration.

Clearly it is inspiring people, as this month two house on Cotham have raised the unionist flag over their houses. Here in Cotham Grove

And again, in Cotham Road. Presumably this community spirit will be enhanced with coloured street kerbs and "no surrender" banners. something will be needed to not surrender too, perhaps the local branch of the Conservative and Unionist Party will make residents parking the no-surrender topic, moving on from "Say No to CPZ!" to "Cotham Says No!" in an Ian Paisley Senior accent.

This could be countered by Kingsdown going nationalist; joining up with the Peoples Republic of Stoke's Croft, embracing the republican theme and so creating a split in Bristol. The CPZ boundary is currently sketched out as down the centre of Cotham Road, and skating the top of Cotham Grove, so these houses could be next to the "peace wall" that will inevitably be required.

Ideas from Northern Ireland: taxis

This is pub in Portadown, County Armagh, part of NI's "Murder Triangle" during the Troubles. Let's see what ideas this town can have for Bristol. Take this terrace, with an interesting looking pub on it, a pub covered in cameras and flags.

The pub is covered in cameras to make sure that there's nobody outside waiting to harm the pub occupants. The flags provide early warning that the pub is frequented by supporters of the local Gaelic Football Club, and therefore that the songs will be more on the theme of "Come out you Black and Tans" rather than "The sash my father wore". Any observant visitor will note the markings and not end up, as you can do in Bristol, with someone asking you what you thought of the match, without you having a clue which team you are meant to be supporting and hence what to say to get out alive.

Right next to the pub, a taxi firm to get you home. During the troubles, a lot of people got killed in this area; the graveyards are a memorial to a misguided civil war. For either paramilitary group, taxi drivers were an easy target. You phone for a taxi, they come round, you shoot them and drive off in your own car. That made them pretty cautious, and taxis are split, even today, into Catholic and Protestant; Nationalist and Unionist. This probably is a nationalist one, given its location, "The Tunnel", flashpoint even today.

To get a taxi in this town, you need to know who to phone, and trying to get them to come round to the Gaelic Football Club's bar at 1 am is pretty tricky if you have an english accent: you need to explain who you are related to before they trust you.

Most people, on hearing what it is like to get a taxi at 1am to a gaelic football club in a Nationalist area are pretty appalled. It doesn't sound like a good peace. But some people take on a more thoughtful expression. They ask how much the taxi cost? And did it turn up? Did it take you to your destination? The answer: 3 pounds, yes and yes. Then their expression becomes more wistful. Because there are parts of Bristol where taxis dont like to go at night. Try getting one at midnight on a Friday night to go from the centre to Hartcliffe or Lawrence Weston and they will find some kind of excuse, some mechanical fault or them being on the way home. Only Yellow Cabs are likely to help you, apparently. Because for most of Bristol's Taxi/minicab fleet, it isn't profitable to go to the fringe estates, and they're worried about the passengers doing a runner.

By partitioning this town into Nationalist and Unionist estates, by having separate firms to address each area, and by requiring passengers to authenticate themselves before being picked up, this town has addressed the problem -better than Bristol.

Portadown: community spirit

Joshua Hart's study implied that busy roads had less of a community. But what if it goes the other way? A strong community spirit reduces through traffic?

Here we have some photographs of Portadown, County Armagh in Northern Ireland. Birth place of the Orange Order, with Drumcree Church to the North of the town, it is a flashpoint even today. But what are the positive aspects of the town?

A key one is the strong community spirit. Look, the walls are painted in bright red-white-blue or orange-white-green colours to indicate which part of the town you are in.


And in the unionist quarter, the entrance to a wide street is marked with a big banner saying "No Surrender", "Honour the King" and "Fear God"; strong community statements one does not normally encounter in the mainland..

The whole length of the street is decorated in flags and banners, and even though it is quite a wide road, it has surprisingly little traffic. Even a stranger walking down the road taking photographs is enough to encourage curiosity.

As a result, this area has both low traffic and, low crime, although apparently the disarmament of the paramilitaries has increased the amount of local crime, as burglary and car theft is no longer punished by kneecapping.

Looking at the celebratory nature of the streets, and the benefits for community spirit, one must wonder if Bristol could adopt such practises. Obviously religion would not be a viable theme, but there is always sport. However, few streets have such uniform support for either of the city's football teams that one could have Bristol City or Bristol Rovers areas, and those same supporters would probably view pro-Bristol Rugby decor as being anti-football. So what does that leave as a sporting theme for Bristol residents to get behind and build street communities from? Gloucester County Cricket team!