Kingsdown RPZ parking opportunities

Good to see that there are still some parking places hiding away in Kingsdown, like on Fremantle Square.

Although there are double yellow lines on each of the corners with Thomas Street, if you park your car right in the middle of the bollarded route, as BF02FVK has done, you aren't on any. It appears to be legal to park here. Why the bollards? Its a cycling city route, see.

Incidentally, for anyone who thinks that Kingsdown is now upmarket, what with the residents parking, we disagree. The Cotham Porter Stores pub is its very own bit of darkest Somerset, while Thomas Street boasts its very own Banksy. Here it is, framed.

Opposite, on a side of road that will soon apparently get yellow lines, that other sign of city life: someone has broken the window to steal something.

Question is, was it the classic -satnav- or was it one of the new resident permits?

missing volvo XC90 MW07JHJ

One of our readers reports that they got burgled in Long Ashton last night, and are now down one dark grey volvo XC90, reg# MW07JHJ. Presumably this one will be driven worse than a normal school-run parent, and once stolen it's uninsured, so be careful of it.

Monty Bike Parking

The Radford Mill Farm Shop of Picton Street provides a bike park for customers

We don't know whether to denounce it for taking a bit of the pavement away from us motorists, or praise it as a place for bicycles to get stripped, and then discarded.

Police Stopping bikes on the downs

We'd heard that the police were stopping bikes on the downs, so nipped up to see if the cyclists were being the good beating they deserved before their bikes were confiscated for not paying any tax.

Oddly enough, this was not happening. Instead the cyclists seemed happy and the police were even there on their own bicycles. What was going on?

It turns out that they were putting RFID tags into the frames, so that if the bikes get stolen and recovered, it's easier to link up with the owners. And perhaps the tags (and the markers indicating tagging) will discourage theft, as it becomes hard to say its your bike when someone else had registered ownership and theft of a bike containing the specific ID tag

At which point a devious idea slid into view. These cyclists are being stopped by people in high-viz clothing, having something stuck into their inner frames, and then fill in some name and address paperwork, before cycling off happily.

If you wanted to get the addresses of bicycles you wanted to steal, this is the way to do it. Rather than follow mountain bikers home from Ashton Court -something thost cyclists are aware of and fear- just wave them down, offer them a free id tag -in reality a piece of plastic- and get them to fill in their address on a form. They tell you where they live, you go back later and grab the bike.

Now, the next question: how can you determine that this is not exactly what was going on on the Downs, and, apparently, will be repeated on the Biggest Bike Ride event on Sunday? Are these really police, or is it just a big bike theft trick?

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.

University: bike parking options

Bristol University, flagship college for a Cycling city, is threatening to clamp bikes parked where they should not be, while leaving cars alone on their property, and allowing their own vehicles to park on the pavements elsewhere in the area. What bike parking do they provide?

There is actually some secure parking in the sports centre -you need a membership card to access it and we have not yet seen inside. We can take a look at the covered area outside the physics building. Since the bike and motorbike parking behind the physics building was removed (it's now building works), this is all there is on this side of the road.

It's covered, and running at about 80% capacity at 10:00 on a Wednesday morning. But wait -what is that sign on on the wall? It's another notice.

It is from the university security and says "your bike will be stolen" - 41 bikes were taken in Autumn Term 2008, average bike value 300 quid. That's not much for a good mountain bike, hence the obvious lack of hydraulics in the brake levers. But it is a lot if you are a student who doesn't have a trust fund set up by your parents. Your bike gets nicked, there goes your transport.

There we have it then. University security parked on one side of the pavement, warning signs of bike clamping if you park on the (not that secure) fencing, and clear evidence that wherever you park here, if it isn't the secure park, its going be gone when you get back.

Taking a look at the other side of the road from the Bristol Traffic Helicopter, we can get another view of the key parking issues of the area.

In the foreground, five cars in the pay and display short stay parking. The people I all saw arriving were students -ones with money, obviously. But if mum and dad get you a car for your 18th birthday before you go to Bristol University, money for parking for one lecture a day is probably manageable.

Behind the cars, on the left, a de-facto motorbike site. They've lost their parking with the building works. nine to ten bikes, taking up less area than the five cars in the foreground.

Behind the cars, on the right, more bike parking. possibly twelve sheffield racks, twenty to twenty-four bikes.

Notice something unusual here? There is more area allocated for short stay parking for five cars than ten motorbikes or twenty bicycles. The sheer possibility of short-stay parking means that those students who have the money have the option of driving to lectures, forcing them to park over corners on Highbury Villas when that fails. If someone were to turn those short stay parking areas into bike parking, there would be room for another 40+ bicycles and, by removing the option of driving to lectures, supress road traffic.

Now, one could hope for cycling city funding for this, but there's another option, isn't there? For the university cyclists to take over the short-stay parking area as a protest against the university removing all their parking spaces. It might also make a fun place for a critical mass ride, though there is the small detail of the hill climb from the centre to deal with.

Heather gets her trike back

It is nice to get an email from Heather Anne Watts announcing her stolen tricycle has been recovered.

From her email on December 24

"Hello Everyone

Thanks to all of you who have displayed posters and passed on the message about my stolen tricycle.

The police telephoned me last night to say a member of the public had taken my tricycle to the local police station.

I am off to South Bristol to collect it later today.

Merry Christmas"

That is lovely news. This theft got a lot of publicity, and because it was such an unusual vehicle, actually recovered. A rare and welcome event.

Queens Road bike parking

This is the bike park outside the student union, in Queen's Road, Clifton.

Of the 6 bikes locked up here, only two can be considered functional.


One has been stripped to the frame, another, whose owner took the front wheel off and locked it is without a front fork.



At the other end of the rack, one has a stamped on rear wheel and missing front wheel. The bike behind it has the handlebar clamp on the stem missing, which is odd. Perhaps whoever was trying to steal the forks got interrupted, but why remove that part of the stem? Maybe the goal was to steal the stem, or cripple the bike so it ends up there overnight, when the real frame strip can take place.

Bristol: don't commute on a bike you value.

Stolen Trike

Someone in Southville has had their red adult tricycle stolen, "(red Tri 1) was stolen from outside Reg's house 19.00 Friday 5 December 2008.
Pashley - large rear basket."

Here is a pic of the trike being ridden the wrong way round a roundabout during the Biggest Bike Ride event -it's certainly an unusual vehicle.

Anyone spotting it should contact Heather Anne Watts. She's listed in the phone book; call her there if you see it. Email wise, heather57anne -at- hotmail.com.

Heather, we wish you luck on your search to recover it; we will keep our eyes out. One thing to consider. Unusual Red Trike. Southville. Who do we know there who would like an unusual vehicle to travel around in? Someone who wears red trousers?

Smile, you're on CCTV

This bike rack is on Cotham Hill, outside Films@59 -I think it was something they had to put in to get consent on a planning application

It's popular, and has CCTV coverage to give your bike the illusion of security. There's even a sign on the window, "Smile, you're on CCTV" to remind people. Unfortunately, the staff tell us that when they've seen bike thefts/attempted bike thefts on the CCTV and called it in, nobody has bothered to come round. Which means even with CCTV coverage, your bike isn't safe here.

One way to make Bristol a Cycling City is not just make it somewhere where people feel safe to cycle around, but somewhere where you feel safe to leave your bike parked.

Fork Theft

Not seen this before, but here at the junction of Nine Tree Hill and Cheltenham Road: a nice bike that is short of a pair of front forks.

This is a nice bike: XT/raceface drivetrain; presumably the front forks were good kit too. And equally presumably, whoever nicked the forks -which implies they had an allen key set- knew that. Moral: ride round town in something nobody wants.

It also shows another thing we'd like for a cycling city: "honeypot" bikes to catch people trying to steal bikes and bits from them.