Being a rich and successful driver presents many opportunities for you to present your achievments to the lesser mortals. You have the car and the personalised plates and this gets the admiring looks, well for a while at least. But then what? How do you tell the world that you have really made it? Anyone can get a flash motor and personalised plates hide the age.
Well, nothing says that you can afford not to give a damn like illegal and downright inconsiderate parking. This car park had plenty of available spaces and at £1 an hour, surely it is within the means of anyone. But no, far better to take not one but TWO disabled parking bays to show you can afford not to care about tickets. No blue badge here nor even a pay and display ticket. That's for the little people.
R8 AMG does this with such finess that they even manage to do this next to a bicycle jumble sale! Let's show the poor people who can't even afford a new bicycle, let alone a car, what real achievement can bring!
Don't condemn this driver. They are giving us something to aim for.
there's a new area to park at the BRI -they've taken away a stretch of pavement to create this expanded parking zone
In theory it's for the free bus and some "drop off only" spaces. In theory
We know that the pavement space is now a new short-term parking area for vehicles such as office team KMIIUAL
while alongside that is a new "secret" disabled parking space
Historic landscapes and conservation areas are important across the globe. UNESCO knows this, and justly identifies the historic core of Amsterdam as of world importance. Which is why we enjoy going there, taking photos and enjoying the views and the general aesthetic of the place. Even though it's overrun with cars and bicycles.
Clifton Village is not a UNESCO world heritage site, but it is of a similar era, and is also overrun by cars and bicycles.
Which is why Boyce's Avenue has had both banned for much of the day in order to make shopping and walking through there a more pleasant experience.
Oh? They don't quite look the same?
That'll be the UK's obsession with paint. These fantastic new yellow daubings on the kerbs of Boyce's Avenue are there for a reason. Which is really important in historic settings.
We've been emailed a peculiar image. We're unsure whether it reflects the state of the photographer's mind at the time, or is just an attempt at being arty.
We note, however, that the yellow car is parked at an angel in the 'Disabled' parking bay in Caledonia Place, Clifton.
On closer inspection, though, it becomes clear why Fiat R368MMW needs to park at such a jaunty angle. Some selfish soul has obviously put a traffic cone in the bay to prevent parking here. We suspect this would be someone with one of those really useful blue badges that allows us to park on double yellow lines (we've got a pack of them here at Bristol Traffic - if you'd like one just ring the Bristol Traffic Help Desk - most major credit cards accepted).
Luckily for the Fiat, this is Clifton where the standard rules of behaviour do not apply, especially when it comes to parking. So it's possible to park here without a blue badge with impunity. He who dares, wins.
We are pleased to see the Evening Post commentator team have turned their attention from one enemy of our city -the cyclists - to another: the elderly and their transport options.
Here on Cotham Brow we see one out on the road, swerving past the van WV55UED parked on zebra crossing zig-zags -a van which, were it to say Siemens Traffic Control- would be allowed to park there unharassed by the parking police.
The disabled person in a mobility scooter is not paying any road tax, and as it is an electric vehicle, no fuel tax.
Yet it holds up white vans, the lifeblood of the city
We sent one of our expendable cyclists out there to see whether the new anti-bicycle, anti-pedestrian features would stop cyclists trying to use the pavement on Southwell Street. We hoped so, because it would discourage them from trying to cycle to the University, taking up valuable space on our streets. Sadly, our experiments -on a Sunday- showed that it is still technically possible for a bicycle to do it.
Of course, were it a weekday, when the main road option is blocked off, and the street full of pedestrians, attempts to cycle this way would create exactly the kind of bike/pedestrian conflict that we always complain to the Evening Post about as proof the cyclists are selfish criminals.
Some other findings.
The painted pedestrian bit on the road really is meaningless: vehicles know that it is a road, and anyone walking on it is a tax dodger without any insurance -and that they have chosen to die.
There's no way to get a wheelchair back up on the pavement, what with the dropped kerb being blocked off.
We don't care about the first of these, pedestrians should not be there. Disabled people? Interesting. In the video they carry on along the road, but remember, on a weekday, the barrier will prevent this. This raises some interesting questions about who owns the road.
If the road belongs to the council and has been blocked by the hospital then the barriers are probably technically not-legal. This is a pity, as anyone who owns a driveway will be watching this case and hoping they can put barriers up on their bit of pavement, so that they can pull in more easily without worrying about passing schoolkids.
If the road now belongs to the hospital, then it's just fallen foul of disabled access legislation and there's a risk that someone might grass them up to the DWP for falling foul of the Disability Discrimination Act.
Either way, it amuses us. Our biggest fear is that the council will now take a look at this problem, explore which bits of pavement are theirs, and not only force open this road, but take away the parking on the other side. We get lots of visitors to this site using the keywords "BRI Parking", presumably because when you get an invite to visit the BRI, the leaflet on getting to the hospital includes no details on parking. Instead it covers how to get there by bus and train, the timetable for the free bus from the station, where the bus station is. What the leaflet doesn't cover is where any free parking for the hospital is. Unlike the suburban hospitals in the city, like Southmead and Frenchay, there are no half-empty residents streets nearby, not on a weekday, and the council and hospital both refuse to provide free parking for visitors. This is unacceptable.
Many political groups in the city have asked us for our endorsement. So far, the UKIP transport policy appeals the most.
We like their plans to raise speed limits on M-ways to realistic speeds, though think 80 mph isn't that realistic -haven't they done the M5 northbound run recently? 90 is more honest.
We like their idea of introducing the turn-on-red rule, as it ensures that bicycles and pedestrians can't view a green light as a safe time to move. Walking and cycling are too dangerous in modern cities.
We like their idea of making free parking in hospital parking areas possible, though they aren't as strongly behind it as the SNP are, so we doubt that the BRI will benefit.
We like their proposal to remove all licensing issues on taxis other than roadworthiness, though we don't believe they have noted that taxis and minicabs have special MOT requirements: indicators and brake lights should be optional.
Our favourite option is their ability to make no cycling signs enforceable:
10.9 Local authorities should be given additional powers to enforce a ‘cyclists dismount’ or ‘no cycling’ regulation where there are safety concerns – such as on busy roundabouts, junctions or bus lanes, or where the road would be too narrowed by cycle lanes and cause unacceptable delays to traffic.
That's lovely. Where the road is too narrow for bike lanes, and the bikes would hold up cars by being in the way, ban them! Yet just before that, they say they approve of cycling for leisure
10.8 Cycling on safe cycle routes, lanes, tracks and trails should be actively encouraged,particularly as a leisure pursuit.
This is so wrong! Leisure cycling still encourages people to ride a bicycle, out there, singing Edelweiss or whatever families do on bicycle rides. No, leisure cycling is a crime. Stamp it out. Fortunately, they do that on page 33 where they propose re-opening the Yatton - Cheddar line, stolen by the cyclists and called "the strawberry path".
If there is one big flaw in their paper, they use metric measurements such as tonnes and metres as soon as page six. If they want to be free from EU interference, they should get rid of these EU counting systems and go back to yards, feet and lbs. Indeed, let's get rid of decimal values, go back to pounds, shilling and pence. Decimalisation is EU interference in our money!
hDown at the BRI, again. Nowhere to park the car. Again.
First thought: the pavement at the entrance. But no, even the dropped kerb by the crossing was already occupied by DN08JYX. Pity: that's the last £0 parking area to the hospital.
Down into the A&E ambulances only section, again, all the parking spaces full, and the pavements occupied -this time by hospital vehicles..
Here at the newly built Bristol Heart Institute, there is no official motorbike or bicycle parking, so those troublemakers who motorbike or cycle in are appropriately penalised for their choices.
There is disabled parking, so this car WV03YKP, whose driver nearly knocked someone in crutches off as they turned in over the zebra crossing, does have somewhere to park. But even there, there is a no motorbikes sign. Presumably you cannot ride a motorbike if you are disabled, or if you can, you can still park somewhere else.
You see, by its very nature, the Bristol Heart Institute is going to get unhealthy, unwell, unfit people. People who drive and smoke, not people who cycle. There is no point providing any bicycle parking in this new building, because they are not the customers. No, what we need is affordable car parking for the patients.
Last week we saw how R848CGS was being harassed by students merely for parking on a build-out by a pedestrian crossing, in front of a hospital. Today we see that the council, rather than ticket pedestrians for occupying our pavement, is instead ticketing this car. Yet because the pavement has been widened here, there is plenty of room for pedestrians to get past.
Further down the hill in Kingsdown, KF02YWW is ticketed for parking in a disabled space.
Does Bristol Parking Services not realise that on a busy weekday, pavements and disabled parking spaces are the only spaces left for people to park? We don't want to use these spaces, but its always very frustrating driving round the block when there is a nice empty bit of pavement calling out to us, or an unused disabled parking bay. We are forced to use these spaces. And then what? They ticket us.
The roads are all briefly snow free, as are the pavements, so they can be used again. Not by pedestrians, who we still think should be made illegal, but by car drivers who prevent congestion problems by parking entirely off the road.
Here on Eastfield Road, the Audi RK08KCJ has to park here as the owner, through no fault of their own, only has a garage big enough for a 1970s hatchback.
Up at Hampton Road, some students have been causing havoc with the wipers on this car R848CGS strategically placed to stop pedestrians crossing. This is why when we get our laws against being a pedestrian pushed through, the fine for being a student pedestrian will be double.
And on Whiteladies road, we can see another traffic island that is no use to anyone, and just makes it harder to swing past bicycles.
This car NS03YJP has a disabled sticker, so it is legitimately parked here, before anyone complains. What we really want to highlit is in the background - some of the new Whiteladies road bike parking stands. They are stealing our pavements, our car parking spaces, again.
Nothing unusual there, a line of stationary cars making it easier to walk across cross. Except some time in December, this road was closed to all but buses, bicycles, taxis and disabled vehicles.
As these motorised vehicles lack firstbus logos or taxi yellow plates, the remaining conclusion is: disabled.
Which shocks us. We did not know that there was such an epidemic of medical conditions forcing people to drive down to Cabot Circus. We hope that it is transient, that they all recover, as this does not bode well for our city's long term health.
The parking of this vehicle may seem completely random, but as it has a disabled sticker it is allowed to park on double yellow lines. The only issue, then, is why WN07HCX is parked on Elm Lane, Redland at such an unusual angle. It may actually be intentional.
By parking the way they have, passing vehicles can't tell whether or not the car is actually about to pull off without indicating, or is just parked at a random angle on the double yellow lines by the corner. You can't even be 100% sure there isn't a driver in there, not from this angle. This forces any experienced local driver to slow down and pass carefully, looking out for any sudden movements.
As such, it is actually better at slowing down vehicles approaching the corner with Grove Road than the give-way signs themselves are - signs which used to historically mean "pause and look for passing vehicles" but which will, in the forthcoming 2010 Highway code, be changed to mean "stop texting for a moment".
it also penalises anyone who is not paying attention to the curve of the road, by scraping bits off their vehicle. Again, this encourages attentiveness, and hence safer driving.
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.
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.
We love contributions, follow the instructions. We like funny ones the best. Hence a special mention to Montpelier correspondent KL, who sends in a lovely shot of a Herbert's Bakery van up on the pavement on Richmond Road.
It's actually been here a week, other people have seen it blocking the pavement, but this photo captures the scene best: a delivery van in a disabled slot.
Because it is appropriate. That shed to the right is the local garage. If the van is up by the garage for a week, rather than trying to get to Clifton in snow conditions, that is one seriously disabled vehicle.
The author of this post may actually qualify for a disabled sticker. Certainly when the doctor finally got back to me on the phone 3 months after the MRI they spoke about "long term mitigation", which would seem to apply acceptance of the state . And to make up for not being able to walk or run around: you get to park almost anywhere. It means I know what its like to have to accept that things aren't going to get better, walking will hurt. And as for trying to cross roads in this city -if you can't run, forget it!
Because walking across roads in the city for disabled people is so hard, this driver is forcec to park on the keep clear approach lines of a (light controlled) pedestrian crossing on a busy road. These lines are not there to improve traffic flow, they are to provide a safe view of the crossing to approaching cars. One might think, therefore, that parking here would endanger pedestrians. Clearly the driver of this car does not think so, and we must respect their judgement.
There is news that the government wants to create a central database of all owners of disabled parking tickets, to stop theft and forgery of the bits of blue paper that allow you to park where you want. This seems an expensive exercise in creating yet another central database; yet another place to lose personal data. For it to catch forgeries and theft, every time a parking or police officer saw a car with a disabled permit, they would have to check up on the database. This would build an implicit record of the location of every disabled vehicle in the country, which could be very interesting from a datamining perspective, with only a few civil liberties folk to whine about it. Do those people not realise that the War on Terror requires a few personal freedoms to be put aside? In Bristol, we are not convinced that the central database makes economic sense. By allowing everyone to park where they want, even half-in a disabled bay, our city has eliminated the need to steal or forge a disabled parking sticker. Thus we get to save lots of money -on the database, and the enforcement. Isn't that a much better idea?
Incidentally, if the government does want to go the database route, we propose RFID-tagged number plates that can be automatically scanned in driveby audits. They would be harder to forge and it would be easier and cheaper to build up a complete database on the movement of people, one the council could get at. As it is today, the ANPR-based national car movement database is not available to the people who be able to use it to find out how people actually drive round the city: the traffic planners.
Another car making partial use of a disabled slot, this time in Montpelier. By parking up on the pavement, this volvo FRL121D still leaves room for a vehicle displaying a disabled sticker to park in the bay, they just double park a bit and stick out into the road. This is Richmond road; blocked to through car traffic to deny stolen cars a through route, and as a result, double parking would not seriously inconvenience anyway.
This is a innovative and practical technique which could radically expand the parking capacity of some Montpelier streets.
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.
I can't help wondering if my ongoing knee issues put me in a position to apply for a disabled parking permit. Because it radically expands the places where you can park in the city. Unfortunately, as this car WM06BLK has discovered, have a park-outside-your-house permit does not exempt you from wingmirror bashes. So you need to park on the pavement too. This is the top of Cotham Brow/Cotham Road incidentally; the yellow lines went in a couple of years ago to provide an opportunity for the bus to pull out, and to provide a safe bit of cycling after a fairly harsh climb even for those people whose knees actually work properly. You need to recover here before pulling into traffic for the right turn onto Cotham Road. It will be interesting to see if this car continues to exploit its park-where-you-want facility once the roadworks on this road go and through traffic returns to Cotham.
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