Save Double Parking!

Following on our campaign against zebra crossings, we find ourselves forced to start new campaign "Save Double Parking!". The anti-car council has come out against double parking as being dangerous and anti social. Maybe but for residents is the only way to park a car after the morning school run, and for commuters, its the only way to park a car with all the legal spaces taken up by those selfish residents who don't drive to school or work, so freeing up spaces.

Every cyclist who owns a car and goes round being smug, "I pay my road tax", is missing the point. The car they've paid the road tax for is on the road somewhere, that's the rectangle of tarmac they have rented, and by not using it they are inconveniencing not just the vehicles they hold up on their crawl round town, but those commuters who rely on the spaces they create.

Returning to the double parking problem, the BBC have an article calling it anti-social, an article that includes this road as an example:

We don't normally cover double parking, and when we do we never name the roads. Those streets where you can get away with it are secrets we do not dare share, as then we will have nowhere to park. Certainly this road looked familiar.

The buildings look Cliftony, possibly university area, the road is wide and quiet with an RV on the left, opposite a smartcar. Time to send a query off to our petabyte scale datacentre to see what shows up -and yes, we know this road. It's Belgrave Road, BS8.

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What's interesting about this road is why was it chosen? Did the council have to tip off the journalists that this road was trouble? Was in in fact staged purely to push out new CPZ/RPZ restrictions, our very own WMD-for-iraq claim?

We have a theory there. Belgrave road is right next to the BBC. The journalists just popped out for 30 seconds to get a couple of pics and then went back in, job done. Of course, that does not mean that the photo was not staged. More research is needed.

This is where our new experiment to instrument cyclists and pedestrians in the city has begun to pay off. By having them filming themselves, we can review exactly what they've done wrong, from their own position. This is a lot easier than filming them ourselves, as it is really hard to hold a camcorder steady while driving through Montpelier, especially when you are trying to text someone. We just let the bikes do the work, then later get the pics. Up until now most bike filming has been written by the cyclists, always whining about something or other, such as this Glaswegian Magnatom, who has taken up the classic sport of that city -starting fights with strangers- out of the bars, and onto the roads. We aren't like that. We will criticise the cyclists and any other tax-dodging subversives we see.

Here then, is our ride-by of this road, where we can say that yes, it looks like a good place to double park. Nobody seems to mind, and it's handy for the BBC. This is important if you are Noel Edmonds, on a visit to the competition to see if your latest idea for a Saturday evening show has got any interest. The video was taken ten days ago, in term time, so if the council staged the entire double parking scene, they kept it up outside the BBC for a long time -it probably is genuine.



Analysing this video, we see a number of events which concern us

1. At 0:06 a tax-dodging cyclist -correctly dressed in hi-viz and helmet- sticks her arm out to force a Mercedes to stop its manoeuvre, a turn into the bus lane. This was a premium car, and clearly belongs to someone important -possibly Noel Edmonds himself. All the cyclists should have given way, and not held up this car by being in front of them in the bus lane.
2. At 0:13 we see a skateboarder on the road. Again, another form of tax-dodging
3. At 0:31 we see a Vauxhall Zafira being forced to brake hard after overtaking the bicycle.
4. Throughout the sequence, we see pedestrians crossing the road -only one of them is wearing hi-viz clothing.

Event #3 concerns us, the car which has to put their foot down to swing past the bicycle, then cut in , apparently to double park right in front of them. If the cyclist had not been pootling up this double-parking-friendly road at 5 mph, the driver would not have been forced to take such action. It is not environmentally friendly having to accelerate and brake like this, showing that while bicycles themselves may not be polluting, they cause the other vehicles in the city to waste more fuel, to pollute the city more.

We can see then, in 46 seconds, how a couple of bicycles can hold up the journey time of cars, be they important cars who need to use the Bus Lane, or merely someone who needs to double park outside the BBC offices. It is bad enough that these cyclists are allowed to do this, that they do not pay any tax, let alone compensate us for our lost time -now we see that the council is trying to take away our right to double park. Furthermore, the video showed how pedestrians, cyclists and even skateboarders are trying to take our roads away from us. We must resist!

When will this anti-car oppression end!

Shoes with Wheels

We have recently focused a little attention on those free-loading skateboarder types that imagine themselves above the law, but still have the temerity to use our streets and pavements. Unlike we motorists, they do not need a licence.

Nor do users of wheeled shoes, either.

Even worse, dog licences were abolished in 1987 in the UK. And not one of the main political parties sees the (long overdue if you ask me) necessity for the introduction of cycle licences.

No wonder we motorists feel so persecuted!

Skateboarders: holding up tax payers

We are still hoping that the police will do something about skateboarders in the city.

We had high hopes for the Cotham police area, where the PACT priorities had considered this issue.

Cotham Gardens, Redland Grove and Cotham Grove - Pavement Cycling/Skateboarding
Inconsiderate cycling and skateboarding on pavements within close proximity of Cotham Gardens causing damage and safety concerns to local residents.

Actions

• PC 1860 Harding to carry out a minimum of two patrols each week during school finishing times between 3pm and 4pm to give advice or enforce with tickets as appropriate.
• PC Harding and PCSO Horton to hold school assembly at Cotham School to promote safe cycling and personal responsibility.
• PC Harding to contact Bristol City Council Parks Department to discuss implementation or improvement of any existing facilities for cyclists/skateboarders.

See that? Police to ticket skateboarders out on the pavements after school closing time and to turn up at assembly to promote personal responsibility. Finally, a police group representing the interests of us, the tax payer. We have footage of the three skateboarders in question, and will one day show our interview with these teenage criminals.

Today we have some bad news. The police have changed their priorities.

3. Parking issues
Vehicles routinely parking inconsiderately on the corner of junctions and in front of drop kerbs causing pedestrians, wheelchair users and people with pushchairs difficulty in passing, and obstructing the view to motorists attempting to negotiate such junctions.
Actions:
PC 1860 Harding and PCSO 9935 Horton to include specific area on daily `Patrol Plan` covering Warwick Road, Abbottsford Road and Cotham Gardens junction with Aberdeen Road, taking positive action against offending motorists by issuing `Fixed Penalty Notices` and vehicle `Tow Away` where deemed necessary.

See that? No skateboarders, now it is us taxpayers, all of whom have legitimate reasons to park where we do -especially near the schools in the area. Indeed, it is threat of having our paveparked car scraped by the skateboarders that was our main reason to complain to the police in the first place, now they not only leave the skateboarders alone, they come after our cars.

And what are the consequence of this change in policy? The tax-dodgers have come out of the side streets, and are now on the main through routes.

This skateboarder is about to descend Cotham Brow, on the road. Not on the pavement where the criminals don't belong either, but here in the middle of the road. Our road. Holding up important people like the taxi that eventually manages to pass. Yes, he does it far more safely than the average Redland school mum, we are pleased to see -but he shouldn't have had to. There should not be any bicycles or skateboards on our streets.

The only way to stop this getting worse is for everyone to attend their local Police PACT meeting, and make sure the local police focus on the real criminals -the cyclists and their fellow travellers, the skateboarders.

Skateboarding: it is a crime in the US, apparently

Continuing our popular series of how there are places abroad with ideas we should adopt in the city, we are pleased to send this lovely video of a policeman arresting some kids for skateboarding.

Some people complain that we in this blog give skateboarders a hard time, but that's just because, like pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders, they slow us down and don't pay any road tax. We do try and attend PACT meetings and complain about skateboarders -more news on that another day- but we haven't ever seen a policeman in this city give teenage skateboard criminals the treatment they deserve.

Skateboarders: they dont pay road tax either

"Adam" sends us a link to a shock video showing skateboarders in the city -not just in their little skate parks, but out in the streets, the underpasses, the steps of offices.



They are not only holding up cars, they are endangering pedestrians, especially tax payers who work in the offices seen the photos. They should stop it at once.
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