Street BBQ at Cotham Porter Stores

Readers may expect us to complain that some people on foot were taking up valuable parking spaces. by having an in-street barbecue outside a pub. Not so
 

1. Cotham Porter Stores is a well known purvey of ciders at a very low price -£2.20 a pint at the right time of day.
2. There's enough space left to pull the van up and have a couple of pints or more before carrying on with the day's deliveries.

Rather than complain, we joined in.

Integrated Public Transport

Contributor "R" writes to us

Dear Bristol Traffic

These flats on Cotham Road South opposite the junction of Kingsdown Parade and Horfield Hill were built only a few years ago with the car in mind. The ground floor level includes garages with access across the pavement to the road. However, I wonder if the developers failed to realise just how useful garages are for keeping other things in apart from cars ?

Perhaps they did as their clever design hints at the existence of a driveway in front of the garages. This hint has not been overlooked by this tax-payer who is presumably pleased that the bus stop outside the garages gives pedestrians the satisfaction of making good use of what we all regard as an underused part of the road network.

Indeed we should applaud this as an example of "integrated public transport". I was unable to stay for long and determine the effect on pedestrians of an approaching bus.

Yours dearly,
"R"

This is a fine example of integrated transport. We also suspect that as this is in the Kingsdown RPZ, such imaginative parking will allow the resident to avoid needing to pay extra anti-motorist tax on their vehicle. 

Priorities

Amusing view behind a bicycle on Cotham Road South.

As you can see the car, RJ53SPV, coming from Clevedon Terrace pulls out right in front of the bicycle. It's a clear day, no visibility problems, so why do that? Because the bicycle isn't important. It's not just to save five seconds, it's because its only a bicycle you are pulling out in front of, not, say, a bus. So it doesn't matter. The council can put as many "look out for bicycles" signs as it wants, they still won't matter. Same for pedestrians. If you matter, get in car.

Bristol zebra crossing chic

Now that the weather is warm, you can wear summer dresses to park on the zig-zags by zebra crossings, as modelled here on Cotham Road South by the driver of VN59GCH.

This photo also emphasises why we think the council plans to put bike parking on the paid parking by the university is better than the alternatives. Imagine how much worse it would be if they'd replaced the zig-zags where build-outs bike parking on them? Zebra crossing zig-zags are the only short stay parking areas left in the city centre where you don't have to pay anything.

Special Mention: KA05AFO

Today seems to be "cut up a bicycle day", and that's why reader "S" would like to send a big hello to the white van KA05AFO driven by a blonde haired woman along Cotham Road South at 17:00 today. Our reader says

"It takes a bold person to overtake a bicycle occupying the middle of the lane while doing 20 mph when there is an oncoming car, but you held your ground. You didn't think "I have a left turn shortly and there is no point doing this" - you recognised that the cyclist didn't deserve to be there, and had to be shown their place, regardless of any danger you yourself faced in the process.

As I looked over my shoulder to shout "WTF are you doing!" you had an expression of terror on your face as the car approached, and your diesel van didn't have the power to get round the bicycle. But you stuck to it, you committed to your action, and once you had started you would continue, regardless of how much mayhem or injury it caused. I hope the three seconds you saved from the action or the terror you experienced during it made it seem worthwhile.

Sadly, it won't be enough to make me give up commuting by bicycle, not just yet"

Well, there is the "yet" at the end, we can only hope that the other white van drivers in the city will contribute to making them change their mind. Meanwhile, can we note that this is the first email about a white van driven by a woman. We consider this a form of progress.

Royal Mail bicycle parking

The snow has given us less cyclists to denounce, so here is something from before the snows came.

Here we see a Royal Mail delivery bicycle, insensitively blocking the pavement by the zebra crossing on Cotham Road South, the one with the Mercedes F55CNU parked on the zig-zags

This makes it much harder for pedestrians to get down the pavement safely, such as the one coming up alongside the Saab Y848PBJ parked on the other set of zig-zags on this side of the road.

These cyclists have no sense of pedestrian safety! They park wherever is closest to their destination! They pop in and out without a thought to convenience and safety of pedestrians and other road users!

We should write a stern letter to the Evening Post! That will stop them!

More road politeness

On the very same spring day we saw a previous polite note, this car, parked just round the corner in Cotham Road South, also sports one

It says you have parked across a disabled space so we couldn't get our wheelchair in the car all day.

and yes, it does seem to have managed to back up against the disabled car to the extent that it is impossible to move that car or get the wheelchair in or out the back

Again, it's a really polite note. Points out the specific failing of the person parking, makes it clear that it is considered socially unacceptable, and leaves it at that. Any other time of year, it would be a call to the police and parking and shortly later, a towing. Yet on this sunny spring day, nothing but a polite note. Heartwarming.

Defeat for Herbert's Bakery

Most people have recognised that trying to drive round Bristol today makes no sense whatsoever

But there are some organisations that have to get out, mission critical organisations, of which Herbert's Bakery is one. They are the official provider of baguettes to most of the cafes in the city, without which our latte lunches will be panini and baguette less.

Sadly, today, the Clifton delivery didn't make it through Cotham. To get this far they must have done Cotham Brow -nice- but the final uphill on Cotham Road defeated them. It is now reversing, presumably to return to base, that being the pavement off Picton Street.

Kingsdown RPZ implementation issues #71

When the Kingsdown CPZ/RPZ gets rolled out, what will happen to vehicles like this white transit van R192RGM, whose driver has popped into the newsagent to the left of this picture, apparently to get to get a can of soft drink?

(a) As commuters will no longer be able to park in Cotham Road south, residents doing shopping trips will be able to park safely, instead of on the zig-zags of the zebra crossing.
(b) The vehicles will have nowhere to park, and will not shop here. Without the provisioning of short-term parking spaces, local shops like this will lose all passing motorist trade. Given the economic situation, all plans to roll out resident parking should be fought tooth and nail.

(c) It being a Saturday, passing road traffic will be able to find a large amount of parking space and park legally. Nobody will have any legitimate reason to park on the zebra, other than laziness and a wilful disregard for pedestrian safety.

Losing Battle

Pulled over to snap the corsa KP54VLK using the premium-plus-short-stay parking by the shops on Cotham Road South.


While doing this, somone pulls over onto the other side of the road, nips out their Jaguar 880JOM and uses the zebra crossing to cross over. Well, if you do want to cross a road, parking by a zebra crossing is the closest place to stop.

It would be an interesting dataset: the number of vehicles that stop on the crossing lines here. Assuming it's for short stay cars only, you could run a lot of short stays through in a day. Which could actually put pedestrians more at risk than if the crossing wasn't there.

Pavement Work

The Evening Post is always complaining about bicycles on pavements.

A few dedicated car drivers do their best to discourage this by parking on the pavement, here at the zebra crossing between Cotham Road and Cotham Road South/Cotham Brow. There is about enough room to walk through, but not for bicycles. Well done BMW J2LXX! Thank you for standing up to pedestrian's rights! A lot of kids cycle down here on their way to and from school, and families with push chairs, but today they get to go in the road -where they belong!

[The reason the pavement is so wide here is to improve pedestrian safety, and to make the corner sharper; the one whose visibility is now hampered. O2 keep trying to put in a phone mast disguised as a lamp post twice the height of the trees, but keep getting turned down as the wall abuts some listed pillars. I almost phoned this one in to Bristol Parking Services, as I was annoyed that they were on the pavement by the zebra crossing. But as the office closes at 17:00, at 17:02, you can park where you like]

parking spaces are transitive

Remember in school doing magnet experiments? And how if you connect a bit of iron to a magnet, the iron becomes a bit of the magnet. Its as if the magnetic field expands to include the iron; the force lines pass through it to create a bigger magnet.

Here, the same effect "a parking field" applies to cars on the road. Normally a zebra crossing's zig-zag areas are off limits to cars, as they endanger pedestrians. Yet if a car such as the Ford Escort M67OTH parks close enough to those cars that are parked in parking spaces, it too becomes legally parked.

The hard part is getting your car close enough to the other parked cars, without actually touching it. As that could damage your car, and nobody wants that.

Partially Disabled

This car on Cotham Road South is parked with the rear wheels in a disabled parking slot. A slot that exists so that the wheel-chair bound resident of the house immediately adjacent to the parking place can get to their house from their car. But not today.

Someone has actually stuck a note on the window of this Alfa Romeo #BG51ZSR


"Why have you parked in a disabled slot? You have caused a wheelchair user great difficulty getting in to his house".

Also, interestingly enough, is a note from the police, something tucked under the window that wasn't noticed until later. I wonder what it says? Possibly a please-don't-do-that-again note, because we clearly don't have a functional vehicle towing organisation to deal with such incidents

But here's a thought. What if they are partially disabled? Like a sore foot, a bit of a limp or something. Or the driver hears voices telling them to overtake on blind corners. Nothing too serious, but inconvenient enough that having partial access to a disabled slot takes the edge of things. That could explain this driver's actions.

Zebra Crossings are for deliveries

Zebra Crossing parking spaces are not just for shoppers, they are used by delivery vehicles. Here we see a pair of city-link vans, one on the crossing, one double parked just past it.


This is a bit inconvenient for cars, as it forces them into the oncoming lane and so the approaching bicycle.


To address this, one of the vans moved to pavement park on the yellow lines on the opposite side of the road.


Now it is oncoming bikes that have to give way to cars.