RPZ comes to Monty: Oh the Inhumanity!

• First they came to Kingsdown, and everyone celebrated.
• Then they came to Cotham, and nobody complained
• Then they came to Redland, and the main complaints were from people just outside the zone.
• They they came to St Pauls, and people were upset about the cost, rather than the parking
• Then they came to Clifton and the shopkeepers who wanted to drive to work were more focused on their convenience than the revenue gains on having customer parking, they paid for tanks to make their point, still lost —and now have signs up everywhere saying "30 minute parking is free, please come and shop despite all the horror stories we put out"

And now: Monty

It's fascinating to see how the Evening Post has finally managed finda an agenda they can get people even in the inner city to care about. Up till now, what the BEP wrote about was irrelevant. Like who cares about congestion in Westbury on Trym or what's happening in Stapleton.

No more. Instead they've managed to stir up horror stories and build a whole agenda which everyone wanting to be elected as a mayor is using as their core election theme.

It's almost as if the paper has found a way to stay relevant in an era of free news over the internet.


Well, unlike the Evening Post we've spent time in Montpelier and have a dataset going back years. On a road-by-road basis, such as Richmond Road.

This is what it used to look like




A road where the pavement was exclusively used for parking, yet still so tight that only the bold drove down it.

If you were, say, trying to walk your kids to school, you'd be in the same roadway, keeping a tight rein on your four year old in case they ran ahead and ended up under an oncoming van or a car pulling out from their parking space on that pavement.


It was essentially a "shared space"

Yet look now? Someone has painted double yellow lines up one entire side of it! You can now drive up this road without fearing for your paintwork!



Incredibly, you don't have to commit to that journey hoping you wont meet anyone coming the other way —as if that did happen, one of you would be reversing up a road so tight that you had to get it spot on or hear a scraping sound.

1. It is now possible to drive up and down Richmond road safely.
2. It is now possible to walk up richmond road on the pavement, and even send a small child to run ahead of you without worrying about it being run over.
3. It is now trivial to for a car and a bicycle to pass.

That is what the RPZ has brought to Montpelier: not just white lines, not just yellow lines —but pavements people can use.

Anyone who says "its destroying Montpelier" clearly has a vision of the area where nobody walked, where scenes of two drivers out their car shouting at each other as to who was going to reverse were viewed as quaint traditions.

And what does the Evening Post do? Rather than highlight how it has now become safer to walk or cycle, how it has become more convenient to drive through, they've pointed to the yellow paint that someone has thrown onto the ticket machine at (00:48). That's the machine on the pavement which was never visible before.

And while the BEP condemn the vandalism, they don' t really, they are proud to report it —and blame the mayor for making the protesters do it.

So for all this "evening post represents the people" fuss they are really fighting to preserve a time when pavements were for parking and children couldn't walk round Montpelier safely.

Why should we, the residents of the inner city care? We are just being mislead by a paper that is happy to manufacture controversy, and happy to find it in the lives of people who are unable to adapt to change. Tough.

At this point the RPZ-haters will be going "So where did the cars go, eh?" The answer there is: the council added extra parking spaces round the corner by marking St Andrews Road for echelon parking.

In this photo you can just about make out a car coming up behind the parked van blocking the view. Which highlights the issue with echelon parking: its got a higher collision rate, and is particularly bad for cyclists.

In order to make the RPZ rollout less controversial, the council chose to make cycling on St Andrews Road more hazardous.

That's something for the haters to consider.

Ticketing: its for your own good

Here in St Andrews Road, Montpelier, we are shocked to see two cars getting tickets for being slightly on the pavement

slightly shocked, but not completely surprised. As there is almost enough space for someone to walk by on the inside

That will hinder passing traffic

And as can be seen here on upper Cheltenham Place, if you don't get fully on the pavement, you get to pay the wingmirror tax.

Note that vehicles in these photos include a fiat, a VW and at least one Vaxhall Astra -built in the UK to a German design.

Now that Cameron has finally stood up to the European oppressors with their plans for friendship and co-operation across countries, we hope that the owners of these vehicles will recognise the error of their ways and buy morris minors. Say goodbye to vehicles that start every morning! Say goodbye to driving over 60 mph on the motorway! these are un-British!

Une discourse dans le village du Montpelier

Vous savez que vous etre dans un petit village quand vous encontrez les residents engagement dans une discourse dans la rue. Les grands villes sont anonyme - ce n'est pas vrai pour villages comme Montpelier.


Aujourd'hui nous pouvons voir des residents en conversation sur le sujet de droits de passage. Est-ce-que la priorite a les autos de Bath Buildings, ou pour les voitures qui faisant la traverse de St Andrews a la Rue de Cheltenham?

Nous ne savant pas que les residents ont decidee. Notre journaliste a dit as nous "J'ai pas attende a voir qui a gagne parce-que je pourrait pas culee" [1,2]

[1] an incorrect translation of "I could not be arsed"
[2] note how the descending tax dodger flips the 20mph light on the way down, yet the BMW in front appears not to.

anti-car bollards in Montpelier

"Dempser" breaks the sad news that bollards up outside the park entrance off St Andrews Road means you can't park your car safely out the way of passing traffic. Do pedestrians benefit from this? No, not now there are bollards to stop them getting a push chair past P232YEU

We know who loses: the residents. The average vehicle speed up this road is actually higher than for any other road in Montpelier (source: some of the 20mph documents), so when somebody clips your wing mirror, more risk of damage. Worse still, every week or so some HGV lorry ends up here as their satnav directs them to the Bristol St Andrews Road, not the dual carriageway with warehouses out at Avonmouth. Serious risk of damage.

Nobody gains from these bollards, all they do is make the place look bleaker. At least get some decent paint or graffiti on them!

Montpelier without Cars

A few minutes after coming across a Kingsdown with cars, we we were shocked to discover St Andrews Road, Montpelier, had been completely closed to cars, so as to encourage walking and other non-tax-earning transport options.

This is dangerous, as it will fail to give small children the appropriate fear of city streets which they need to survive.

Still, it allows the locals to come out and talk to each other, and an opportunity to try walking on a newly uncovered pavement.

Although if you look at these people, they're just, well, sitting, as if waiting for a car to come past.

These living streets campaigners have to recognise, busier streets are more interesting.

Demi-Drives of Montpelier

Contributor KL sends in this snap of a mercedes SUV on St Andrews Road, Montpelier, parked in the entrance to Montpelier Park, sticking out into the pavement. Apparently this space "belongs" to this car, despite a sign on the wall behind warning that cars parked here will be towed.

When you compare the other vehicles on on this pavement, this car, Y529KTF, is actually taking up less of the pavement than most of them. It is possible to get a push chair up this part of the hill. The only way it could be interfereing with pedestrians would be if it stopped those parents-with-babies from taking their little one into Montpelier Park itself. But given that urban park is not "area for small children to play" as "place to take your dog for its bathroom duties" for everyone who lives near, this vehicle is actually protecting children. It is a valuable contribution to child safety in this part of town.

Incidentally, one reason why anyone who parks here gets as far on the pavement as they can is that there is a "St Andews Road Avonmouth" which is the right size and shape for HGVs. If the driver taps in "St Andews Road Bristol" to the SatNav by accident, this is the road where their truck ends up.

Ticketing in Bristol

The elusive "Tomato" also sends in some pics of two cars in Montpelier, being ticked for parking on the pavement -despite the fact that there are no double yellow lines there!

The cars YP05PPV and M481SCJ appear to have been ticketed by the police, so these tickets do not provide evidence that Bristol Parking Services exist.

Tomato says "Amazingly there wasn't even a double yellow line. Further up St Andrews road there was another - the silver one, apparently for the same reason. This is the only place in Montpelier, indeed possibly the whole of Bristol, that I have heard of cars being unfairly penalised in this way, and the last time I know of in St Andrews Road was a couple of years ago when the indignant car owner wrote into Venue letters page with accompanying photos indignantly pointing out how easily a car could still get past."

Yes, the police do appear to be unfairly picking on some cars. We also have some pics of the police ticketing cars in Kingsdown last week, so maybe there is a new police officer walking round the city, still being surprised by how cars park.