Stokes Croft Cycle Hub

Yeah!

Earlier this year we covered the lack of cycle parking in Stokes Croft. And the demise of The Junction. The latter still looks inevitable (it seems they accidently installed the required cycle stands next to the Bear Pit, not The Junction).

The former, however, has recently been addressed on an impressive scale. So, completely uncharacteristically (for me), I'd like to say "Well done Bristol Cycling City". The late-night denizens of the PRSC can now arrive in style, leave their two-wheeled steeds (relatively) safe, and party the night away at The Croft. Or have a nice bite at Cafe Kino. Or do a quick shop at the Here Shop and Gallery. (Is free advertising for nice people allowed on this blog?).

Personally, I reckon the new Sheffield stands in Nine Tree Hill are either a testament to the power of the internet, or a sign that someone from the council has actually started going to gigs occasionally. I'll ask around.

PS. If anyone from the council does read this, I'm off to the Cooler on Park Street next month, and the only close place to put a bike is the lamp post outside - how about a pavement build-out halfway down Park Street with cycle parking? Then the post box could also be relocated here, and all the clutter would be out of the way of pedestrians. Just a thought.

Portsmouth Revisited: Albert Road #2

The road may look cycle friendly, but what it is like to ride? What is it like for tourists or locals to pop down to do their Saturday shopping

The bike parking outside supermarkets, chemists and other useful shops are handy. Those that are by zebra crossings not only stop cars parking there, they make it easy to get your bike across the road when you park (get off and walk), and to get back on the road in either direction when you are finished. This is better than Gloucester Road, where the parking is on one side, but half the shops you want on the other, and no easy way to cross except run for your life.

At the same time, it's a busy road. Try cycling down it at 20-25 mph (it was flat), and a van will still try to overtake you at speed and cut in. It is like any shopping street in any non-cycling-city.

Some bits have bike lanes, some bits have double yellow lines. But double yellow lines get ignored by vans, which ends up creating tailbacks into the junctions behind them,

At least here the FirstBus driver was generous and opened the door to let some of the passengers out.

A trip along Albert Road on a shopping day reinforces the argument that it is better to have a 20mph road that everyone shares than a 30 mph road with bike lanes. Because once the bike lanes are occupied by parked vehicles, they are useless.

Portsmouth Revisited: Albert Road

Last time our cameras visited Portsmouth, we were impressed by the bike parking along Albert road, but unhappy with the fact that it is still a 30 mph road.

Why? Because it reinforces the idea that you shouldn't cycle there, makes it more dangerous to walk across, and downgrades all the 20 mph side-roads. Side roads that have to deal with cars turning it at 30+ mph, and cars accelerating out of them as they approach a 30 mph stretch.

What's it like in summer? Busy. Busy with shoppers, busy with cars, full of parked bikes -and with a fair few families out.

No helmets, no high-viz, not even entry-level body-armour. Shocking.

There aren't even any cars parked on the zebra crossing. This is not Bristol.

The outer bounds of creativity

A contact of mine on flickr posted this last month: a real creative solution to the problem of only having a short car in a demi-drive and being unable to fully protect against the dangers of pavement cycling in the city. The downside, of course, is the requirement for two cars; this shouldn't be an issue for most responsible households, but sometimes cooperation with a friendly neighbour might be needed.

Still, Bristol drivers still have something to learn about parking (and the potential dangers that can follow); witness the consequential hazards Lebanese drivers can encounter, illustrated graphically here.

Rain over Lockleaze

During this warm, sunny period, some people have been out cycling around Bristol.

FirstBus would like to remind people that this is an unnaturally dry week, and that only the week before it was horribly wet and miserable. Whilst walking to and from a bus stop may get you wet, you can at least shelter under the bus stop to wait for the rain to go away, and hence predict exactly how wet you will get on a journey.

FirstBus: less wet than cycling across the city. For most of the year.

Secret Cabot Circus Parking

A regular search term that brings visitors is "secret Cabot Circus Parking", we like to oblige, even though the placement of any parking options on a web site tends to remove the "secret" nature.

This is by St James Barton Roundabout, and the Bear-Pit "park"; last time we saw this stretch of pavement, there was a car on it.

Today though, some militant cyclists appear to have snuck in ten sheffield racks. This is a major enhancement for the area, and the presence of one bike on a Saturday morning, and two locks, shows that at least three bikes are using it, assuming those two locks are for commuters.

The big question one has to ask when looking at this area, is what use they are? There isn't that much here, except the Bear-Pit itself, and you can take bikes in there if you wish to loiter in it. Of course, that park joins up with the Bus Station -indeed, for many of us late-arrivals to the city, the Bear Pit was our first encounter with it. As the bus station's six sheffield racks are always full, this stretch could be used as overflow parking for the city.

The other area it offers access to is the new Magistrates court. You only have run across the four lanes of traffic to get in there. The dropped kerb shows you where you should be running for your life.

Railway Path traffic

Here are some people out on the railway path on the first two evenings of June.

The whole of East Bristol's walking and cycling commuter traffic appears to be heading home by foot or by bike.

Some slipstreaming others on their road bikes and their tri-bars

Some with the entire family on push chairs and on foot.

Others running. Fast.

Some points to note

1. Everyone is enjoying a warm, dry week. Some of those people on their bikes have even taken off their hi-viz clothing and helmets.
2. It is representative of Bristol: every skin colour, all out having fun, together.
   
3. Every one of these people is deprived of the option of getting a bus home on this route.

As the elections come up, some evil people are trying to argue that we can split Bristol on race grounds. This is fundamentally wrong. Especially from a party that tries to claim the Irish as part of their British nationals. The Irish nationalists have not taken up guns, semi-automatic rifles, semtex and home made truck bombs to be considered part of Britain, yet that is exactly what the BNP are trying to do. There are some aspects of C20 history that the BNP are clearly ignorant of -probably pretty much everything since 1901 onwards.

While dividing Bristol on race or ethnic group is fundamentally misguided, what can be done is divide Bristol on transport options. Yet nobody is standing up an being proud to admit that they fought for Bus Rapid Transit on this path. Instead everyone is trying to claim credit for stopping BRT-on-the-path. Where are the councillors who will fight for FirstBus? Where are the people willing to stand up, point out that this path is wasted space and money denied the strategic partners of the city -FirstBus- and that Bus Rapid Transit would be an improvement over this morass of suffering.

The post always gets through

Here on a Saturday, we see the post being delivered -somehow the delivery cyclist managed to get their bike past the Range Rover B9SKW blocking the path, and so get over to Stokes Croft

There's an impressive amount of luggage to push round the streets

Whoever this postman is, they must be fit. They must still hate getting parcels to deliver to nine-tree hill though.

Bristol Traffic is one Year Old!

The Bristol Traffic blog/web site is now one year old.

That is a whole year documenting the thoughtless actions of an anti-car council, its mindless persecution of car drivers innocently parked on yellow lines -such as the car YPO7ACO. We've also looked at how the schools and city have failed to adapt to the new rules of school runs: cars on pavements are how to get your kids to school, and anyone who thinks differently deserves the treatment delivered in our forthcoming Steiner School Mum-rage video.

Some people think this site is some kind of satire site, or cynical commentary but if you look at the Association of British Drivers web site, you have to wonder which site is the real spoof. We are not the ones using Comic Sans font, after all.

We are a documentary, with a not-very-hidden agenda of building a city-wide community-sourced oppressive state from the active participation of people across Bristol. On that note, can we thank everyone for their participation! Be they the traffic or the photographers! Without those photographs, we would have nothing to comment on.

Have fun out there, enjoy a dry week.

The Bristol Traffic Team

Back on the Portsmouth Seafront

We in the B.T. team have just sent a delegation down to our sister cycling-conurbation, Portsmouth.

For those visitors to this site from outside the UK, you will have to take our word that Portsmouth is a gem of the south coast of England, an island in an estuary mixing the industrial heritage of naval forts and yards going back to Roman times with a modern sea-front development.

Or you can visit it.

This is our organisations first visit since Christmas, to see how the cycling-town project has been progressing.

We saw more bicycles out on the road this weekend than ever before, and many more than you would even expect to see in parts of Bristol.

This could be due to the efforts of the council and its execution of its Cycling-Town plans.

Or it could be despite those efforts, as we have an update on the Southsea Seafront question.

A tough question indeed: how best to enjoy the seafront -or how best to get there.

Farm Pub Path Update

Many of the Bristol Traffic correspondents have been visiting the newly enhanced Farm Pub Path, primarily on account of its destination: the Farm Pub. This pub welcomes cyclists.

Having consulted with the staff, we are delighted to announce that the pub will allow Bristol Traffic, and the population of the city, to call the St-Werburgh's to Muller Road path, The Farm Pub Path.

There are very good reasons for everyone to do this

1. It is easier to spell.

2. Muller Road is not an aspirational destination for anyone. Even if you live in Lockleaze, Muller Road is somewhere you head over on you way to somewhere else.

3. If the name sticks, they owe us beer.

The path will be formally opened on June 13th, during the St Werburgh's Fair. However, the path is open today, and to welcome new visitors to the path, the Farm Pub is running a special offer. For the very small price of £2.80, they will serve anyone who walks or cycles down the path a pint of Doom Bar Bitter, from Sharps Brewery, Cornwall. This is well worth not just the £2.80, but the journey to the pub.

Please go the pub, order a pint and say that you were sent by Bristol Traffic. That way we hope that our local St W. correspondent will get a commission on every pint so sold.

Stealth Parking a SmartCar in Bath

Chris Hutt sent this one in -it's of a car hiding in the tunnel under Pulteney Bridge

in Bath, on the footway and double yellow lines.

Were it not for the flash of the camera bringing up the number plate -X391LKV- so clearly, you wouldn't know the car was there. Which shows why SmartCars are so suited to the city: you can get them onto bits of pavement no other car will fit, into places the parking enforcement teams don't bother to go to. Nicely done.

The Must Overtake Syndrome

We've all experienced this one on UK motorways and doubtless it happens all over the world. You're a few hundred metres away from the slip road to leave the motorway when some lunatic overtakes everyone at high speed, only to swerve back from right to left across three lanes of traffic and shoot up the slip road. You always ask yourself this question: Why didn't you just stay in the slow lane for a few seconds more?. The answer is that some drivers are impatient and suffer from MOS or 'Must Overtake Syndrome' which, medically speaking, is an irrational and dangerous desire to get in front of everyone at all costs.

I witnessed it in action yesterday whilst quietly waiting to cross the road near Temple Meads station. A motorcyclist, coming up the far left lane (A4) at speed, swerved wildly across the other lanes to overtake everything before swerving back at the last minute into the A4. In short, there was absolutely no need for him to do this, as it was 10am on a saturday morning and there were no cars in front of him in his original lane!. The picture shows his route in yellow dots - pointless overtaking isn't it?. I'm the red dot, waiting at the crossing. The green dots are the correct route he should have taken. Of particular concern to me, is the red arrow which shows his path swerving back across the lanes. This is the route I normally cycle back home and I shudder to think of being whacked sideways by an aggressive biker hitting me from the right hand side.

Alas, this behaviour is classic MOS, coupled with male bravado and machines with far too much acceleration. Oh yes, before I forget, stupidity as well.

Breakdown on Hurlingham Road

Regular contributor KL sends in this photo of someone pushing their bike up the hill, past the car J417LFJ parked entirely on the pavement of Hurlingham Road, St Andrews, just off Ashley Down Road.

From the front of the vehicle, you see the sign "Sorry, broken down, "

KL asks "why is it more acceptable to block the pavement than to block the road? Or was the car already parked on the pavement when it broke down?"

Actually, that bit of Hurlingham Road is a pavement that the cars have to drive up and down to get past the cars in the other direction. It was probably driving up the hill when it broke down, much to the annoyance of all the cars driving up the pavement behind it.

Incidentally, we hear a rumour -just a rumour- that Hurlingham Road is likely to be closed to through traffic, and that the closure will be at the top of the hill, not the bottom -which must mean near the junction with Cromwell Road. More details on this would be welcome.

Probably didn't see the cones

Westfield Wanderer sends in this photo of someone not noticing the no-parking cones on a stretch of road to the South of the city

-If you look at the side of the road in question, the cones are not on the road, they are on the pavement. Is the car on the pavement? No, it is parked on the road. Therefore, the cones don't apply.

Very Direct to you Cleaning Services on Nugent Hill direct

Since the island went in at the bottom of Nugent hill, we have had no submissions of photos of any cars driving the wrong way down the one-way section. Since we were getting one a week and the island has been up for four weeks, that was quite an improvement. Has it stopped cars trying to avoid Cotham Brow and most of the Arley Hill traffic jam? Yes -most cars.

But not, apparently, "Direct to you Cleaning Services", and their van VA06DDN

This is the first vehicle encountered doing the contraflow with the island in place. Interestingly, it does make it harder to pull out, because cars in the Arley Hill traffic jam can ignore you more easily -the contraflowing vehicle can't edge out and force its way in to the line of traffic. Now it has to rely on a vehicle coming down the hill to be generous.

If we have a reduction of one vehicle report every four weeks compared with one a week, that's a reasonable success, possibly a 25% reduction in the number of cars or vans completely ignoring no entry signs in this stretch of road. Progress!

Oddly enough, the driver of this vehicle, was not at all excited to be the first person to enter our database for this action since the road was changed. After congratulating him, instead of him saying "Thank you", he said "Fuck off and get a life". Which is a shame, as he has shown such dedication to shaving 30s off his journey that he really needs to be recognised, and he should be proud of the recognition.

We shall forward his photograph to the local PACT group in order for him to be more formally recognised.

Demi Demi

Deborah Harry may not live here, but ...

The 4x4 on the right of the photo is parked legally, wheels off the kerb.

The Kensington Arms is just a few metres away (sustainable destination).

And there's a song going around in my head, by Blondie. (OK, not Demis Demis, but Denis Denis - I'm sure you're humming it too by now).

Until now I thought demi-drives only existed for cars. But the owner of this bike proves that virtually anyone can take control of our pavements.

Respect.

UPDATE - Lame post, sorry. Forgot I'd saved it, meant to add a bit more (worth saying), but I'm out of Bristol this week.

Note to self: must try harder.../pay attention... (delete as appropriate).

Watch for children

Here we are again in Alcove Road, , Fishponds, near where one of the recent hit-and-run incidents took place.

Today, we see that the ice cream van G984VFP has a sign on the back, "slow, watch for children"

This is to warn other vehicles about to park on the pavement that children may be running out of their houses to get to the ice cream van, so endangering your wing mirrors and paintwork.

Bristol Cycling Chic on Cheltenham Road

Our last posting on Bristol Cycling Chic raised some excellent comments, including a personal denunciation from the Copenhagen team "you have a fetish for hi-viz clothing" and one from a local, mudpup, who says

There's loads of stylish people on nice bikes in Bristol. Maybe not as easy to snap them as in Copenhagen but they're out there. Search Bristol Cycle Chic on Flickr for a few. There is a growing cycle culture here and it's good to show the world, but if people are going to emulate sites like Copenhagen Cycle Chic and Amsterdamize then at least stick some decent photos on them!

Well, if we have to compete with the others, here goes. Here is a blonde-haired woman cycling down Cheltenham Road, normal clothes, normal sunglasses, road bike, no helmet.

Notice how she is cycling with the traffic, correctly positioned in the lane, ready to get over the next junction the "A&M Motors road-range junction" as we now call it.

Some people in the last posts comments blamed the council for not fully embracing cycling, but we think that is changing. We also see that a whole line of vehicles have recognised that this junction is not one where you want to be cycling in the far left lane. Selflessly risking their bodywork and wing mirrors, vehicles like the Renault V410GMW and Audi P846WAP have carefully placed their cars so as to entirely block out this bike lane. What's more, cars are parked here every day, sometimes the same ones, sometimes different ones-but all striving to keep this a cycling city.

All like the Corsa P95CFX are carefully positioned to ensure that cyclists occupy the whole of the innermost lane, and so get to line themselves up correctly at the lights. Leaving only the risk of A&M Motor van drivers to deal with.

Play parking at the playspace

Contributor "A" sends in these photos with a superb commentary:

At first glance it does look like the driver of the silver Golf T813GLG is parked across the pavement, but on closer inspection it is clear that Playspace has gone the extra mile, not only providing facilities to encourage play and learning for children inside the centre, but also a space outdoors for the parents to gradually learn to park in car parks.

The driver of the Golf is actually making the transition from roadside parking to eventually being able to make the whole car fit in the carpark, hopefully one day without the help of any other grown ups! It's important to remember that this is a gradual process and although the car being on the pavement might cause minor disruption to pedestrians this driver has already made substantial progress over the last few visits as they are clearly already a long way beyond simple road parking. Next visit they are likely to be almost half way within the carpark and maybe with a bit more practise they could be completely within the carpark with only three or four more visits.

In the meantime at least they've had the common sense to put a "small dude on board" t-shirt sign and a "baby on board" tortoise toy sign in the back window to warn pedestrians with pushchairs of the danger they could pose if their pushchair hit the back of the car whilst trying to navigate the pavement and therefore pointing out the advantages for pedestrians and pushchairs to instead make their way around the car using the adjacent road. The driver is after all a considerate parent themselves with the safety concerns of children first and foremost in their minds.

Cheltenham Road

"dempster" sends in this photo of Uplands Mobile Multimedia, an in-vehicle entertainment service provider. That is, they specialise in adding electronics to your vehicle so that you don't have to look where you are going. As such, their business plan is built on:

1. People who like satnav and in-car DVD to be retrofitted inside existing vehicles.
2. Somewhere to park the vehicles during the retrofitting process

Here is one such vehicle. This photograph shocked us. Can you see why?

A pedestrian is walking down the bus lane. That lane is reserved for buses, bicycles, motorcycles and taxis. Not pedestrians. For someone to walk along here is irresponsible and inconsiderate.

Thank you, dempster, for bringing this person to our attention. We shall report them to the relevant authorities, including the FirstBus enforcement team.

Skanska: Improving the Image of construction

The ongoing school development at the back of Cotham Grammar is causing much entertainment, and despair at the Bristol street trees group, who have seen some of the older trees cut down without the right paperwork being signed off.

The road-side of the work is also interesting, as it is one of the causes of our forthcoming "Mum-rage" video; 20 seconds in the life of a traffic warden at school dropoff time.

Then there is also the matter of the timing of exactly when deliveries come in. No doubt all the cars below feel somewhat aggrieved about the fact that a large crane is being dropped off at exactly 08:15 of a weekday, but then it is walk-to-school week, so everyone on a school run has no right to complain.

Furthermore, this traffic jam, combined with the closure of the downhill lane, eliminates all issues with any Turner Bus coaches overtaking for those parents doing the school-run on a bike, so all is well.

Councillor Neil Harrison has been pursuing the work -in particular the fact that they have stuck up a large steel fence over the only mildly-safe crossing at the top of the hill -this a road with two schools on it, one round the corner, and a university nearby, most of whose staff and students walk in.

Neil says

Met with roadworks expert this morning on-site and he agreed problem - helpfully illustrated by the arrival of two buses to take the kids to games.

Saw that -but are you sure that none of those vehicles were in fact building site vehicles? they were gone by lunchtime, so maybe it was the roadworks expert himself?

On the buses, he will be seeking to reduce the barriered off area and to extend the bays further down the road to accommodate at least two at a time.

On the crossing, the intention is that the 'pavement' will be moved out between the blue fences and the red-and-white barriers. He will be getting the bollards removed and ramps put in so that the crossing can continue to be used (inc. by buggies and wheelchairs). He will get the barriers moved out further into the road, both to slow traffic and to give pedestrians more space. He will also get "Slow - Pedestrians Crossing" signs at either end.

He is happy with the blue fences regardless of the presence of huts. He wants to make sure that pedestrians are kept well away from the crane that will be active in the area, especially after a recent accident elsewhere.

He also feels that there is scope to put in a zebra crossing on an experimental basis to upgrade the safety there, especially if the rear entrance is to be used more by the school. I have started the process of formally asking for this. It won't happen overnight, but experimental schemes can happen quicker than permanent ones.

That's interesting, and good to see that the interests of pedestrians are being looked after, especially in comparison to the past Tyndall's Park work by Bristol Water. It is nice to see a company caring for their needs.

As you can see, the barriers are ensuring that children can walk to school without them coming into contact with the building workers cars and motorbikes parked on the pavement, such as the car GF55VHC. This ensures a safe journey for students at the nearby schools, without depriving the builders of the opportunity to drive into the city, park on the pavement and cut down trees for their portakabins. It also ensures their wing mirrors don't get bashed by small children on scooters.

Product Placement: Turner Buses

Normally when this site covers school coaches, we feel sorry for them. It's not their fault, for example, that people have parked vehicles like in the coaches-only bit of Cotham Road, and so they are forced to double park to let schoolkids on and off safely.

No, it is the councils fault for failing to provide designated parent parking zone outside the school across the road -more on that another day, with the "Mum Rage" video.

But today, a bit of a focus on one vehicle, particularly this Turner Bus we see some distance ahead of our parent-and-child bicycle

But which we soon catch up with, giving us the photo that includes the registration number and the telephone number to call to raise a bug report against their understanding of the "When it is safe to overtake" rules.

In particular, if you are a bus only doing 12 mph up a hill, and there is a bicycle doing 10mph up a hill, then you should not attempt to pass the aforementioned bicycle while there is an oncoming car. fortunately, the oncoming car and the bus both agreed to slow down, and the bus could then wait to pass the bicycle safely, but for a moment it felt that there was a bus that wished to occupy the space currently used by a bike.

This is very inconvenient to the parent, as one does not want to teach the child about swearing, and yet with actions like this, well, they get to learn.

It is time to call Turners on 955 9086 -providers of school buses to council and independent schools in the city, and ask them exactly WTF the bus 3138DP was doing at 08:22 this morning.

Updated: phoned up, reported, they will tell the driver off, the office apologised. Probably on the Colston's school run, apparently. This is a reminder why a camera is so handy on your bike, keep it on a handlebar bag. Get one that powers up fast, and which lets you take pics one handed while your son goes "daddy, what did those words you said mean?"

Update 2: forgot to put the reg# of the landrover in the posting. M525YPX. With the hi-viz gear in the back, they are probably part of the sanska "Caring constructors" team rebuilding the school here. More on them another day.

Togetherness

Bristol is a Cycling City success - here's the proof.

Drivers and Cyclists have finally come together in a dream of properly shared space.

No matter where you look there are places to leave your cycles. And where you can park a bike, you can park a car. Especially at grocery stores with 'limited' parking.

Such as here, at Waitrose in Henleaze.

Or here, by Sainsbury's in Whiteladies Road, Clifton

Or here at Tesco in the Gloucester Road.

It's heart-warming to witness such harmony.

Bath Buildings -gateway to Montpelier

Here in Bath Buildings, a car is completely blocking the pavement alongside Kwik-Fit: the dropped kerb here must have convinced the owner that they can park here when Kwik-Fit is closed.

With the roadworks on the other side of the road, there is no way to walk into Montpelier without going on the road.

This may seem an inconvenience, but the driver of PKA3A10 has deliberately parked here to make it clear to pedestrians that they are in Montpelier, and it is socially acceptable to walk down the middle of the road.

This is to make clear the contrast between Monty and the Nugent Hill area of Cotham, where the pavements are kept clear, but pedestrians are positively discouraged from using the road.

Vehicles like YN52NNU selflessly park across corners and dropped kerbs to ensure that pedestrians stay in their part of the street, and do not interfere with passing cars.