Look at all the lonely cars....

Where do they all come from?. Look at all the lonely cars:
Where do they all belong? (with apologies to Lennon & McCartney).

Well, most likely not on a cycling city - funded cyclepath like this. With no hazard lights, note in the windscreen,warning triangle or RAC/AA in attendance, breakdown looks unlikely. It may have been dumped, a victim of the new austerity thrust upon us by greed and incompetence in the global financial markets thus forcing abandonment expensive of driving lifestyles. However, this is the UK, so it's probably just convenient to leave it here and wander off to do some shopping at the nearby Imperial Park which has some excellent paveparking facilities. The owner is also in the running for our considerate parking awards as they left a gap for some pedestrians. And if the local media are to be believed, it's good to see that the money wasted on pesky cyclists and their failed cycling city project, is being put to good use.

Cycle path parking awards

It's about time that we here at the Bristol Traffic Blog saluted the drivers who, in the act of parking, took a small amount of time to consider other pavement users, the law and how much impact that dumping their vehicle wherever is convenient for them might actually have, and so have adjusted their parking habits to take all this into account. The first award should go to the driver of this vehicle, YG07 EVL, who obviously didn't want to inconvenience any cyclist, pedestrian or disabled wheelchair user etc, so went the extra foot and drove slightly off the asphalt so as to leave some space at the rear.


After all, since parallel parking with the other vehicles on this stretch of free parking...sorry.., cyclepath, would be clearly impossible due to the anti-vehicle bollards, the driver in this case has no option but to come in at an angle. However, it does mean that you can reverse out right into a busy road from the shopping centre providing that there aren't any pedestrians, cyclists or disabled people walking behind you as you pull away. However, the dropped kerb should provide a smooth transition from cyclepath to road without too much bouncing over kerbs.

As for the bollards, unfortunately Bristol City Council, according to many correspondents with the Daily-Mail offspring The Bristol Evening Post, are so anti-motorist that they use taxpayers money to put up bollards like this everywhere and reduce parking space. We would suggest that drivers should moan to the Post about this.

In the meantime, well done to this driver who wins our considerate parking award 2012. Unfortunately, in these times of austerity, we can't afford a prize or a little engraved cup. However, we do have a choccy bar left over from the Traffic Blog Christmas party that we found in the bottom of the desk drawer.