Free Cabot Circus and Primark Parking

People are always hitting this site looking for free parking near Primark and Cabot Circus -here's a new one.
 
As this is in the centre of the bearpit roundabout, you will have to somehow sneak through the crash barriers to get in.

But how to get out?

Moments of Madness

Last month we covered how the bus driver accused of deliberately running over a cyclist outside the magistrates court was in court over the incident.

The news is now out that he's been sentenced to 17 months in jail after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and GBH, which, given the video, was hard to defeat with the "I didn't see him" defence.

The video is pretty awful for anyone to watch: if you want to know what it looks like when a bus sideswipes someone on a bicycle -when the bus isn't even going that fast.


The evening post says that the bus driver, Gavin Hill, has been disqualified from driving for 30 months, and will have to take an extended driving test afterwards. Apparently the action was "a moment of madness".

Well, we hope that Phil isn't suffering long-term consequences, and that the outcome does provide some reassurance that society frowns on such explicit attempts to cause death and injury.

Now, let us turn to today's other "moment of madness", this time by one David Lowrey, of Kingsway, St George, where the Evening Post says:   A VIOLENT motorist beat up a cyclist by the side of the road before getting someone to lie for him as he tried to escape conviction..

When we heard the "someone to lie for him" phrase we checked to see if David Lowrey was on the coalition cabinet, but no, he was someone who started a fight with someone on a bicycle who had the audacity to make some kind of gesture to the car as the car encroached into the cycle lane.

Again, "a moment of madness", this time with four months jail; no mention of driving penalty or what penalty he or the "independent witness" get for trying to pervert the course of justice (*)

If these court cases weren't in the papers on the same day, the "moment of madness" defence might sound somewhat realistic. As it is, it comes out looking a contrived.

For that reason, we had a look around to see where else the "moment of madness" defence had cropped up.

• Ron Davies, welsh secretary, robbed at knifepoint by a some people he went down to Clapham Common  with"a moment of madness"
• Sir John Guielgud, set up by the police who actually had undercover police trying to entrap men seeking a bit of discreet consensual sex, again "a moment of madness".
• Hugh Grant getting caught paying a prostitute for a bit of entertainment in a public lavatory while on a business trip without his wife.

There we have it then, two separate scenarios where defence lawyers recommend the "moment of madness" defence

1. You've rammed or assaulted someone on a bicycle and want to make it clear that normally you are a safe and docile driver and suddenly "a moment of madness" came over you. You didn't mean to cause physical injury and hope to be let off lightly.
2. You got caught by the police engaged in some outdoor sex act which the legal system at that time and place considered illegal. You want to imply that the fact the police caught you with your trousers down was not because you do it very often but because you "had a moment of madness" and you were very unlucky. You also don't want your political/acting/religious career ruined, so you have to pretend it was somehow an accident.

There you have it then, two situations where the "moment of madness" defence crops up. Can we note, then, that for the second of these sets of legal cases, nobody gets hurt. In fact, most of the participants in the situations seemed, at least to an extent, engaged in consensual acts. Whereas nobody volunteers to be run over by a bus at the bearpit, or head-butted by a complete stranger.

Either way, it's become a bit of a cliche. Please, defence lawyers, come up with some new phrase.

(*) On the topic of independent witnesses, can we remind everyone that not only do ex-spouses turn on you, but if you are having someone pretend to be a complete stranger so as to devalue the line up evidence, remember that as covered in Ugander et al., The Anatomy of the Facebook Social Graph, it's fairly easy to determine if the pairwise distance between you and the independent witness is only one or two hops, or the you are both parts of the same clique of acquaintances. Less formally: you can't say "I have never met this person" if you keep identifying each other as friends in facebook photos.

Update: for anyone in the mainstream media who is not actually appearing in the Leveson inquiry or in a 1:1 meeting with Don Murdoch, trying to contact us -please read more than one article on this site, especially the media corner, before emailing us. You will discover that you wouldn't consider us a serious and unbiased news outlet. Which, coincidentally, is exactly how we view the television and printed news outlets. 

Bus News update : driver in court, Wed Jan 4

Back in April, we posted about a bus that apparently was deliberately driven into a cyclist.

The court case against the driver is scheduled for Wed 4th January, at Bristol Crown Court No 7, at 11:00 or later -more details welcome. We'd also hope the cyclist involved has recovered.

Unlike the Evening Post, we do cover such things, and would welcome a full summary to bristol.traffic at gmail dot com, where it will make its way online.

On a more positive note, nobody on a bicycle or on foot was killed while walking or cycling round Bristol in 2011, which is an improvement on previous years, and makes London's terrible statistics even more significant, from the sixteen cyclists to the  many pedestrians, including one who was apparently killed by an HGV driver convicted of killing a cyclist only a year earlier.

Bristol has -despite some serious incidents- a better year. We also wish everyone that 2012 continues to not only have the same -zero- pedestrian and cyclist deaths, but that the number of injured drops too. If there is a difference between London and Bristol, it is that the police here are more supportive.

Happy 2012 from the Bristol Traffic team. 

Not us: we don't speak hungarian

Lovely video, people coming to the streets and saying what up to now is only printed in the Daily Mail, written in the comments, and muttered by taxi drivers between themselves.


Of course, we don't need to have a special protest to take over a bike lane -we have Stokes Croft for that.




On that topic: remember, Saturday is the official opening of the bearpit wifi zone and it's transformation into one of Bristol's premier destinations. Now all someone needs to do is paint over that bit between the bearpit and Nelson street and bring it back to its 1972 glory: Broadmead.

Oktoberfest im Ashton Court

Despite the nature of the activity -cycling- we are pleased to show

the route preview of the 2011 Ritchey Oktoberfest Bike Race.

Paul of ZeroG cycles is not actually in fancy dress, he can regularly be seen hanging round Bedminster in Lederhosen and singing bayerische beer drinking songs.

Paul will also be dressed like this for the duration of the event -we presume- and he does usually organise some (free) kids events that small children enjoy.

Be aware that Ambulance Leap has been removed so you will not be able to enjoy OktFest sitting at the picnic benches drinking Dunkel Hefe Weissen Bier and watching the MTB racers crater out in front of you.

This race marks one of the two main events taking place in the city this week, the other being the Bearpit Brunch. We shall be attending the latter, it being hosted in our team's weekend holiday home.

We feel for the unicyclist

The world naked bike ride

We worry about the sunburn for most of the participants, but for the unicyclist, the biggest risk is that they end up coming off the front of their toy. We can see from the photo that he has wrist-guards on, but aren't sure that will be enough.

We'd also like to see the video from the bloke on the left of the picture with the camcorder.

The Battle of the Bearpit Continues

We are pleased to have another photo from "TH", who is rapidly becoming out city-centre correspondent, today with another "Bearpit Incident", this one being rated as "minor" in the international Bearpit Incident Scale.

Apparently the Snap-on van was trying to cut into the road running into Park Row, when the car which was following the markings on the road went ahead and followed the markings on the road, forcing the van to cancel its plan. The van driver is apparently making their views known to the driver of the car.

No, this is not the Bristol Traffic van. Furthermore, the tactic of staying the right hand lane all the way from the end of the M32 to this roundabout is effective as it is the least congested, especially at the bearpit roundabout itself. but you should start to cut in earlier, once the lights from newfoundland way go green, then stay in the right of the two lanes past the bus station -so avoiding any waiting buses. You should only swerve into the left hand lane after passing the bus station.

This is one of the problems of driving like a local in Bristol: you have to know the real solutions to every junction, not what is painted on the ground, which are merely hints for tourists.

The Bearpit: the heart of Bristol

Why were down at the Croft for the festival, then, apart from emergency deliveries to the massage parlours? To see the bearpit back in full swing again.

In the nineteenth century, the festivals that used to take place in the area were a subject of national scandal. Since then, it's got quieter.

Yet it remembers. Look at the sign on the exit, pointing visitors to the normal highlights of the area: the sex shops and takeaways of the croft, and the St James Barton Car Park. Nobody else would, normally, visit the bearpit.

Yet on the streetfest day, people are out enjoying themselves in the shadow of the old Avon County Council buildings, tweaked to hide their original 1974-era neo-stalinist glory.

Stalls selling clothes, food, alcohol.

People sitting in the sun, enjoying a beer or four.

Even from the three lane roundabout that surrounds this inner city parkland, you can see the smoke of freshly cooked burgers blowing over the road.

If the St James Barton Roundabout is the centre of Bristol, the one roundabout where you have to drive round, the bearpit is the core of the roundabout; the bit of Bristol around which everything rotates. Yet so few people come out to celebrate it. One a year, the city does!

More News

Luckily, we were parked up on the pavement today, so we're in the clear, but we've just received this from the Police:

"Police are appealing for witnesses and information following a serious road traffic collision on the St James Barton roundabout in Bristol.

At around 12.50pm this afternoon (Wednesday May 18) a woman cyclist and a car were in collision on the Bond Street exit.

The driver failed to stop and the woman was taken to Frenchay hospital with extensive injuries. She remains in hospital.

Police would now like to speak to the driver of a car believed to be a dark coloured VW Passatt with partial registration X 471.

Anyone who may have witnessed this collision or who may know the vehicle involved is asked to call PC Richard Glanville on 0845 456 7000"

We've contacted the Association of British Drivers to see if they know the driver.

Bus news

FYI

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: murphy_le_chat
Date: Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 12:47 PM
Subject: [Bristolcyclingcampaign] Bus news

 

I've just returned from visiting a friend in the BRI who's just had an operation to put a 10in plate in his left shin, which was badly broken when a bus drove at him last Tuesday, outside the new Magistrates Courts.

I have chosen those words carefully. He is an experienced cyclist, well used to the difficulties of cycling in and around Bristol for many years. His route to work takes him from Bond Street, across the 'bear pit' roundabout, and across towards the BRI.

Last Tuesday, a bus on his nearside rear, drove very close and just touched him as he was riding round the roundabout. Shortly after, he stopped in front of the bus and 'had words' with the driver. He then continued on his way to work, thinking the incident was over, and had reached the Magistrates Court when the bus pulled alongside and deliberately turned sharp left, into him. His bike is written off. He has a broken leg, broken left wrist (which also has a plate) and a broken right thumb.

The entire incident was captured on the Courts external CCTV, and there were several witnesses. The case is now in the hands of the CID, and I understand the driver will be charged with causing Grievous Bodily Harm, and using the Bus as (an instrument? weapon..I forget the term). Clearly the case is under investigation so I don't know the implications of giving any more detail. The bus wasn't operated by First Bus. Strangely enough, news of this incident doesn't seem to have reached the Evening Post. Or maybe I missed it.

The Once and Future Bearpit

We've been getting more traffic recently, some from people who again, fall for the malicious lie that we are some kind of satire. The photographs are all genuine, the commentary pretty much lifted from Bristol Evening Post comments sections as is. Not fiction. The reason we are critical of cyclists is not just because of our affiliation with the Daily Mail group, but because ofcom requires it as part of their balance-in-reporting scheme. Every time someone in the Guardian or Independent pens a short article praising walking or cycling, Bristol Traffic or BBC local news is required to produce an in depth posting or TV/radio broadcast showing the truth.

The other source of recent traffic is people searching for "Bear Pit Bristol" or "Bristol Bearpit", for which of course we are one of the highest ranking results. Why so many visitors? A sudden urge to spend a quiet hour enjoying the peace of this urban idyll between buses? No: the Stokes Croft Street Fest. Our reporter "quercus" descended into the pit itself, for a bit of giant chess while listening to the bands -none of whose music is yet available on ABD-approved driving CDs.

Some people may denounce us for encouraging some kind of people-walking-around event, but they miss the point. Any event which celebrates Stokes Croft brings customers to Ritas and Stix takeaways, so benefiting us all.

But it's more profound that that. These people, by making the bearpit a place to visit, have reintroduced a whole new generation to the original bearpit goals: a roundabout for the whole family to enjoy!

We've been a bit critical in the past of people who talk about attractive pedestrian walkways, underpasses, and roundabouts people to visit, but that's because today's uses of the Bearpit, Lawrence Hill roundabout and other inner city parkland areas haven't lived up to the vision.




Remember the mid 1970s, when the M32 Parkway was open? Dad could drive down from Filton, park the beige Austin Allegro at Castle Park -when it was proper parking, not this green stuff, put his driving cap and gloves in the glove compartment -that's what it was for- and you could go into Broadmead to stare in wonder at the shops. Yet mum and dad would keep you away from the centre of the 'mead, and go back to the shops they saw at the end of the M32. Mum and the kids would go into Allied Carpets to see if any new plush green nylon rugs had come in, dad would go to the sex shop a bit further down to get one of his magazines. And where would the family meet up afterwards? That's right: The bearpit!

We could get together, eat and drink our wimpy takeaways, dad would flick through his purchase in its paper bag, mum look at the carpet brochures. Everyone would gather there, the giant-chess game had a queue of people waiting to play, whole families would have picnics.

What killed it? Progress. The Broadmead planners took Allied Carpets away. The Internet took the sex magazine shop customers away. The chess pieces vanished one by one. The Austin Allegro vanished; the Austin Metro and Morris Ital never gained quite the same cachet. Bristol City Council turned Castle Park into green space, and started charging too much to park in the Galleries car park. Opec and central government made the journey down the M32 costly. This is why the bearpit died: it became too hard, too expensive to pop down from Filton for a quick hour in the bearpit, especially once the important shops were gone. Nothing has brought them back.

This is why we celebrate the Stokes Croft Streetfest, why we got the Allegro out for a special trip back into town!

The Bearpit is Dead! Long Live the Bearpit!

Bicycles in the Bearpit

We still pine for the days when the bearpit was the premier tourist and family destination in the city.

That was why we were torn when we heard that someone was trying to do a photo documentary of cyclists in the bearpit. On the one hand, a reason to go the bearpit and enjoy it. On the other, it is celebrating bicycles. And we don't want that.

We drove down to see what was happening -can't say where we parked as someone will only steal that place. Suffice to say, it's handy, just not quite legal.

And in the bearpit? A photographer, looking cheerful despite the rain and apparently, the slightly inebriated audience. Some cyclists did turn up, we have taken their details and will report them to the relevant authorities.

A dream that was the bearpit

Following on our coverage of the stolen inner-city ring road, we are pleased to bring the city a photo of what it used to be like, when the ICRR was coming together, when the M32-Parkway was not yet built, without its trees and lovely views of the countryside, but the James Barton Roundabout had been built, with the Bearpit in its heyday -when people would pop out to it for a quick picnic after shopping in Broadmead. It was our answer to the M6 Lancaster Forton services and Portsmouth's Tricorn Shopping centre.



Look at this picture. Lots of -presumably free- parking, no cyclists, no congestion. Now compare it with now: traffic jams, expensive parking, and -apart from this road- cyclists. Even on this stretch, they've added more pedestrian crossings. What happens? The cars get held up. Coincidence? We think not.

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.

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.

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.

Cabot Circus Secret Parking

Another phrase that brings visitors to this site is "secret parking"; people searching the web in the desperate hope that whoever has discovered a secret parking space somewhere in the city is going to write about it, rather than treasure their secret for use in emergencies.

Well, that's going to change. Bristol Traffic is going to document those secret parking spaces. We may charge for sharing our knowledge of special-secret-parking-spaces, in fact our contributors can feel free to charge to delete the photographs, so if you want your secret parking space kept secret, it may cost you.

Here, secret parking for Cabot Circus, just off the St James Barton Roundabout, a roundabout which, if you look at the city's open spaces plan, actually constitutes open space. By parking here, you get a pleasant walk through an open space, then "Discover Broadmead" before arriving at Cabot Circus.

There's plenty of room here, no risk of passing pushchairs scratching your paintwork, whether your car is big or small.

Access looks fairly straight forward: approach the roundabout from the BRI, pop up on the pavement and nip through this gap in the railings.

Exit is, presumably, the same way. This is probably the only tricky part of the operation, especially if you want to head for the furthest lane, then you need to be fairly aggressive in your pull out or roundabout lane changing tactics.