They do, however, lack the thighs needed for decent acceleration across mini-roundabouts or across busy roads. Those are the troublespots.
Monday, 17 November 2008
Hill Work
For anyone with a small child, be aware that they do help a bit when on a tagalong, so you don't have to get out and push up the hill.
They do, however, lack the thighs needed for decent acceleration across mini-roundabouts or across busy roads. Those are the troublespots.
They do, however, lack the thighs needed for decent acceleration across mini-roundabouts or across busy roads. Those are the troublespots.
Sunday, 16 November 2008
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.
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.
Proposed Kingsdown CPZ
Here is the Kingsdown CPZ. The southern border appears to directly abut the existing CPZ. On the western side, however, there is a no mans land -(henforce, the DMZ, De-Militarized Zone) between this, the Residents Parking Zone and the Central Parking Zone that begins a couple of streets west. The area in between is mostly university/school buildings, with the front gardens all turned into parking. Having a DMZ between the CPZ and the RPZ doesn't make sense, as people will still drive in hoping to get their car on the pavements there, go round in circles and then, giving up, drive past this new RPZ to the other bits of clifton and redland. We have very limited data on who parks near the university, incidentally. We can see that the area's cycling access/parking takes second place to staff parking, and we know that lots of cars park badly there, but we don't know if they are students (unlikely, you need to get there before 0900), staff or other commuters.
North of the zone, its a bit blurred. Assuming that when the red line goes through someone's garden they are in the zone, the doctors by the St Michael's hill roundabout get a permit, but the residents of the northern' side of Cotham Road don't get the option of parking in front of their houses. Presumably that detail will be resolved during consultation.
More analysis and pictures to follow over the next few days.
Proposed Clifton CPZ
Here's the map of the current draft Clifton/Cliftonwood CPZ. What is most interesting is that the discovery that there is a street on the east side of Jacob's Wells road that isn't in the main CPZ, so its free to park in for the next year. And it's close to the Hope and Anchor pub. Interesting.
This zone's hours are proposed as 8am - 9pm Monday to Saturday, "6x11". Not as harsh as 7x24, but enough to require everyone who lives in the area to get a permit. It is interesting that it doesn't cover the whole of Clifton Wood -that "resident only no through road" area is only half covered, and it goes behind the student's union.
Demi Drives
We have a new concept to introduce today, the demi-drive
This is a phrase which, once it gains in popularity, will be used more in popular conversation, and estate agent marketing: "It's a pretty flat with a demi-drive in the front". Or in navigation: "take the second demi-drive on the left". Because you see, it is a parking thing. And in the space of five minutes on the parental-sprog-run, I came across three in adjacent streets.
What, then is a demi-drive? It is a driveway that only has room for half a car in it. There are a number of reasons for this. The car could be too big for the allocated space, as for J40ARG here.
It pokes out onto pavement, leaving only a little space for pedestrians. As only half the car is in the drive, it's a demi-drive.
Another reason could be that there is already a vehicle in the driveway, as for GN03CZH.
They've tried to park, but because of the large red van in the main drive, only the demi-drive was left. There is at least 20-30cm to squeeze past, which is adequate for pedestrians and helps ensure that bicycles cannot sneak down the pavement.
A final motivation for a demi-drive is that the drive is full of clutter. Note that although it might be possible for the car to park in front of the drive, by using the demi-drive, S005LYG frees up another space in the street.
That's why demi-drives are so valuable. Even if your driveway only takes one car, if you back it right up you have a demi-drive, creating room for another. No doubt within the new CPZ, everyone with a demi-drive will be laughing.
Have you seen any demi-drives? Keep an eye out. Contributions to traffic at railwaypath.org
This is a phrase which, once it gains in popularity, will be used more in popular conversation, and estate agent marketing: "It's a pretty flat with a demi-drive in the front". Or in navigation: "take the second demi-drive on the left". Because you see, it is a parking thing. And in the space of five minutes on the parental-sprog-run, I came across three in adjacent streets.
What, then is a demi-drive? It is a driveway that only has room for half a car in it. There are a number of reasons for this. The car could be too big for the allocated space, as for J40ARG here.
It pokes out onto pavement, leaving only a little space for pedestrians. As only half the car is in the drive, it's a demi-drive.
Another reason could be that there is already a vehicle in the driveway, as for GN03CZH.
They've tried to park, but because of the large red van in the main drive, only the demi-drive was left. There is at least 20-30cm to squeeze past, which is adequate for pedestrians and helps ensure that bicycles cannot sneak down the pavement.
A final motivation for a demi-drive is that the drive is full of clutter. Note that although it might be possible for the car to park in front of the drive, by using the demi-drive, S005LYG frees up another space in the street.
That's why demi-drives are so valuable. Even if your driveway only takes one car, if you back it right up you have a demi-drive, creating room for another. No doubt within the new CPZ, everyone with a demi-drive will be laughing.
Have you seen any demi-drives? Keep an eye out. Contributions to traffic at railwaypath.org
Friday, 14 November 2008
CPZ specifics
Now the reason for keeping the CPZ responses a secret becomes clear: the zones that get rolled out may not match the response areas.
Here's the zoomed in map of Kingsdown. The church between the 50.4 and the 40.5 zones is the one at the top of St Michael's Hill, the curving road to the right of it is Cotham Road. The church above the 51.7% zone is St Matthews, on Cotham side. Below the 50.4-51.7 section is a 50% vote zone, which includes Alfred Place and Henrietta Street. According to this ward-by-ward map none of these areas voted for it.
While we've all be analysing our copy of the map, round the city, the Evening Post gets an official briefing, which it sticks up online at some point during the day. And this is where it gets interesting.
When the EP article went up it listed the roads and the hours of this zone. It said weekdays, 9-5 and listed the streets.
Polling someone who lives in one of those fringe streets, they seemed fairly happy, primarily because of the 9-5 weekday hours rather than 7x24 they were were told they'd get. That and the limited number of free tickets mean some visitors can be handled, though the number is limited enough you don't want to resell them at a profit. Because the hours start at 9, it will make school dropoffs better. No commuters, you park near the school, then get home. Excellent!
Anyway. It gets more interesting. If you go to the Evening Post article now, it doesn't list the streets or the hours. It says
Furthermore is it ethical for a newspaper to change its stories without noting it? The New York Times does.
Here's the zoomed in map of Kingsdown. The church between the 50.4 and the 40.5 zones is the one at the top of St Michael's Hill, the curving road to the right of it is Cotham Road. The church above the 51.7% zone is St Matthews, on Cotham side. Below the 50.4-51.7 section is a 50% vote zone, which includes Alfred Place and Henrietta Street. According to this ward-by-ward map none of these areas voted for it.
While we've all be analysing our copy of the map, round the city, the Evening Post gets an official briefing, which it sticks up online at some point during the day. And this is where it gets interesting.
When the EP article went up it listed the roads and the hours of this zone. It said weekdays, 9-5 and listed the streets.
Cotham Road, St Michael's Hill, Highbury Villas, StThat's an interesting list, because all the roads listed in bold are not actually in the zones that voted over 50% for it. Alfred Place and Henrietta street are in an area that came in at exactly 50%, but if they were left out you'd have a free to park zone between the central CPZ and new ones. As for Cotham Road, well, when the council did what pretends to be pedestrian safety improvements a few years back, they pretty much marked it out ready for a CPZ. Its time has arrived.
Michael's Park, Little Paul Street, Alfred Place, Marlborough Hill,
Portland Street, Cotham Road South, Cotham Side, St Matthew's Road,
Kingsdown Parade, Kingsdown Parade Back, Somerset Street, Dove Street,
Henrietta Street, Clevedon Terrace.
Polling someone who lives in one of those fringe streets, they seemed fairly happy, primarily because of the 9-5 weekday hours rather than 7x24 they were were told they'd get. That and the limited number of free tickets mean some visitors can be handled, though the number is limited enough you don't want to resell them at a profit. Because the hours start at 9, it will make school dropoffs better. No commuters, you park near the school, then get home. Excellent!
Anyway. It gets more interesting. If you go to the Evening Post article now, it doesn't list the streets or the hours. It says
Sometime between 1800 and 2200 on Friday, the story changed. The specifics on streets -more than just the areas with over 50% of responses positive- and the the hours -less than orginally demanded- vanished. Why? Were the results of the second community consultation accidentally published before that consultation took place?Kingsdown and Brandon Hill were two of the areas with the most positive feedback – more than 50 per cent in both cases.
These areas are now set to have further public consultation as to the exact proposals: which roads the zone would extend to, hours of operation and so on.
Furthermore is it ethical for a newspaper to change its stories without noting it? The New York Times does.
Dangerous Crossing
The cotham hill/Abbotsford road junction is very popular with shoppers, hence the dedicated one-hour-only shopping areas on one side of the road. Of course, if you want to go to a shop on the other side of the road, they are no, you have to improvise, as the minivan GU04HUH appears to be doing.
Given the traffic volume, it is worrying to see a pedestrian using a phone while crossing the road, as they are clearly not paying attention to what is happening around them.
Can she not see how dangerous it is? How cars turning left into this road would have to swerve round the parked car FG08KGU without warning. Pedestrians like this need to go on a safe-walking course before they should be allowed onto our streets. This could be one of the campaign points of the Association of British Drivers: make all pedestrians pay a walking tax proportional to the number of miles they walk a year. Only if pedestrians pay for the upkeep of the roads should they be allowed to get in the way of tax-paying cars.
Given the traffic volume, it is worrying to see a pedestrian using a phone while crossing the road, as they are clearly not paying attention to what is happening around them.
Can she not see how dangerous it is? How cars turning left into this road would have to swerve round the parked car FG08KGU without warning. Pedestrians like this need to go on a safe-walking course before they should be allowed onto our streets. This could be one of the campaign points of the Association of British Drivers: make all pedestrians pay a walking tax proportional to the number of miles they walk a year. Only if pedestrians pay for the upkeep of the roads should they be allowed to get in the way of tax-paying cars.
bit of a prang
Josh Hart's study into road use showed that even on roads with medium traffic parents worry about their kids being allowed out -the issue being not just traffic density, but speed. Here however is one of the benefits of main roads: kids love to come out and look at RTAs -especially if they happen early enough that bedtime doesn't get in the way.
The Jaguar was reversing into the parking space, the Fiesta coming down the hill too fast and went into the back of it. It came off worse. The Jaguar has bit of duct tape on the back while the front of the fiesta looked fairly damaged. The little one found the insides of the engine quite fascinating.
Nobody hurt, all is well. There have been requests for a pedestrian crossing on this road, and even a speed camera, but no, there is no perceived risk.
The Jaguar was reversing into the parking space, the Fiesta coming down the hill too fast and went into the back of it. It came off worse. The Jaguar has bit of duct tape on the back while the front of the fiesta looked fairly damaged. The little one found the insides of the engine quite fascinating.
Nobody hurt, all is well. There have been requests for a pedestrian crossing on this road, and even a speed camera, but no, there is no perceived risk.
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Council cars get priority
The local council paints and enforces the school-keep-clear signs
This ensures that the area is kept clear for council vehicles, such as this van WG04HHN.
This ensures that the area is kept clear for council vehicles, such as this van WG04HHN.
Anniversaries
There was a lot of press this week on the fact that Sunday Nov 9 was the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Nazi round up of anyone who couldn't show non-Jewish ancestry and, for many of them, their death. But it was also the 19th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which is something to remember and celebrate, even while the crimes of Kristallnacht are remembered and its victims mourned.
Here is the Brandenburg Tor, the pivot-point of east/west conflicts since the time of Napoleon -the Napoleon who took the horse statues with him when he passed through, and which the Prussians took back after fighting with Wellington at Waterloo. Later, the brownshirts and the blackshirts came and marched to their songs. After the bombings, after the liberation and then occupation of the city, this is where east and west were divided, and where the Berlin wall came up: the official representation of the Iron Curtain.
Now, two bicycle rickshaws sit awaiting customers.
Further east, the People's Palace, the parliament of the DDR lies abandoned. In its parking lots, legally, correctly, parked BMW and Mercedes cars with Bundresrepublik number plates.
That is parking to celebrate.
Here is the Brandenburg Tor, the pivot-point of east/west conflicts since the time of Napoleon -the Napoleon who took the horse statues with him when he passed through, and which the Prussians took back after fighting with Wellington at Waterloo. Later, the brownshirts and the blackshirts came and marched to their songs. After the bombings, after the liberation and then occupation of the city, this is where east and west were divided, and where the Berlin wall came up: the official representation of the Iron Curtain.
Now, two bicycle rickshaws sit awaiting customers.
Further east, the People's Palace, the parliament of the DDR lies abandoned. In its parking lots, legally, correctly, parked BMW and Mercedes cars with Bundresrepublik number plates.
That is parking to celebrate.
Here comes the CPZ
"Bristol Dave" has got hold of the Residents Parking Zone voting results.
The presentation is a bit weak in that the 30%-50% band is one colour -orange- and that is where much of the variation lies. If you had a better gradient it would probably show more of a trend towards "the closer to town you live, the more likely you are to vote for this".There's a ring around the current CPZ that is about 50% in favour -those places where park and walk is a viable commute policy for outsiders. But with a 7x24 and a pay-for-visitors policy, the scheme was not just trying to stop commuters parking in your street, it was to make you pay whenever you visited anyone else in the city. A lot of the outskirts appear to have noticed this fact. Kingsdown looks like it will be first to go, which will have implications for the neighbours.
Rollout of the RPZ will be really beneficial to anyone driving to school as long as the council doesn't have the audacity to enforce the rules between 8 and 9. It should increase the amount of parking space by the schools, and offer more parents somewhere to park afterwards. I had an excellent discussion with a parent outside Christchurch School last week, someone defending their right to park on the pavement on the "school keep clear" zone. They have to park there because there is nowhere else to park, then they go home over the downs, which must be a least a mile away -but in an area that doesn't suffer from commuter parking. Once the RPZ is rolled out, the right to drive your kid to school won't be limited to those who have driveways or are carrying on to work.
[updated]: moved the image as the original one apparently went off-line.
The presentation is a bit weak in that the 30%-50% band is one colour -orange- and that is where much of the variation lies. If you had a better gradient it would probably show more of a trend towards "the closer to town you live, the more likely you are to vote for this".There's a ring around the current CPZ that is about 50% in favour -those places where park and walk is a viable commute policy for outsiders. But with a 7x24 and a pay-for-visitors policy, the scheme was not just trying to stop commuters parking in your street, it was to make you pay whenever you visited anyone else in the city. A lot of the outskirts appear to have noticed this fact. Kingsdown looks like it will be first to go, which will have implications for the neighbours.
Rollout of the RPZ will be really beneficial to anyone driving to school as long as the council doesn't have the audacity to enforce the rules between 8 and 9. It should increase the amount of parking space by the schools, and offer more parents somewhere to park afterwards. I had an excellent discussion with a parent outside Christchurch School last week, someone defending their right to park on the pavement on the "school keep clear" zone. They have to park there because there is nowhere else to park, then they go home over the downs, which must be a least a mile away -but in an area that doesn't suffer from commuter parking. Once the RPZ is rolled out, the right to drive your kid to school won't be limited to those who have driveways or are carrying on to work.
[updated]: moved the image as the original one apparently went off-line.
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
The secret parking of the Evening Post
We've been seeing pics of cars parking by the Evening Post building, so it was time to swing by and take a look if a paper that views bicycles on pavement as the greatest crime of the city had been doing a bit of pavement parking.
Yes, the cars T622MNB and W618RDD again. These seem to be the official parking spots for these vehicles.
Round the corner, some building work vehicles.
If the land is the proerty of Bristol news and Media, and they are allowed to park there, then yes, driving across pavements to get there is legitimate. Which is an interesting thought: of course it is legal to drive across pavements for access, so is it legal for bikes?
Returning to the Evening Post, the big question here is: can the vehicles park here? The builders, probably. But the other two, the two we always see- they're in front of the fire exit. Which is normally meant to be kept clear to allow the people to get out safely. Are there any Evening Post staff who worry about fire safety in the building? Does the Health and Safety Executive have any opinions on the matter?
Yes, the cars T622MNB and W618RDD again. These seem to be the official parking spots for these vehicles.
Round the corner, some building work vehicles.
If the land is the proerty of Bristol news and Media, and they are allowed to park there, then yes, driving across pavements to get there is legitimate. Which is an interesting thought: of course it is legal to drive across pavements for access, so is it legal for bikes?
Returning to the Evening Post, the big question here is: can the vehicles park here? The builders, probably. But the other two, the two we always see- they're in front of the fire exit. Which is normally meant to be kept clear to allow the people to get out safely. Are there any Evening Post staff who worry about fire safety in the building? Does the Health and Safety Executive have any opinions on the matter?
Insensitive Bike Parking
Here, in front of Christchurch School, clifton, there is a bike parked on the pavement.
any child that made it safely back onto the pavement after navigating the delivery van unloading something for one of the houses and parked in the "School Keep Clear" zone would find their way blocked by this bicycle. No wonder the Evening Post and Association of British Drivers blame bicycles for causing so much of Bristol's traffic problems.
any child that made it safely back onto the pavement after navigating the delivery van unloading something for one of the houses and parked in the "School Keep Clear" zone would find their way blocked by this bicycle. No wonder the Evening Post and Association of British Drivers blame bicycles for causing so much of Bristol's traffic problems.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
A bus, our city will be saved
The darkness is over. The time of having to suffer in the Park and Ride from Long Ashton to the inner city is over. Once BRT is rolled out drivers coming up the A370 will only have to wait in traffic jams up the A370 and then into the P&R centre. From there BRT will be the solution. Here is the solution. A bus through a clean city, with eight people on bikes and four moving cars -cars on the european side of the road, as noted by Terry "I dream of the Alps" Miller.
More detail from Green Bristol Blog and credit to James Barlow for uploading the video to youtube and annotating it. Both people appear to be somewhat negative about the proposal. Their names have been reported to the relevant authorities for being Anti-Bristol.
Everyone else will realise that cylists will have much to gain from the proposal, as now there will be something to look at on the path other than the tidal wasteland that is the River Avon:
More detail from Green Bristol Blog and credit to James Barlow for uploading the video to youtube and annotating it. Both people appear to be somewhat negative about the proposal. Their names have been reported to the relevant authorities for being Anti-Bristol.
Everyone else will realise that cylists will have much to gain from the proposal, as now there will be something to look at on the path other than the tidal wasteland that is the River Avon:
Insensitive Bike Parking
As part of our ongoing campaign against dangerous bike parking outside schools, here we have footage of bike outside a nursery school in Oakfield Road, Clifton
By taking up limited pavement space, the cylist is making it harder for the Toyota Rav 4 T477LLE parked on the keep clear markings to open their door and get their small child out the back and into the nursery safely. What insensitive bike parking! Whoever did this should be ashamed! They probably even cycled onto the pavement before they stopped.
By taking up limited pavement space, the cylist is making it harder for the Toyota Rav 4 T477LLE parked on the keep clear markings to open their door and get their small child out the back and into the nursery safely. What insensitive bike parking! Whoever did this should be ashamed! They probably even cycled onto the pavement before they stopped.
Monday, 10 November 2008
Speak softly and carry a big stick
Two weeks ago: the parents outside a school in Cotham debating the best way to key-tattoo a car blocking pedestrian access by the school.
Last week: someone in Clifton gets their tyres let down for parking badly.
This week, opposite Clifton High, the Peugeot Y877TDL gets a polite telling off.
See that black car that looks like it is about to do a U-turn without indicating? It's actually parked in what appears to be the middle of a junction. It also appears to have been there long enough to get a cease-and-desist note
It says "Please refrain from obstructing the junction to worcester terrace. Kind regards. "
The actual question of whether this car is obstructing the junction is one of debate. It is almost close enough to the corner to block the lowered pavement, so it can consider itself acceptably parked. Yet the letter write felt differently, and felt strongly enough to drop them a note.
Not an abuse rant, not even public web site commentary. No, a pleasant little handwritten letter. But such a well written letter. The only people who write such polite and elegant notes are lawyers. There's so much implicit menace in the sentences that only a lawyer would know to put the please and kind in to take the edge of and to introduce ambiguity in the court case. Take refrain -legal speak for stop doing this and never do it again. Then there's "obstructing the junction". An unambiguous statement of what the author feels the car is up to. B accepting the letter the driver of Y877TDL it probably implicitly accepting that they have done exactly that. Then there's the closing "Kind Regards". Friendly, but with the threat that they are being watched. Yes, a lawyer of some sort wrote this. And have billed the driver a minimum of 1 hours labour and the serving fee for placing it on the windscreen. Subtle.
Last week: someone in Clifton gets their tyres let down for parking badly.
This week, opposite Clifton High, the Peugeot Y877TDL gets a polite telling off.
See that black car that looks like it is about to do a U-turn without indicating? It's actually parked in what appears to be the middle of a junction. It also appears to have been there long enough to get a cease-and-desist note
It says "Please refrain from obstructing the junction to worcester terrace. Kind regards. "
The actual question of whether this car is obstructing the junction is one of debate. It is almost close enough to the corner to block the lowered pavement, so it can consider itself acceptably parked. Yet the letter write felt differently, and felt strongly enough to drop them a note.
Not an abuse rant, not even public web site commentary. No, a pleasant little handwritten letter. But such a well written letter. The only people who write such polite and elegant notes are lawyers. There's so much implicit menace in the sentences that only a lawyer would know to put the please and kind in to take the edge of and to introduce ambiguity in the court case. Take refrain -legal speak for stop doing this and never do it again. Then there's "obstructing the junction". An unambiguous statement of what the author feels the car is up to. B accepting the letter the driver of Y877TDL it probably implicitly accepting that they have done exactly that. Then there's the closing "Kind Regards". Friendly, but with the threat that they are being watched. Yes, a lawyer of some sort wrote this. And have billed the driver a minimum of 1 hours labour and the serving fee for placing it on the windscreen. Subtle.
Spoof web site: Association of British Drivers
Although this web site is a datamining project to build a statistically valid dataset on vehicle activities in our city, some people seem to think it is some kind of spoof. Not us
If you want to see a spoof site, go to the Association of British Drivers, who only this week have announced that they are going to organise a meeting in Almondsbury (North of Bristol -you'd need to drive there) to complain that Bristol is Anti-Car. One of their complaints is that Cabot Circus is anti-car! That's right, the changes made to the junctions to allow an extra 2500 parking spaces is somehow anti-motorist.
This organisation is not only better at understanding what causes congestion -its the bike and bus lanes- but they actually believe to be better global warming scientists than the entire weather pattern and paelometeorology community, and that it is entirely a big conspiracy. Presumably one by bristol council. A good example here is their Anti Bus lane page, which argues that bus lanes are wrong because people will use buses more, so creating ticketing delays and making journeys worse for public transport travellers.
With such campaigning organisations, there is no need for the Bristol Cycling Campaign to do anything satirical. We just watch.
If you want to see a spoof site, go to the Association of British Drivers, who only this week have announced that they are going to organise a meeting in Almondsbury (North of Bristol -you'd need to drive there) to complain that Bristol is Anti-Car. One of their complaints is that Cabot Circus is anti-car! That's right, the changes made to the junctions to allow an extra 2500 parking spaces is somehow anti-motorist.
This organisation is not only better at understanding what causes congestion -its the bike and bus lanes- but they actually believe to be better global warming scientists than the entire weather pattern and paelometeorology community, and that it is entirely a big conspiracy. Presumably one by bristol council. A good example here is their Anti Bus lane page, which argues that bus lanes are wrong because people will use buses more, so creating ticketing delays and making journeys worse for public transport travellers.
With such campaigning organisations, there is no need for the Bristol Cycling Campaign to do anything satirical. We just watch.
Sunday, 9 November 2008
Discretion when photographing
No piccie with this post as I was 'forced' to delete it. A brief run down of what happened: Cycling up Redcliffe St when I spotted a badly parked car, half on the pavement, half on double yellow lines, close to the corner. I took a pic and was about to cycle away when an irate little guy came running out of a building demanding to know why I was photographing his car. I stood my ground, half expecting a fight. I pointed out that he was parked illegally but he tried to justify it by claiming that it was a sunday afternoon with no-one around and it was doing no harm. Funny though, as being a sunday, there were loads of free parking bays, so he was ignoring his own laziness. He also said he was a bus driver and you'd think they would know better. He moaned about cyclists on the pavement and I said that it annoys me as well, but he was using the lame argument that if others misbehave and break the law, somehow it's okay for you to do the same (???).
Anyway, what could have been ugly, turned out okay as I asked him to at least put his hazard lights on to show that he would only be there for a few minutes (I bet he turned them off when I was gone) and he did fundamentally accept that he was breaking the law by badly parking. For my end of the 'deal', I agreed to delete the pics, which is why there aren't any.
But he did make one important point: He could have had a baseball bat or knife and attacked me. So when you're out and about and you spot some crappy parking, be discreet folks. As a matter of interest, has anyone else who contributes to this blog had abuse from irate drivers?.
Anyway, what could have been ugly, turned out okay as I asked him to at least put his hazard lights on to show that he would only be there for a few minutes (I bet he turned them off when I was gone) and he did fundamentally accept that he was breaking the law by badly parking. For my end of the 'deal', I agreed to delete the pics, which is why there aren't any.
But he did make one important point: He could have had a baseball bat or knife and attacked me. So when you're out and about and you spot some crappy parking, be discreet folks. As a matter of interest, has anyone else who contributes to this blog had abuse from irate drivers?.
Cabot Circus Bicycle and Motorcycle Parking
There are unconfirmed rumours of bike parking arriving in Cabot Circus. Photographic evidence welcome, preferably including a satnav screenshot and the day's newspaper to show it isn't fake.
As for motorcycle parking, we have been forwarded an email discussion on that topic, with the final one being of interest. Motorcyclists: go park in the car park.
As for motorcycle parking, we have been forwarded an email discussion on that topic, with the final one being of interest. Motorcyclists: go park in the car park.
Whilst we are waiting for the permanent bike bays, can I suggest that you use the ground floor underneath the central stairs.
There you have it. Somewhere dry to leave the bike so you can get in the shops and buy things.
Regards
Norman
Norman Ship
Car Park Manager
Cabot Circus
Saturday, 8 November 2008
Change has come
What a profound week. The first multi-racial US president. A US president who actually appears intelligent and willing to effect the transformations this planet needs to sustain itself beyond the next four years. Everyone we know in the US is celebrating, not least because it represents a triumph of internet based organisation over fox news.
Here in Bristol, something profound has also happened. We have received photographic evidence that Bristol Parking Services does issue tickets to illegally parked vehicles.
Here the range rover Y4MFC is actually being ticketed for parking on yellow lines and having one wheel slightly on the pavement -in Hampton Park, Cotham.
This event has taken years of dreaming, many people never thought they would live to see the day, but yes: a new dawn has arrived. A different world is possible. Believe!
Here in Bristol, something profound has also happened. We have received photographic evidence that Bristol Parking Services does issue tickets to illegally parked vehicles.
Here the range rover Y4MFC is actually being ticketed for parking on yellow lines and having one wheel slightly on the pavement -in Hampton Park, Cotham.
This event has taken years of dreaming, many people never thought they would live to see the day, but yes: a new dawn has arrived. A different world is possible. Believe!
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