What's wrong with this picture?

Our Friday quiz this week is what is wrong with this photo of two fixie bikes down in Cabot Circus.

Suggestions?

Getting the message across

Bristol Traffic is a news channel. Maybe not quite the same as the MSM, like the Daily Mail or The Telegraph, but we like to think we compete with the quality dailies.

And the Bristol Evening Post.

So far we've co-existed well in Bristol, with BEP following our rabidly anti-cycling message almost every issue. There was a small shift in their editorial policy a few days ago, which we covered, but this was probably only a hiccup, although they did sponsor the Big Bike Ride. However, we're confident this was just an aberration, and we have photographic evidence.

Down behind the Bearpit, in Broadmead, Bristol City Council are undertaking an experiment in The Horsefair and Penn Street, by only allowing through disabled badge holders, buses and taxis or emergency service vehicles. The experiment started on 11th December 2009 and was due to run for 18 months. It's still in place, so now seems permanent.

It was interesting, therefore, to find Western Dail Press vehicle WU07XES parked up in a bus stop in The Horsefair, towing a trailer with an advert on it. It seems the driver needed a bit of refreshment - it's hard work driving around all day, pulling an advert.

What did the advert say?

Well, it invited you to purchase the Evening Post so that you could "WIN THIS CAR".

The editor here at Bristol Traffic was beside himself when he saw this, and immediately sacked the entire marketing team for not thinking of it first.

But he's happy that the Evening Post are once again in the pro-motorist lobby.

UPDATE

The driver was spotted later in the week, loading another Burger King into the car...

Bristol's secret epidemic

Mike Dunn sends us this photo of horsefair


Nothing unusual there, a line of stationary cars making it easier to walk across cross. Except some time in December, this road was closed to all but buses, bicycles, taxis and disabled vehicles.

As these motorised vehicles lack firstbus logos or taxi yellow plates, the remaining conclusion is: disabled.

Which shocks us. We did not know that there was such an epidemic of medical conditions forcing people to drive down to Cabot Circus. We hope that it is transient, that they all recover, as this does not bode well for our city's long term health.

Troy Atkinson update

We've recently seen some more comments on our page covering the death of Troy Atkinson by a hit and run driver in April.

It turns out there was progress in the driver's prosecution: Mohammed Ahmed, 19, of Eastville, plead guilty on Friday to :

• taking a vehicle without consent
• causing death by dangerous driving
• failing to stop at the scene of an accident
• driving without insurance

He took a car that wasn't his, ran over Troy Atkinson at Cabot Circus, then drove off. The court case is covered in the BBC and Evening Post. There's not much to add on the case except that one teenager is dead, another teenager's future not going to be what they dreamed of.

What we can do is get a quick video of what it is like to travel down Cabot Circus from one of our instrumented cyclists,. We believe this is the route that Ahmed took.

The BMW the bicycle is tracking is driving fairly sedately down the road, looking for somewhere to pull in. You can see pedestrians running across the way of this car, including at 0:19 a small child calling back to a parent on the other side of the road -if this journey had a risk of a pedestrian running out, this would have been it.

At 0:55 there's a wave of pedestrians heading out of Cabot Circus towards Quaker's Friars; they've had to wait for a bus and a car, and are now sprinting across the gap between those vehicles and the bike. There may be a build out, but there is no zebra crossing and shoppers are expected to wait patiently. Note how the pedestrians wave a little thank you to the cyclist for stopping, they are clearly grateful.

The junction which Troy was crossing when he was hit is at 1:17-1:20.

This video was taken on a weekday morning, admittedly during half-term. It's a mixture of shops, buses, pedestrians and cars, and you have to look at it and think "is this a good mix?", and "if so, why don't pedestrians have right of way at any of the crossings?" Yes, there are bits of a speed bump there, but why no zebra crossings? Why on a weekend do crowds have to queue up waiting for a moment to sprint across the gap? The only possible explanations are (a) to remind pedestrians of their place in society and (b) FirstBus resisted the idea of zebra crossings.

As well as mourning and remembering Troy, then, consider this: what if this road was made bus, bike, taxi only? And pedestrians get zebra crossings on all of the build outs?

Troy Atkinson, 15, killed by a car on April 28, 2009.

Stopping by Cabot Circus this evening was really sad. There's a big tower of flowers growing where Penn Street turns into Lower Castle Street, all remembering Troy Atkinson, a fifteen year old schoolboy from the city.

The flowers are from his friends, his schoolmates, his family.

In the street, traffic and people carry on. Some look at the flowers, but then they get on with their lives. The buses and cars go by as usual.

For the people standing by the memorial or chalking on the ground by it, it is not so easy. These are Troy's friends, and they are showing the world that he will be missed, that he will be remembered. And he will be, but those memories of happiness will be darkened by the pain of his loss - a pain that may fade with time, but never go away.

We in the Bristol Traffic Project -and others in the "cycling and pedestrian transport activist" community- extend our condolences and deepest sympathies to his parents, family and friends. Nobody should die in our streets, and for a fifteen year old to be lost is particularly sad.

This another dark day on Bristol's roads