Food for Thought

Customer parking at its best!

TomTom: Schoolchildren can slow you down

Continuing our question to Brizzleize the rest of Europe, a quick look at TomTom, Amsterdam-based makers of SatNav toys for cars.

This is their office, near the train station and and tram halt

Next to the parked bikes and the pedestrians

And round the corner from the flat rate 1-euro stop/go bus service.

This company is a little part of Bristol, in disguise. How so?, people ask.

Take a look at their marketing blurb.

Their business model is built around selling satellite navigation tools to car drivers. With new cars building it in, and a lot of old cars already fitted with existing models, TomTom need to sell boxes to the hold-outs, those people who drive around with a 1993 A-Z in the glove compartment, they need to convince everyone with an existing TomTom to upgrade. Yet the rate-of-obsolescence of old products is determined mainly by the rate-of-change of road infrastructure: new roads, new road restrictions. Predictable and generally manageable by people who can upgrade every fiew years -no easy way to switch to a subscription model for timely updates on one-way systems.

As for drivers who don't even have SatNav, maybe they don't believe they need it.

TomTom need to come up with a way to convince everyone they need SatNav; they need something to fear. What have they come up with: schoolchildren. As in "schoolchildren or shopping crowds can slow you down. "

To ensure that you can drive across the city at the fastest speed the city allows, even if there are schoolchildren around, you need a new TomTom device, one with a subscription to "TomTom IQ Routes", that knows about traffic. Presumably, then, it laughs at you if you want to go up to the lake district on a Friday evening in summer, or shakes its virtual head if you try to bring up any route on a Saturday in July and August that involves the M5 motorway bridge over the Avon. Implementation details aside, however, the key point is that this company, based in Amsterdam, whose staff appear to walk, cycle, bus, train or tram into work, are selling products to our city's drivers that claim to help navigate them away from peak pedestrian schoolkid densities on their journeys. Which is clearly a little bit of Bristol, lurking in the centre of Amsterdam.

One question though. If it does aim to steer you away from schoolkids walking around, what does it do when you ask it for a route on that morning school run?

The Georgians in Clifton

It's difficult owning a car in Clifton. Commuters, students, shoppers, and tradesmen, as well as residents, need somewhere to park. As do the Clifton Jet-Set with their 4x4s in The Mall.

So we can forgive the Purgeot R102OHT for just giving up and parking half of itself on a double yellow line. Probably a frustrated resident.

However, these Tradesmen, such as BF55OTL, are parked (only slightly on the pavement, and more on the double yellow lines) doing valuable work inside a splendid Georgian house. Or student dig.

But they couldn't get any closer to where they were working, because Georgian tradesmen used horses, not vans. Which lead to an interesting design choice when building their roads. Very car unfriendly, and not at all in keeping with the spirit of Modern Bristol.

This then begs the question - did Georgian Tradesmen park on the pavement, too?

Portsmouth: hitting the beach

Portsmouth is more than just a cycling town, it is a town with a beach: Southsea.

Do people cycle to the beach? Yes, some do.

Even unfit ones who have to hang on to their friends.

Once they get there, the people can lie in the sun. They cannot swim, on account of the water being ice-cold.

And they cannot cycle along the seafront, as there is a bit of a hold-up in the plans to make cycling along the seafront safe. But as long as you know a direct route to the seafront, you can get your bike to the water's edge. But not along, oh no.

The bicycle death lane of the Bearpit

While looking at the enhanced cycling parking of the Bearpit, we missed out on the cycling opportunities of the area.

Here, then, is the safe cycling option for this multilane roundabout.

1. There is a line of buses waiting in the left hand lane to turn into the bus station.
2. There are two cars who have mistakenly followed the road signs to get stuck in this queue.
3. The correct route in car is to go into the turn-right lane then slide in to the left lane after getting past the bus queue. The lane markings are only there for visitors.
4. Bicycles can go along the pavement, where it is signed with a white blob on the floor.
5. The bike lane ends precisely at this white marking, at which point the bicycle is forced out under the bus.

Nobody uses this path: it has no value whatsoever. It lets you skip past a traffic light, only to die under a bus. The correct way to negotiate this roundabout is to avoid it completely, or to go through underneath, through the Bearpit itself.

On the topic of the Bearpit itself, the People's Republic of Stokes Croft are trying to gentrify it.

DVLA does Montpelier

Again, we see the DVLA at work in Montpelier

This time, only one vehicle is being penalized, R308FKO.

The owner of this vehicle is not only not paying road tax, by continuing to drive a car that is probably over 10 years old, instead of buying a new car, they are failing to keep the country's economy afloat. This is inconsiderate and selfish.

Brizzleizing Amsterdam

We are hoping that our solutions to EU traffic problems will get picked up, and so are pleased to see this pic of a SmartCar variant on the streets of Amsterdam.

SmartCars transform city's parking problems, by increasing the places you can park a vehicle without endangering its wing mirrors or body work.

Taxis and ASLs

Some people think that ASLs are just for bicycles. Others that they are for bicycles and motorbikes.

Actually, they are for taxis such as this one NK53OSB, number 719, and anyone else in a hurry.

This is of course, the junction at Cabot Circus where Troy Atkinson got run over last month. The flowers are down, the markings on the road fading. Everything is back to normal.

Disabled vs Bicycles

Here's an interesting question.

Does having a disabled parking permit, as WK52UWH has, give you the right to block bike lanes?

Technically, yes. You can park on double yellow lines for a number of hours, access to bike paths and lanes is controlled by yellow lines, therefore you can park over them. Furthermore as this is Kingsdown on a weekday, there is nowhere else to park. Without driving all the way round to Dove Street and then up Nine-Tree-Hill, this is the only place anyone with a disabled parking permit -usually due to an inability to walk any distance- can park.

Now, morally? Again, yes. The driver would have to do a ten minute detour to get to the other side of the bike-only-barrier (best route: Horfield Road, past the BRI, then Jamaica Street), and that's a lot of effort. Whereas if you do park your vehicle here and stick the clock up on the dashboard, then only three-hours worth of cycling traffic will have to get off their bike, go over the pavement and then down the hill. Assuming 70% of the cyclists have mountain bikes, then if they have the ability to get their bike over the kerb, then they barely need to slow down. No moral dilemma at all.

Incidentally, from the cycling campaign there is a new handout for vehicles blocking bike lanes. This one says these facilities are best enjoyed on foot or bicycle, and asks the owner of the vehicle so tagged to come back and enjoy it properly on foot or bike. We fear the people in the cycling campaign are missing the point: bike lanes make an excellent place to park and can be enjoyed by cars, with or without a disabled parking sticker. We shall look out for these leaflets on vehicles in future, and try and come up with an experiment to assess their effectiveness -probably one involving Stokes Croft.

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.