Anger Management

The photos have come back from Jessops at last, and one reveals a pic of the car driven by the Redland Mum that caused me so much vexation last Saturday that I had to have a little lie-down and a strong snifter.

Yes, cyclists should be aware that this black Toyota Avensis FY58PVN, when driven by a woman with "no points after thirty years behind the wheel", may still cut you up to save one second off her drive home to the leafy Victorian suburb of Sustainable Redland.

Cyclists should also be aware, if they swear at this motorist, she may tell you that she "has no time for people like you."

I probably overreacted.

But a different driver in a different car managed to mangle my bike and break my elbow very effectively last year, and I was in such shock that I didn't swear at him.

So I swore at her instead. I have since washed my mouth out with soap.

wheels and pavements

An amusing little contrast of cars concerned about a bit of scrape damage, so opting to park more safely on the pavement, both taken the same morning.

First, a Ford Ka in Clifton, There's so little of this car on the pavement it probably just overshot while parking.

And here, in Kingsdown, some little Toyota thing, WP56PNF, which has just got one of its slim tyres left on the double yellow lines. This car owner values their car a lot more.

The key problem here is that to avoid your car being scraped, you need to be parked further in that the vehicles either side. As the camper van is half on the pavement, this car has to be even further in. They didn't have a choice.

Hybrids: a greener form of congestion

Some people are very critical of hybrid vehicles pointing out that they are still as polluting as a normal petrol vehicle on long distance journeys, while in cities they may be more fuel efficient, but they still create congestion, parking problems and can endanger pedestrians and cyclists, while slowing down buses. That is they are more environmentally smug than environmentally friendly.

We say: look at this Prius blocking the yellow hatched lines between Ashley Road and Stokes Croft. Yes, it is stopping cars from Ashley Road turning North on Cheltenham Road on their green light. Yes, the driver is sitting in their trying to look all innocent, as if the idea to drive into the "do not enter unless you can exit" junction was not actually his idea. But the braking he had to do to stop going into the other traffic was regenerated and charged up the batteries, and now the engine is quiescent.

He may be blocking the junction, but is not causing any noise, CO2 or NO2 pollution in the process. And given that bicycles never get into the situation of having to block a junction this way, this is probably the most environmentally friendly form of junction-blocking-by-a-vehicle you can achieve.

When Bristol rolls over to congestion charging, the driver of this car will be able to block the same junction without paying six pounds a day for the privilege.

Keep Clear means "Keep clear for me"

There are some people who think that Keep Clear signs and the related white markings on the road are there to provide safe passing places in busy roads, safe access to buildings or schools, and to make junctions easier to negotiate. This is not true in Bristol.


As can be seen here, in Somerset Street, Kingsdown, the Keep Clear markings provide extra parking for important drivers, such as the silver Volvo LS02MRY above,

The Red Nissan K299 RLC

A Black Toyota W433XDL

And black Saab S177SFU.
These vehicles are all important enough to park on Keep Clear lines.

How do you know you are important? Well, if you need to park, and there is nowhere else to so, you can declare an emergency and park in these regions. Incidentally, there are some discussions about making this area residents parking only. These proposals should be opposed because people from all over Bristol clearly need right to park here on a weekday, especially if they have had to drive a long way to get into the centre of town. This area provides valuable free parking for commuters. The only argument in its favour would be if the plan increased the number of double yellow lines, as it would create more parking spaces for important people.