Lorry parking

The trouble with driveways is that they are rarely big enough to park your lorry.

The driver of this vehicle G596JYC was forced to park on the pavement, here on Alcove road, between the Railway Path and Eastville Park. This shows inadequate forward planning when these houses were built. Yes, they were built in a time when cars and driving down Fishponds Road to the city centre was part of the vision of the future, but nobody had thought that the household's motor vehicle collection would comprise three cars, one caravan and a small truck.

Forward Planning

This lorry (WX05NHL?) is blocking the Bath buildings/Stokes Croft junction, where there are some hatched lines telling you not to do that

There is also a red light saying "do not go", but this lorry decided to also ignore that when it pulled out.

Some people might thing: selfish, reckless, dangerous, light-running , etc, etc. But the reality is everyone else at every junction does exactly the same thing. The only way you will get across the junction is to pull out and block it. It waited until the light went red as it was trying not to block the junction, but then, after the light changed, the driver realised that it was the only way to make progress. Not much, but progress. At a rate of 50 metres every three minutes, it will be at the St James Barton roundabout within an hour.

Close Shave

What does this picture show: it shows a very large lorry squeezing past a pickup that got the demi-drive parking wrong. They forgot the rule "don't stick out past the pavement". Indeed, the whole purpose of pavement parking is to ensure your wing mirror will still be there when you get back, your paintwork and bumpers unscathed.

You can only do that if you know that the width of the road left behind is greater than the maximum width of the vehicle that wishes to pass. For the lorry drivers, it's pretty inconvenient.

I think this one just made it past the van without causing problems. And if not, there's a small garage further up this alleyway off Cotham-Hill who would be happy to pick up the repairs.

Big Truck Small Street

It's always a bit disconcerting to see a large truck heading towards you, but at least on Picton Street you know it's going slower than a bike

Because it has to squeeze round all the cars on the 'no parking' side of the road.

Incidentally, truck drivers are better than anyone else at knowing the dimensions of their vehicles. Drivers of 4X4s generally get confused by the height of their vehicle and drive too far away from parked cars, inconveniencing oncoming traffic, apart from those who underestimate and end up clipping wing mirrors and bikes. But this truck, it is managing to get past the van up on the pavement/yellow lines without doing any damage to it. Nicely done.

Picton Street Congestion

This is why, even though white-vans are the hard-men of urban parking, down in Picton Street even they get as far onto the pavement as they can.

Here we see a very large truck trying to work out how to get through, while a gas-powered fork lift truck nimbly cuts through the gap.