Disabled Thinking

Historic landscapes and conservation areas are important across the globe. UNESCO knows this, and justly identifies the historic core of Amsterdam as of world importance. Which is why we enjoy going there, taking photos and enjoying the views and the general aesthetic of the place. Even though it's overrun with cars and bicycles.

Clifton Village is not a UNESCO world heritage site, but it is of a similar era, and is also overrun by cars and bicycles.

Which is why Boyce's Avenue has had both banned for much of the day in order to make shopping and walking through there a more pleasant experience.  

Oh? They don't quite look the same? 

That'll be the UK's obsession with paint. These fantastic new yellow daubings on the kerbs of Boyce's Avenue are there for a reason. Which is really important in historic settings.

Clifton Mums Hour

This week is what used to be half term, before we had six term school years.

Last week was different, which meant that the chaos that is Clifton Mums Hour reigned, twice a day or more, in the vicinity of Clifton College.

Imagine the scene... a lone cyclist in College Road trying to get to the Downs vs a Clifton Mum in a car. A no-brainer. Cars parked both sides of the road, no space, and at least a 5 second shorter journey by car. If I were a Clifton Mum I certainly wouldn't let a cyclist hold me up. I'd cut right in front of them and slam on my brakes to let another car park. Or, 5 seconds later, I'd pull right in to the kerb and stop at the zebra crossing, blocking the cyclist again. Ha!

Then I'd hack it off up the road before the cyclist catches up - and park up on the yellow zig-zags outside the school to set a good example to my children, which is what the driver of WR57AXW did.

So if you nip down to The Avenue in Clifton at about 15:00 this week, this chaotic scene will not greet you. There will be no cars parked on yellow zig-zags, no cars on the pavements, and nobody daring to park on the double yellow lines. Give it a week or so though, and you too could join in with the fun, like this:

It's important to note that EK59SDX and WR57AXW are very important people, so are allowed to park their cars on the zig-zags, whilst WM09CZA is probably an actual VIP, as shown by the flashing indicators.

Lesser mortals, such as Range Rover LTP321, WU56TZV, MJ55FUV, WR03AUJ, LB55UHH, WR58WSN, MA07HNL, VN02VUL, WJ58YBB, RO51LOD, KN07PID, XHY1 had to park on the double yellow lines and pavements. They were not alone, but our database will explode if we record many more.

Only T59SAE manages allow pedestrians access to the pavement by staying firmly on the double yellows in the road. Kudos.

Our advice: don't have strange haircuts in Clifton during term-time.

The Stepford wives of Clifton really don't like it.

Business as Usual in Stokes Croft

Summer arrived in Bristol on Saturday.

Which meant that the first ever Stokes Croft Street Festival went well, if you like that sort of thing. We prefer driving down to Cabot Circus for a bit of shopping, of course.

This was not your ordinary festival, though, as it was done without closing roads. Which allowed us to drive up and down, checking out what the Great Unwashed get up to (and there were many of them, yuk...).

Here we see Turbo Island filled with street drinking revellers, or we would do if the 4x4 in the ASL hadn't stopped in the view.

In fact, ASLs seemed a very popular as a viewing area for the "festivities", as RF55AMO demonstrates.

And here, WR57WZE, checking out the activities taking place in the Canteen in Hamilton House.

In fact, the ASLs proved so popular that they even attracted visitors from abroad, as Polish BMW KTT86LT demonstrates.

It wasn't all about stopping and looking, though. For instance, the driver of car L14OUT parked up on the pavement was there for the sound system near the TO LET shop. Outside "Feed The Children".

Which may be why, just opposite, the food outlets were still open for business, as GY53FGO parked on the double yellow lines in the cycle lane illustrates, whilst the driver nips into Slix for a quick burger and chips whilst ignoring the hand-made BBQ offering from the Canteen.

All in all, though, the festival took place without interfering with the traffic. Which we liked.

Unfortunately, the organisers needed one real intervention which was ad-hoc crowd control to limit pedestrian access to the Bear-Pit.

Here in North Street this was, in true PRSC creative fashion, done using a white van, KV07KJK, which doubled as a delivery vehicle for the Blue Mountain Club. Outrageous!

Anarchists, all of them, apparently.

Based on our observations, we'd recommend our readers to avoid Stokes Croft until they stop having these sorts of festivals (unless Tesco manage to open a store there, of course).

Nice Try

The two 4X4s missed a parking opportunity, but the Volvo made a great attempt.

After last year's IGfest, it seems that Bristol's inner city motorists are not intending to miss out on the fun and are rising to challenges previously unheard of.

And good on them. Witness R946AWL trying to get through a wall.

"Customer Parking Please Drive Inside" used to be a slogan reserved for ram-raiders on a foggy night anywhere in Bristol. Now it appears to be an open invitation for anyone requiring Office Furniture.

Nice to see Stoke's Croft is leading the way in these artistic endeavours.

Friday Brain Teaser (3)

An interesting sight - the panorama that is Bristol's Watershed, and in the background, the new Radisson Hotel.

For today's Brain teaser, however, a simple question:

Yes, the photo is awful... but, is it just us, or is there something amiss with this view?

(Comments about cycle lanes will be deleted as they only inspire the BEP to heights of journalistic expertise not generally seen outside London or New York).

Friday Brain Teaser (2)

This Friday, a multiple choice question. 1 in 6 chance of getting it right.

No prizes, just kudos.

Does this photograph illustrate:

A: the pre-Beeching era?

B: the post-Beeching era?

C: Banksy ('avin a laff)?

D: A legal opportunity to not park parallel with the kerb?

E: The new flag for the Association of British Drivers?

F: Other

Answers on a postcard to the usual address. (Age restrictions apply and anti-gricer comments may be moderated).

A ticket? On a sunday?

This pic of a range rover Y1GRT being persecuted by parking services for parking slightly on a pavement and double yellow line hits our inbox. It was taken on a sunday.

This shocked us -if Bristol Parking Services are going to work on Sundays, next they will be out after 5pm on a weekday. But a closer check of the photo revealed there was nothing to fear. This picture is from Bath!

Probably didn't see the signs

That or didn't understand the language

WU58KNA outside Sefton Park school, midday, on a school day.

Best place to pick up pedestrians

If you are taxi, you make a living by picking up pedestrians. People walking. And where's the best place to find pedestrians? That's right.

On the pavement. Here taxi PK55JWC, taxi #2127 is doing exactly that on Commercial Road, leading up to the Bedminster Bridge Roundabout.

Corner-shop -sort-of

One submission to our photo documentary of corner shop parking comes from "Terry", who sends in this pic of a car pn the pavement/yellow lines by a corner shop on Moon Street, in spitting distance of Wilder House, where the council's walking and cycling team work

The shop is a painting of a corner shop, so really it should have a painting of a car parked in front of it. There is nothing of this nature on the painting itself, so this car WR06JFE is generously making it more authentic.

How bus lanes slow down traffic

Our strategic partners, the Association of British Drivers, have a special dislike of Bus Lanes. They make some valid points. One of their criticisms, for example, is that they make buses more popular, hence more people get on them, hence the bus gets slower. That is an important issue, for which all existing bus passengers must thank the ABD for looking after their needs by fighting bus lanes.

Another criticism is that they slow down traffic by creating congestion, forcing two lanes of traffic into one. That's a bit simplistic, as Amdahl's Law implies that the bottleneck is always the single lane stretches: you have to make everything dual carriageway. Still, the idea merits investigation, on the showcase A38 route, down at the Arches.

Here we can see that they are in fact of so little value, even the buses do not use them.
The problem is that solid lane markings mean that car drivers cannot use them. The double yellow lines mean that law-abiding car drivers cannot park in them.

This means that only drivers like that of L794FWO who refuse to recognise double yellow lines park in them. which renders it useless to buses and taxis, and is of no value to anyone wishing to ignore the restrictions and drive down it. Yet it is still of no value for anyone wishing to park legally.

Clearly the solution to this is to downgrade it from a bus lane to a car parking lane, so that anyone can park there. That way, it will have some value at least. Right now, with even the buses blocked out of it, it is a waste of valuable road space.

We are very grateful for the ABD drawing our attention to this problem, and encourage every grateful bus user to contribute to this forward-thinking organisation by purchasing one of their recommended driving CDs.

Kingsdown RPZ implementation issues #83

When the Kingsdown CPZ/RPZ gets rolled out, what will happen to cars like this one T612JCV?

(a) Commuter cars like this will no longer be able to park on the pavement over double yellow lines within the zone.
(b) Resident cars like this will no longer be forced to park on the pavement over double yellow lines within the zone due to commuters taking all the legal parking spaces.
(c) It being a Saturday, anyone will be able to park on the pavement over double yellow lines within the zone.

The new Montpelier Multimodal Interchange

Yesterday, the Montpelier Multi-Modal Interchange was announced. What is it?

By the simple act of dropping the no-entry bollard to the bike-crossing, it is now possible to get your Range Rover all the way up the path, so park LO08YXR at the far end

This brings you up the bike and scooter park area, so making easier for a Range-Rover+bike or RR+scooter multimodal transport option. Drive the Range-Rover to Montpelier, then get out there and cycle or walk into the city.

Because the bike path is closed at one end to cars, it is still only usable as a cross route to bikes and pedestrians. By moving the Range-Rover from the yellow lines on Picton Street to the new MMI parking zone, Picton Street is now more easily negotiated by lorries -there was a recycling truck and a scaffolding truck successfully managing to squeeze past each other. The cyclists get better visibility when entering Picton Street, and are also slowed down when entering Richmond road, so improving safety there. Overall then, a valuable contribution to the city's transport problems.

An accessible bike lane!

Here in Montpelier, on a weekday morning, we see only one Range-Rover, YJ52HYE, on the no-parking bit of Picton Street.

As a result, you can now enter/exit the bike lane safely.

To what do we owe this miracle in traffic engineering? From the Montpelier Multi-Modal Interchange. Recent news in the legacy printed-press bemoans the death of a proposed Multi-Modal Interchange on a roundabout of the A4174 ring-road. That was intended to be a car park to let people get onto existing buses. That died because it was the worst of both worlds: a traffic jam to a car park followed by FirstBus.

The Montpelier Multi-Modal Interchange will be better: it will be practical and meet customer needs. What is it? Wait until tomorrow to see...

Another RR entry

Another contribution for the Range Rover competition, this one on the pavement and yellow lines opposite Kingsdown Sports Centre on a Saturday afternoon.

Sadly, RR VNO5KZU fails the parking competition because it's too close to the corner.

Queen E. School

The QEH school, on Jacob's Well's road, hadn't come to anyone's attention, but while in the area at 1600 it becomes obvious that the primary form of getting the child home is by car, which leaves a problem: where does the car park? Mostly on Jacob's Well's road. The double yellow lines ensure that commuter traffic is kept out of the area, so providing a place for parents to wait.

The lines may say "no parking", but as the parents are sitting inside, they are merely waiting for their offspring, which is not technically parking, more a lifestyle choice for parents.

Up on the side road to Clifton, well, cars such as AG06AWA and A3NUU are doing their best not to block through traffic, by getting up on the pavement and in front of resident's garages. It is this "flexible, shared space" use of city features that enables Bristol to function.

Some cars, like the Landrover WP08YAF also make use of the "school keep clear" section. Note, however, unlike outside Clifton College or Christchurch School, nobody is parking on the pavement here. That is being left as a safe place for children to walk.

The Kingsdown Parking problem

Mazda WP56DYY must be very glad that Bristol Parking Services never visit somerset street. For if they did, the fact that it is on the pavement over double yellow lines and a keep clear sign might be an issue.

Might. Because alternatively, the Bristol Parking Services staff might just sit there in their van Y184NMW with the engine on, looking at it.

To be fair, it was a cold morning. Sitting in a van being kept warm by engine heat was appealing. Its just, well, doesn't Bristol Parking Service have a mission statement or something? Some kind of goal? And if not, well, what exactly does it do?

Smart Cars for smarter parking

SmartCars can park in ways normal cars caren't. Here the Smartie WN58KEJ is only taking up half the yellow-line space in this junction off Cotham Hill

It's only half blocking people crossing the road, and not reducing visibility or access for turning cars as much. If it were to get ticketed, its fine should be reduced.

Middle of the Road

This is early evening near Somerfield's on St Michael's Hill, pencilled in as part of the Kingsdown CPZ. A zone in which it is promised that there will be short-stay parking provided for the shops, so that you can nip in and out of the local supermarket with ease. Currently there is 1-hour-max echelon-parking zone in front of the supermarket (echelon parking is Dept of Transport speak for sideways parked; it is very dangerous to bikes and not advised). Because parking times aren't enforced, its a park-all-day zone for everyone and the nearby taxi firm. What to do if you want to shop? Especially given there is no cycle parking here.

This car, P455GBD has shown what to do. Just stop in the middle of the road. Yellow line rules apply to the side of the road. They even apply to pavements.

But the middle of the road? Unlikely. If that was the case you would not be able to have roads which have yellow lines on one side only. Indeed, its possible that you will still be able to park this way once the CPZ gets deployed.

Middle of the road parking area it is, then.

Victims of the CPZ

Today's EP has an editorial critical of the CPZ scheme, as it will remove parking for shoppers and commuters. Yes it will. This stretch of Horfield Road will join the scheme, and it will therefore be impossible for cars like the VW touran WP57OGR from popping in to the shops.

Given that Kingsdown is a conservation area, one hopes that the signage of the new no-parking areas will be marked out subtly, perhaps with some discreet yellow lines or something, maybe even add some railings to the pavement to show that pavement parking is no longer allowed.

What we don't know is what the impact on local business be if customers can longer park for free on the pavement outside their premises.