Scooter parking

"E" sends us this pic of a scooter outside the Louisiana Pub.

As they say, "Creative". What's good here is that you can be fairly confident no passing car is going to scrape you unless they go fully over the traffic island. If there is a problem: nowhere to lock the scooter to. One of those sheffield racks would help.

More motorbike shortcuts

Here's a couple of shots, courtesy of Google Earth & photoshop to let our motorcycling readers know of a fantastic new short cut that will save you microseconds in your journey. Are you stuck at point A waiting for the lights to change?. But you want to get to point B?. Well, no problem - simply make a sharp left turn and take one of the two routes highlighted in red and pink. Although it's probably illegal (and bad riding), nobody will notice, except maybe those pesky bloggers from Bristol traffic. Just be aware of the annoying pedestrians and cyclists who swarm all over this bit of the short cut as it might add a few nanoseconds onto your journey. It has been rumoured that the council might try and thwart your time-saving by increasing the size of the island at point X, but you can always cut around this by using the two lanes indicated by the dashed lines on the road. Again, beware of the humans wandering around in these lanes, getting in your way. But you're in a hurry, so who cares?.

Police over Lockleaze

For anyone wondering why the Avon and Somerset Police Helicopter was doing the rounds of Purdown and Stoke Park at 17:40, this is the reason. A motorbike lying on its side on the secret road that UWE students park on, the one with three footpaths running off -to Stoke Park behind the bike, UWE on the left, and Lockleaze behind the camera.

The police didn't quite know the area, so they were very grateful of a donation of a 2008 Bristol Bicycle map, which shows these paths. The ground forces were cornering bikes coming off the different paths and asking if they'd seen anyone, and before long the 'copter was overhead, scanning the woods.

The kids at the Lockleaze play area were amused by this story -presumably this wasn't one of that lot, who all know well that you need better tyres to take a moto cross-country towards Purdown, especially after the last couple of day's rain.

Stoke Park

There's lots of online gossip about council plans to turn Stoke Park into a cow field. There are some interesting environmental and economic details, but we are more worried about the social costs of the plans.

Stoke Park is the primary off road motorbiking destination for North/North East Bristol. Southerners have the trails of Dundry, residents of Lawrence-Dubya have the wastelands of Severn Beach, but only here in Stoke Park is a place for residents to come with their family and go off-road.

Here's a lovely summer photo from a rare dry day last August, with a family all out enjoying a bit of motorbiking on the grass.

Nearby, some of the local motorbiking enthusiasts have been doing some trail work

The park connects with stapleton, you can get all the way to Lockleaze or Purdown camp. It is an integral part of off-road motorbike enjoyment of the city's greenery.

This is not compatible with cows.

Some people may say "good, the bikers shouldn't be there", but there is bugger all else to do in Lockleaze; every kid out there is someone who isn't stealing cars or taking drugs. And you know that advert for the army showing soldiers driving around off-road in a landrover in the dark? These bikers can do that -which is the kind of skill the army looks for when recruiting. Given a choice between the motorbikers of lockleaze and the cows of Stoke Park, my money is on the motorbikes.

This is how it ends. Mark Pointer, died 2009

Up on the downs, where the road across the park, Stoke Road, meets Ladies Mile, there's a sign post covered in flowers.

The one at the top says "to my dear brother, taken too soon, love your partner in crime -your ever loving sister Nicky/Richard"

What happened? According to the Evening Post, Mark Pointer, age 36, was on a motorbike which collided with a Vauxhall Vectra. The car driver was treated for shock; the motorcyclist didn't survive. The police have a sign up asking for witnesses. That's all we know.


Somebody died here. Mark Pointer's brother and sister are mourning him; so are his friends and the rest of his family. For the rest of their natural lives, they are going to remember him, and often think "if only..." -if only he'd not gone out at that exact date and time, if only he'd taken a different route, if only the car had done something different, if only Mark had done something different. Those regrets are pretty hard to cope with; there's no easy way to avoid them, and often its mixed with guilt -"if only I'd ..." Sadly, it's too late for any of them -someone died motorbiking over a park in Bristol, and regardless of the underlying causes, they are gone.

Bristol doesn't (yet) have a Ghost Cycle program in operation. We need one for motorbikes as well as bicycles.

Stealth Parking

We welcome a new contributor today, SimonB, who sends us a snap of a black VW golf in the motorbike-only parking area on Woodland Road, near the University.

It's in the solo MCs and bicycles section. Normally that would get you into trouble. But car X833EKM has nothing to fear? Why not? Is it because everyone knows that BPS knock off at 5pm and you can do what you want afterwards? No. It's because its a black car in a black parking space on a black night. Nobody is going to notice the car parked there. And if you can't see it parked, well, it isn't there, is it?

Cabot Circus Bicycle and Motorcycle Parking

There are unconfirmed rumours of bike parking arriving in Cabot Circus. Photographic evidence welcome, preferably including a satnav screenshot and the day's newspaper to show it isn't fake.

As for motorcycle parking, we have been forwarded an email discussion on that topic, with the final one being of interest. Motorcyclists: go park in the car park.

Whilst we are waiting for the permanent bike bays, can I suggest that you use the ground floor underneath the central stairs.

Regards
Norman




Norman Ship
Car Park Manager
Cabot Circus

There you have it. Somewhere dry to leave the bike so you can get in the shops and buy things.

Bike and Motorbike Parking at Bristol University

Now that the term has started, we can see what facilities have been put back in for wheeled vehicles after the summer's building works on Tyndall Avenue. First up the bikes, that have a fairly pretty looking covered bike park. It's not clear how easy it is to secure your bike to the stands, but if the bike isn't stolen, it will be dry.

The motorbikes get this stretch of pavement outside the shops and are left to fend for their own security.

Why is this? Is that they are just lazy?

Or is that after removing the bike/motorbike parking area behind the road, adjacent to the physics building, no parking has been put back.

Nope, parking has been put back. But apparently for cars.

Again, its because the cars are more important. To merit a Car-Parks-A sticker at the university one must be in a position of power and prestige; lower status people get the parking by Clifton Down railway station and such like. A-sticker people are important enough to be allowed to park close to where they work, so they deserve parking areas while bikes get some temporary covered parking and motorbikes get to push the pedestrians out the way.

So now we know whose being lazy, and it isn't the motorbikes.

Coronation Road Crash

We have a photo of the flowers left on Coronation Road at the site of Friday's fatal motorbike/lorry collision.

There's also a letter from his sister; it is very sad. Clearly, he will be missed very much by his family. It should not have come to this.

Motorcycle Rider Billy James killed on Coronation Road

There is a new blog documenting parking and traffic issues in Southville: http://southvilleparking.blogspot.com/

It's already a better source of local road news than the BBC or Evening Post, which is why it is so sad to read its coverage of a fatal motorbike/lorry collision at the junction of Coronation Road and Dean Lane. The comments by people that knew him say that rider's name was Billy James, He will be sadly missed by all of his friends in Highbury and Kings Crescent estate and by all whom had the pleasure of knowing him.

Sometimes on this site we are bit unhappy about motorbikes using our parking facilities and bike lanes, but the harsh truth is that bikes and motorbikes are equally vulnerable to collisions with motor vehicles, to cars pulling out while you go along a road with the right of way, to anyone else out there making a mistake. And lorries -which Coronation Road suffers from- pretty much guarantee that when something goes wrong, it's the two wheeled vehicle user is in deep trouble. It was just along from here, at the roundabout, that I had a lorry drive over the back of my bike, and it was terrifying: the lorry edging out looking right for a gap, me, in front of the lorry, having my bike first pushed into the junction and then, after jumping off the bike, having it go under the lorry wheel. Lorries are dangerous. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are bad drivers, only that the whole vehicle's design isn't appropriate for city streets. And when something goes wrong, its the pedestrian, the cyclist, the motorcyclist and even the car driver who comes out worst.

Today, we have a new name to remember, a Bristolian who came out worst against a lorry: Billy Joy. Billy, we didn't know you, but we will think of you whenever we pass this junction.
-SteveL and family.

Cabot Circus Motorcycle Parking

Datamining of the clicklogs show that a couple of visitors a day are searching for motorcycle parking in cabot circus. For these people, here is the parking area

It's signed with "No parking on footway", and is on the junction of Broad Weir and Lower Castle Street. No coverage or security. Presumably motorcycle/scooter drivers can't buy enough high value consumer goods.

Bristol: motorcycling city

Joe Evans posts in a set of clips of motorbikes taking advantage of the facilities in Bristol, and says: Bristolian motorcyclists are a selfless bunch.

Here we can see them in action as this biker risks getting a fine for parking a motor vehicle on the pavement in order to show cyclists exactly where the stands are located by placing a bright green motorbike beside them. This new ‘Green Motorbike’ scheme is very useful of foggy days when vision is restricted. There is, however, one slight disadvantage to this means of alternative signage since the motorbike often needs to be parked as close to the stand as possible, but not exactly touching it (one nano-millimetre is preferred) and thus reducing the space available for cyclists.

This poor harassed motorcyclist just couldn’t decide which bike stand to block..er..use. Up and down the pavement he went on his motorbike..er, sorry, that should be ‘Alternative Hydrocarbon-Fuelled Powered Two Wheel Vehicle’ (official government definition. Makes it sound a bit like a bicycle so that cyclists won’t mind them racing in the bus lanes or taking short cuts through cycle lanes). Eventually, after riding up a one way street, he eventually found a cycle stand to not use and was relieved that he wouldn’t risk the possibility of receiving a fine by parking a motor vehicle on the pavement due to Bristol City Council’s cash cow policy of milking poor innocent motorists of money

In a hurry?. Use those cycle lane things

France: motorcycle parking

One recurrent complaint from some of the Bristol Cycling members is motorbikes using their bike parks, and so making it harder to park bicycles. But the motorbikes are forced there because the parking areas allocated for motorbikes are usually full of cars. Unless parking a car in those areas is an enforced offence, motorbikes have to park where they can, which means bike parks.

Here in France, a different approach has been tried.

The reserved motorbike parking area have sheffield-style stands in them, so that both motorbikes and bicycles can be locked in them. This provides a place for both vehicles to be parked, out of busy pavements. Thus even pedestrians are not inconvenienced.

Cars cannot use them, although they can double park in front of them.

This is clearly a simple idea that would benefit motorbikes, cycles and pedestrians. Why then, is it not going to be used in Bristol? Because it would remove valuable car parking spaces in the city. Pushing the bikes and motorbikes onto the pavement saves space for cars. As for pedestrians, well, who cares?

Scooter Management

There's always a problem with motorbikes on Purdown; here we see a car making an effort to block motorbike/scooter access from the lower entry point, (Park Hill/Frenchay Park Road/Broomhill road roundabout), by blocking all wheeled access entirely.

Unfortunately, as a study on motorbiking in Manchester reports, you can't actually lock out motorbikes. All you do is block off legitimate access, while forcing the motorbikers to bring a circular saw, torch any wooden barriers, and drive a stolen car into any gate. Certainly someone had cut the padlocks at the Lockleaze end last month. Still, a heroic effort by this car to block access from the east.

A modern parent

The Bristol-Bath railway path is an ideal place for a parent to teach a small child to ride a quad-bike safely.

When they get bigger, they will need the technical skills to avoid the police over by lockleaze and other quad bike areas. By going along this flat path at speed they will learn their steering skills avoiding pedestrians, dogs and cyclists, ready to apply it to more technical situations. Bristol: a scooter city.
[Photo: Nigel]

Bristol-Bath scooter path

The recent price instability of petrol has made zipping up and down the railway path in a scooter more expensive than normal
.
To maximise the fuel economy of their rides, these riders are taking turns sharing a vehicle.

If the scooter were slightly bigger, it would support two riders, and so be more fuel efficient. [Photo: nigel].

Bristol Motorcycle City

One unmentioned beneficiary of the Cycling City initiative will be Bristol's motorbikes, who can take advantage of the bike parking in Gloucester Road, thus avoiding having to block the bike lane the way cars need to.

In broadmead, a couple of bike park slots provide a great place for a bike. Some people may argue that there are areas for motorbikes, areas marked Solo M/Cs, but as these are used by cars, motorbikes only have one remaining option: the cycle stands.


There are also lots of motorbike friendly short cuts

You can recognise these by the drawing of the motorbike with the red ring around them.