Bristol Drivers: always giving cyclists a hand

There are always complaints in the cycling community (all eight of them) about some war-on-cyclists taking place in Bristol. We know that's untrue: the war being conducted in Bristol is by cyclists, against Motorists!

Innocent motorists, we may add —law abiding, invariably polite and considerate.

Here we one such example, a BMW driver going out of their way to give the cyclist a helping hand up the road



See how they swerved to make sure they were able to help the cyclist? See how they carefully reached out and gently tried to assist the cyclist? Admittedly, they were try to help the cyclist fall over and injure themselves —but they were still trying to do their bit for a cycling city.

We've said before, that Bristol is split between those who like cycling and those who, well, hate it.



We suspect the driver of BMW MX64JWU may have been one of the people in the survey who expressed negative opinions about cycling. We may also suspect they aren't in favour of 20 mph limits.

Well, we always value those prepared to stand up for their principals, or here, lean out the window and try to push someone over for those same principals. We feel this driver should be congratulated with the publicity their action deserves. Does anyone know who they are?

Location: Horfield/Lockleaze border, Wordsworth Road.; that bit which the #24 bus covers.

Video from Dave Edmonds. See the BCyC facebook posting.

Regarding a Grey Van on Romney Ave/Shaldon Road, Lockleaze

Some tax-dodger emails us:

"were you the idiot driver of the grey van who on Wed Feb 1 was swearing at me down at Muller Road because all the way down Romney Ave he hadn't been able to pass me, because I didn't get out of the way of traffic?"

"If you were, can I point out that I was doing 30 mph, so you had no justification to pass me, and as I was following a car doing the same speed about three bike lengths in front, you had nowhere to go anyway."

"I hope you enjoyed the long traffic jam on Muller Road with no bicycle in your way to get upset about"

We have looked at our van and no, it doesn't look grey, more a white with a brown layer on top, "dirty!" written on the back. (that's our brand, incidentally).

We understand the grey van driver. We don't think bicycles should be on the road, so the fact that you were there -and the fact that he couldn't get past- made it very frustrating. If you had cycled slower and stayed to one side he would still have hated you, but a bit less.

That's something the advocates of "vehicular cycling" don't understand. They think if you imagine that you are a car, and position yourself appropriately, you will recognised as a vehicle and made welcome. Not so: you will just become an arrogant cyclist who doesn't know their place -and deserves the abuse they get.

It is your very presence that is the issue, not just your positioning.

Careful Passing

Everyone recommends giving bicycles room when passing, -and they complain when you don't, especially when traffic islands create pinch points.

Here a vehicle on Shaldon Road, Lockleaze, demonstrates the correct way to safely pass a slow-moving bicycle at a pinch point.

WessexConnect: they block ASLs for your own good

There's a lot of complaint from the bicycle-troublemakers, the vocal ones, about vehicles stopping in ASLs. We think that it's exaggerated. Here is our proof.

[update]: It's apparently a Wessex Connect Bus. We praise them for their consideration.

It's a video from (an expendable) cyclist. As we've stated before, we don't video our own driving in case it is used in evidence against us. Even the soundtrack of us trying to touch-type facebook updates on the phone could cause legal issues. Hence we give these tax dodgers cameras "as gifts" and collect the output. Today we see the output from a shinier camera, which is helmet mounted for a bit more stability.

This video was shot going down Shaldon Road, meeting the lights at Muller road. As you can see the bus has its wheels behind the ASL, but the front of the vehicle is in the ASL. This is for everyone's own good -nobody should go into this ASL.

0:13. The bus gets a green light to turn left, taking up most of the lane as it swings round. A cyclist may have survived if far enough to the right, but the turning car would have dealt with that.

0:22 The cyclist gets a green light and starts to head through while a car coming from the M32 runs the recently-red at speed.

If the cyclist had been using the ASL for its planned purpose "getting out early", they'd have been hit by that car. The FirstBus WessexConnect vehicle's positioning not only protected the cyclists from it's own left turn, it saved ithem from other road vehicles.

We think this is one of the cycle facilities which even the militant cyclists would be campaigning to remove.

Speaking of cycling facilities, we are disappointed to note that Lord Mayor Geoff Gollop will be in Stockwell to proudly open the new "pump track" put in for the local teenagers to cycle round. Why the disappointment? Well, that's only going to encourage them, isn't it?

We feel betrayed. Why? Cllr Gollop was the leading quote for the Bristol Bikelash. How can he rightfully take our side by denouncing the painting over of some parking spaces with bike lanes, then turn around and say "it's OK for people to cycle here". It's just hypocrisy. We know he's going to drive there, obviously, but will he stand up and say the truth -that he and his party are the only people prepared to stand up against cycling and public transport in this city, because they are the only form of transport for poor people, and we are not poor. Well, not poor yet, though his colleagues in Westminster have plans for that. But don't worry: the unemployed don't commute.

Discussions with the BSM and other Bristol Driving Schools

We always have a special place in our coverage for driving schools, as they have to teach beginners the hard art of driving and parking in a city which, excluding Clifton, is anti-car.

Here, up in Filton. Evolution WM10YHO show that the way to park is up on the pavement.

In front of it, a shared space. This eliminates the pavement entirely, and makes for some fun high-speed chicanes.

Speaking of driving schools, our ongoing discussion with one has had a new comment. The instructor does provide some good insight into what it's like driving a bus in the city, so those commenters slagging off FirstBus drivers should really save their anger for FirstBus management.

He also raises the issue of which laws should be ignored first:

I completely agree with people should not park on double yellow lines or zig zags or to close to junction corners all of which cause a danger to other road users but I do not count parking 2 wheels on the pavement in a very narror street that was never meant for parked cars in the first place as the same level of offence.

We don't bother with making decisions about which action is more defensible than others. We ignore them all, hence save time thinking about which action is more right than others.

We also note that we haven't seen that particular driving school in our database. The driving school that most pops is the British School of Motoring. The BSM may have more market share, but they are to be commended for something else: they are the only driving school that we have documented teaching people how to park in Montpelier. The other schools, they pick you up, then take you somewhere safe to learn to drive. The BSM actually hold their lessons in Montpelier.

In-town, in Richmond Road, Montpelier, we have a heartwarming sight. No, not the cyclist going up the hill with the Sainsbury's bag on the handlebars -it's the BSM instruction car WV60WJF.

We don't think driving and parking in Monty has its own test yet, so we're assuming it's a lesson. As Richmond Road is one of the hardest to drive and park on, we congratulate the BSM for showing their pupils the way forward -or at least the way up on the pavement without damaging your wheels, hitting the wall or paying the wingmirror tax on the way up the road.

So far, nobody from the BSM has got in touch with us. However, we are pleased to have video coverage of a discussion between some under-employed tax-dodger and the BSM car WR60CUY, which can be seen driving into the ASL on the red light: the bicycle doesn't get their green light until Shaldon Road is on red, so the car has had five seconds of red before it comes to a halt.

When queried about what the driver thinks the penalty for driving into an ASL is, the driving instructor comes back with the correct answer: anyone who cares about such things doesn't have a life. We actually think this summarises the entire country's cycling activist groups: they only do it because they don't have real lives.

Congratulations to the BSM for putting this tax dodger in their place!

Left Hook at Kellaway Building Supplies

A tax-dodging troublemaker emails us this video to say "Is this white van DK04TBX that nearly ran me over on June 10 in its rush to get to Kellaway Building Supplies on Shaldon Road yours?"

Here is the response composed by our lawyers

• Askmid says this vehicle is a VW Transport T30TDi. As the Bristol Traffic Team's white van is a Ford Transit at least ten years older, we deny responsibility.
• We think all criticism of this van is unfounded, as by accelerating past the bicycle before cutting over it, it left plenty of room.
• By indicating its intent to turn left while it went past the bicycle, the cyclist had plenty of time to take evasive action.
• Kellaway Building supplies plays a key role in supplying everything a white van in the building trade needs apart from copies of the Sun and cans of Red Bull. As the Bristol Traffic van is a key part of the Bristol sex industry supply chain, Kellaway Building Supplies rarely appears in our list of destinations, apart from when meeting the needs of an individual with an obsession about loft insulation. A superinjunction prevents us identifying the specific board members of one of our local football teams.

We trust that these answers are satisfactory.

A brand new Urban Village

We are keeping an eye one some newly proclaimed subversives, the People's Cycling Front of South Gloucestershire, whose goal is for S Gloucs to have cycle paths that the Dutch won't laugh at.

They have denounced the new cycle paths of the Tailspin housing estate between Lockleaze and the MoD as something the Dutch will laugh at, which apparently they did.

Well, let's drive out and see, as we were worried that this estate may be encouraging alternative transport instead of the joys of the A4174 ring road of a weekday evening.

Next to the sign advertising a new way of live in a Brand new Urban Village, we see a photo of a family all cycling without helmets on the path beside the estate. There are no houses in the photo as it was taken "before". There is some text in the advert about how wonderful it will be, but the ageing VW Polo hides it.

Nearby, it has that Urban Village flavour -maybe even a taste of Montpelier- as a VW Golf parks up on the pavement, some student cycles by, and the 20 mph roadsign has been twisted to one side by a passing truck.

Round the corner, as the subversives noted, yes, there is a new cycling path which is about 40 cm higher than the old one.

What has changed since last week's denunciation is the give way signs for traffic crossing this cycle path have been removed.

Nothing to fear here then. Business as usual. No happy families will be using these paths to get to the city, or even as far as crashing into the bollards by the MoD.

We hear the Cycling Front are planning a kind of competition one lunch time next week to see who can ride the path, mountain bikes with or without suspension recommended. Keep an eye on their @cyclingfront twitter feed for news.

2nd2none shows how it's done

Yes we've seen this car before. The miracle that is an internet-scale index/search engine tells us we saw WR08HXK in exactly the same place in Chedworth Road, Horfield, back in March.

Well, before your customers are ready for the pavements of Monty, you need to teach them how to get on and off the kerb safely, and quiet roads like this with plenty of dropped kerbs are ideal. One issue though: six months? And their customer is still learning? That's not good.

UWE to the Farm pub, by way of Purdown Camp

Someone posts us this (long and dull) video, with commentary.

They say:

You are always whining about bicycles in your way and how your road tax is wasted on bike lanes, but look at this. At 5pm I can get all the way from UWE to the Farm Pub, St Werburgh's, by bicycle, through fields, without using any tax-funded bike lane, public road or blocking any vans, fifteen minutes door to door. You try doing that in your white van. Apart from the 30s waiting for the lights to change on Muller Road so I can cross it, it's lovely and traffic free. So please, stop complaining so much.

Some of our team members also enjoy the fine beverages served by the farm pub; indeed, one of those white vans may be ours. We also agree, that at 17:00, to drive from UWE Frenchay to the Farm pub will take 30 minutes minimum, by either route:

1. A4174 to M32, round St Pauls Roundabout to Mina Road and then that new 20 mph zone to the pub.
2. Down to Stapleton Road then traffic lights and traffic jams to Mina Road.

Does this want to make us get out or van and start cycling? No. What it does is reinforce our demand for a new road from UWE to Lockleaze, and a re-opening of Boiling Wells Lane from Muller Road to St Werburgh's. This will stop both Lockleaze and Ashley Vale from being forgotten parts of the city.

Snuff Mills: benchmarking Bristol Traffic

Our coverage of cycling families endangering car paintwork created some feedback from one Tony John Cooke, who expressed some concern that some of our claims (helmetless cyclists are uninsured troublemakers) lacked proof. Tony, the fact that cyclists are threats to our city and its motors are Axioms; we don't need to prove it, it is self-evident. We -and the rest of the media- work forward on that axiom, just like most of mathematics works on Euclids set without worrying about whether or not parallel lines ever meet.

Our goal when we set up this project was simple:

1. Timely coverage of the city's real transport issues.
2. Project the motorist's point of view, not the watered down stuff that the Evening Post and Daily Mail pushes out.

To check we are meeting these goals we benchmark ourselves against the competitors and the cycling press. Tony -your very complaint re-inforces our conclusions that we are being strongly consistent with our  messaging, so it cheers us up no end.

But is a complaint from one person enough? No, of course not. Which is where benchmarking ourselves against the mainstream press comes in:

1. We check that we are ahead of AA and RAC foundation thinking by looking for their press-releases reprinted unquestioningly by the BBC and other outlets. 
2. We verify that we are consistent with the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph.
3. We verify that we are ahead of the local newspaper by reading it sometimes.
4. We compare our coverage with comments in the on-line press, to make sure we represent the real opinions of readers.
   

In particular, we keep an eye on our competitor, the Bristol Evening Post. For those readers out of the city, know that it is the city's premier daily newspaper, although we find that the South West Big Issue does tend to have more in depth coverage of economic and political issues. What the B.E.P. does have is a local news remit, though the reduction in staffing means that it is generally reduced to reprinting press announcements or criticising the council. Those press releases from Tesco, Bristol City Football Club and other major revenue sources are always welcome, but they do support some local pressure groups where their campaigns don't conflict with the needs of the supermarkets or BCFC.

On Thursday Sept 9, the coverage was on Snuff Mills and the proposals to replace the dirt track with a cycle path. This would be the continuation of the one which runs through Eastville Park, one we are aware of but haven't bothered to denounce.

Here a path runs along that bit of the Frome river which is not under the M32 flyover, providing somewhere for pedestrians and cyclists.

It looks like it might be a nice place to walk or cycle. But it doesn't really go anywhere right now, not until a link to UWE has been sorted out.

Which is where the Snuff Mills connection comes into play. Now, as metric of how up to date we are - success metric #1 -, we covered this issue on 8 july 2009, when we expressed our concerned that the improvements may degrade from the wilderness experience of the park. That is a whole fourteen months before the Evening Post heard of it. This shows the advantage of our reporting tactic: getting out and about in the city, versus theirs: waiting for press releases from organisations like the Snuff Mills Action Group.

Now, this is where things get complicated. According to the Snuff Mills people:

we reached a compromise with Cycling City following a meeting on site a few weeks ago. They agreed a narrower path and other changes to the scheme, but then emailed us the following week to say this was no longer acceptable because of the needs of the 'disabled community'.

We don't know anything about that, but we do encourage readers to go to the Snuff Mills Group, look at the proposals, come to their own conclusion and contact the council. We suspect that even the cyclists may be despairing about the effort being put into creating bike/pedestrian conflict here, while inner city troublespots -like Stokes Croft- have been abandoned. There's an obvious reason for that, nobody wants to take on the motorist.

Anyway, returning to our benchmarking theme, we checked out the comments. Remember how we are campaining for a new dual carriageway to be built across purdown to provide a fast route from an expanded Lockleaze to the M32? Some of the green party people in the city think this is some kind of joke. Sorry, but if you look at the comments of the Snuff Mills article, you can see that we are merely slightly ahead of the mainstream press.

In particular, look at this comment from our favourite E.P, commenter, James Carmichael of Highridge, whom we have covered before, and who has even achieved national fame:

"I used to live in this part of town, and what that area really needs is a link road connecting Fishponds Road to Broom Hill, through Wickham Glen and Eastville Park. This would relieve the traffic around Blackberry Hill.

But will we, the law abiding, tax paying motorist get this perfectly reasonable request granted? No, of course not. We're not blathering cyclists.

James Carmichael, Highridge"

We see his point. The council is spending our tax money on paths, but no new roads have been added to our city for some time -despite the parkland being up for sale. We propose the DfT should buy the parkland and add the roads or city needs.

We have been saying this for some time -that the city needs a new route to Abbey Wood, a new road between Dovercourt and Muller Road, and Muller Road should get uprated to a motorway or a new Lockleaze junction added to the M32.


The fact that we came up with our vision, some weeks before the most vociferous of the Evening Post commentators proposed a new road through Eastville Park, shows that we really are setting the agenda in this city. We aren't just reporting on news months old, we aren't even following press releases or comments in news articles. No: we are laying out a vision for a new city, one with the ring-roads back.
 

There you have it. Our web site is upsetting cyclists and pedestrians enough for them to complain to us, we are years ahead of the B.E.P. in covering developments, and months ahead of their readers. The AA and RAC "think tanks" aren't even beginning to think at our rate, let alone on our agenda. We are in charge.

We close, then, with a video of what the completed bit of the Eastville Bike and pedestrian path is like. Look at it, and think how much lovelier it would be if you could use this as a ratrun alternative to Stapleton or Fishponds Roads?
Bristol Traffic: more than just a news site -creating the new city.

Council meeting today!

Today, Sept 7, is the next council meeting, where some protesters will be campaigning to protect the parkland of the city, such as here, the fields by Lockleaze, from progress.

The green party, are obviously against it.
Question is, what should the B.Traffic stance be?
To us, this green stuff is all wasted space which could be replaced by drive in superstores or more housing. But we fear something: the consequences -the congestion.

Look at this "field" above. Soon it will be a playing field for Fairlawn School. Behind the trees, the hill drops down to Muller Road, a key bottleneck in this part of the city, and a road you can waste hours on of a weekday evening.

There is no point redeveloping these forgotten parts of Lockleaze without adding a new dual carriageway to the M32!

There. We said it. S106 infrastructure money needs to go into either uprating Muller road to a full dual carriageway -as we've advocated in the past- or adding a new route to the M32.

Which is where an idea springs to mind. St John's Lane. From Purdown Camp down to Stapleton. Twenty years ago you could get car up it -admittedly, a stolen one you'd have to torch afterwards, but you really could drive all the way up it from Stapleton to Lockleaze. Not now. There's a gate in the way, relegating it to being nothing but a foot/bike path.

But sometimes, the gate gets opened by the allotment people, and the dream comes back.

A dream of a road, from here, the top of the city, right down to stapleton, and then, ideally, a new M32 on-ramp. Just a short one, like the Mina Road on ramp; enough to reward people with big-engined cars. And here, a place for the road to begin.

Look someone is trying it already, with their Peugeot 306, X615EDB, seeing just how far down the footpath they can get.

What better way to enjoy a summer evening than to drive down here and to dream of more dual carriageways.

Trivia footnote: the fields above date from the civil war; some of the hedges are apparently historical monuments or something. Presumably St John's Lane has the same history and access rules, despite the gate and the no trespassing signs. Sept 10, 1645, was when Prince Rupert of the Rhine and hence Bristol surrendered to the people, at least in the form of Cromwell's New Model Army. So what will happen this week, 365 years on?

Bacon Roll opportunities off Muller Road

At last there is a use for the widened pavement on Muller Road -part of the North Fringe Cycle Path, which is still ongoing.

The sign lets passing motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists know the current cost of a bacon roll at the van round the corner, in front of B&Q. As you can see, this is popular. The van itself is the one in front, two Sita vehicles behind it, more in the B&Q parking area.

And there's the problem, see. Parking. This van and its customers need more space than this side road can provide. What to do?

Well, when we turn the camera round 180 degrees, we get an idea.


There's a bit of a stream, then a large amount of space. Unused space. Well, technically it's parkland, but as the council say, "it is little used other than by dog walkers" . They say that in the document which discusses selling off the site for development.,
Possible open space disposals in the Horfield and Lockleaze Neighbourhood Partnership Area.

In Horfield Lockleaze, two spaces have been identified as low value and are proposed for disposal. In some cases the value of a space could be improved by its partial development, allowing housing to be built facing onto the space and providing natural surveillance to the remainder. Then, what is often a poorly and misused backland site, can become of greater value to the local community and attract more people to use it.

See that? An underused bit of green space can be be made useful by development. Because a big wide bit of greenery, without housing overlooking, it's too scary to visit. We don't propose housing though, we propose expanded car parking for the bacon buttery van.

There you have it then. Wasted greenery -grass and trees- which could be redeveloped.


There's just one small flaw in the plan. As they say in their document

Planning permission has been granted for a cycle route through this space to connect Dovercourt Road with the road alongside B & Q and from there to Muller Road, this includes a long bridge over the stream. This will effectively divide the space into two.

Yes, while the parks team have been busy working out how to save the council money by selling off parkland, those road-tax-funded cycle route planner people have been busy getting a cycle route designed here with a bridge going over the stream. Oh, the irony! We relish in it! There they were, thinking they designing a nice route to cycle through greenery, using Bristol Council land over the railway land option -because it would be easier- when someone else was trying to work out how best to sell off the land, and, because there currently isn't any cycle traffic through here apart from the odd MTB-er who does the stream at the top, ignoring the extra throughput planned. We laughing, obviously, while the locals and cyclists are probably wailing and gnashing their teeth. Just think -if people drove onto this parkland for picnics, like they do on The Downs, it wouldn't be up for sale!

What do we think? Well, those people who like a bit of greenery and a bike lane through it ought be dropping a note to the Lockleaze Voice people, saying, how do we stop this? But we, well, we are thinking how best to salvage what could turn out to be a completely wasted foot/bike bridge. Our solution: use the bridge to get to and from the bacon roll van! Our road tax, put to use!

Shared Space at work

Lovely photo of how the Shared Space idea, where the lines between pavement and road are blurred to produce a safer environment, helps on Dovercourt road between Horfield and Lockleaze -this road is also going to be part of the North Fringe cycle route, if funding for the bridge at the bottom doesn't get taken away and used for something useful like parking by a school.

Look how this stretch of pavement not only provides somewhere safe for children to play, but parking for a van, the minivan K648EJH -and a bus stop!

If you look at the full size image, you can see the woman in the photo is happy, she really must appreciate this shared-space infrastructure, giving her somewhere pleasant to stand while waiting for a FirstBus bus to turn up.

Breaking news: lockleaze to be less forgotten

There are signs up hinting that Lockleaze is to be less of a forgotten quarter, primarily by adding more houses. A forgotten half, then.

The locals are upset about this, in the form of the lockleaze voice, and are organising a meeting with the council today, July 27, at 7pm in the Cameron House.

Some people no doubt expect us to be in favour of turning the green fields of Lockers into housing, but oddly enough, we aren't.

• Without adding a new dual carriageway up to the North Fringe, it will only make congestion on Muller Road worse.
• We are worried that it will force the teenagers on their motorbikes elsewhere, such as in our way on the road.
• There a no plans for a heliport. Helicopter parking is a popular need, yet there is nowhere safe to do it.
• We quite like looking at greenery when stuck on the M32.
• Important celebrities undergoing coke and alcohol dependency treatments at the discreet clinic nearby do not want look at the little people.

Consider attending if you too find your concerns coincide with ours or those of the residents themselves.

Police target 'selfish' cyclists in Bath

According the BBC, the police in Bath are to warn and even fine cyclists who ride on the pavement.

A force spokesman said: "Riding on the pavement is antisocial, selfish and potentially dangerous. We're determined to do something to stop it."
He added: "[Cyclists] riding on the pavement is one of the most common complaints we receive from the public.

Yes, we complain. Look at this pavement in Lockleaze. There is no way that any pavement cyclist could get past this lovely van WV57VBZ without damaging its paintwork.

And here, on Cheltenham Road, any cyclist who rides on the pavement swerving past the door of the van 996901 could hit the pedestrian or the paintwork on the car KP59NHG.

The tax-dodgers have bike lanes? Why are they so selfish that they don't use them?

As the article says

"The issue is consistently a top priority raised at the regular police Partners and Communities Together (Pact) meetings.

"Officers in the city centre will be concentrating on illegal bike riding for the foreseeable future."

They must read our web site. Or the Evening Post.

MoD Abbeywood cycle path access issues

Remember how only a few weeks ago we wanted to turn the back bike path to abbeywood into a proper road. There may be some good news there.

First, note how the bike barriers are down.

The fence to stop cyclists dodging the barriers now looks lonely, the path put in by people dodging the fence may even recover.

The cyclists may be happy, but not all. Not Clive, whose email we picked up.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Clive
Date: Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 10:39 PM

Car access on MOD Abbey Wood Cycle path


I was amazed to see a car coming down the MOD Abbey Wood Cycle path (between the gated end of the lockleaze rugby grounds and the MOD gatehouse.


The Driver, Mr Blair, was quite upset that cyclists were impeding his 'Right of Way'.
Mr. Blair apparently lives in the house at the top of the path and claims that the route past the MOD has been 'his' right-of-way for 300 years .


When I arrived at the scene, he was arguing with a student who he claimed was blocking his way. During his 'discourse', he caught a girl with his car door as she tried to get past.
Not a happy chappie.


Now, he may indeed have some access right to his property via the cycle path ( I don't know, only S. Gloucester Cncl. can answer that) but does this mean he has vehicular access via this route?


If he does, than S. Gloucester should signpost the track to warn cyclists and pedestrians that it is a shared thoroughfare, as most people will not expect to find cars on the path.
(travelling at the national speed limit)


How do I go about progressing this (from a safety perspective) to find out if Mr Blair is allowed to drive his car through this section of the cycle path, and if so, ensuring cyclists and pedestrians are aware of the danger.

This is interesting. It's why we put the maps up last week. First, let's assume that the Mr Blair is the person by the rugby grounds who has an interested in old vehicles, many of which without tax or insurance. Driving them on private roads is the only thing he can do.

The MoD roads on Abbey Wood are private, so if he has a historic right of way to get there then yes, he can drive down the bike path. That way he can drive his old cars without all the pesky government regulation, health and safety nonsense about seat belts and brakes working. Road tax, that stuff.

One funny thing though, which the maps raise. Does the right of way extend to access to the MoD roads, or does it go to the woods and hence to the HP site, which has been fenced off since the mid 1980s? Is his claim for 300 years access is right, by our estimate this would put them within 50 years of end of the English civil war, some time before the Jacobite rising in Scotland, and therefore possibly predate Britain coming into existence.  As ancient as nine-tree hill.

If there really is car access on this path and to the MoD roads, then it shouldn't just be a luxury for one person. No, it should be something we can all enjoy: a new road between the A4174 Ring Road and Lockleaze, an alternative to the always congested, speed-camera enabled Filton Avenue.

More investigations -and maybe some experiments- are needed.

Before the war on motorists began: Splatts Abbey Wood

This is a before and after map series, full details of why to crop up later in the week.

First, the North Fringe, 1987. Congestion on the A4174, running through the middle of the photo: minimal. The roundabout centres on gridref ST6135787, apparently with trees on it. To south, a large blank space -the remains of some quarry or something. Crossing it, three power lines, one phone line, and a footpath from the sports grounds in the left side to some fields just E. of Splatts Abbey Wood, then roughly north. All of the area was under the control of Avon County Council; there are still some signs up in the area if you know where to look. In the S.E corner, just S. of Bonnington Walk, Sta (dis) remembers the existence of some station? Lockleaze Station? (no: Horfield Railway Station)

What is clear is this: No congestion on the ring road. No cycle lanes from the sports grounds to the ring road. Less traffic lights in the city. Not a coincidence.

Now, map two, printed in 1997, in the time the socialists were in power, and things were bleak.

The A4174 roundabout has moved to ST61607880, though not with the trees. South of it, the wasteland for motorbikers is now MoD abbey wood, with a moat on the NE side to eliminate the risk of anyone driving a truck full of explosives in, parking to the east and south-west and positioned to reduce the damage caused by anyone getting a car/truck full of explosives in there and blowing it up. Although the NI peace process was making progress, the tendency of the Provisional IRA to mark some kind of stalemate by blowing up prestigious targets on the mainland meant that these things were considered important. The disused station has been supplemented by the Abbey Wood railway station, which apparently has direct connections with Wales. The former Filton Junction station, north of the A4174, is now marked as Sta (dis) to indicate its new state.

South of the MoD facility, just north of where the Tailspin housing estate is still being built, a bike path. And what else has changed? Congestion. Is it any coincidence that there are traffic jams on the A4174 now that a bike path connects Lockleaze with the ring road, and that the new roundabout and the one by the M32 have traffic lights? We think not.

The final item of this note is the rights of way, the footpaths. These two maps imply that there was never any right to cycle through the rugby grounds, even the footpath doesn't go direct from Bonnington walk, but instead via Landseer Avenue. And here's the best bit: the right of way finishes by going through the MoD moat, through some of the building, and out the other side. We think pedestrians wanting to walk from Lockleaze to Sainsbury's should be made to walk this route, as it will reduce the number of them pressing the cross button on the pelican lights at the ring road.

Abbeywood Week: the Lockleaze connection

On the west side of the MOD site is this path. We don't know where it goes, as that would involve walking or cycling it. Presumably it comes out by the A4174 behind the ex-woolworths. It is marked as shared use, but as it is unused, perhaps it could be used for MOD parking instead.

To the left, there is a route to Lockleaze. But not for bicycles -despite this being marked in green on the cycling city map!

And look! when we went there, some teenager trying to cycle over. That is despite the money invested in a no-bicycle barrier!

These cyclists are selfish and dangerous. They should recognise that money spent adding no-bicycle barriers to cycling city routes shows that South Gloucester isn't on their site, and aspire to the dream we in the North Fringe live: to spend 45 minutes every evening stuck in the A4174 ring road in a high-performance car. It's not about the fastest or most cost effective form of transport, it's about visible displays of wealth and status. Cycling on back paths behind Lockleaze achieves none of this, and does not contribute to the national economy either.

Abbeywood Week: Filton Abbey Wood station

While visiting the abbeywood area (we drove, obviously), it seemed appropriate to check out the Abbey Wood station. We had heard of this, MoD backed station put in for commuters, offers fast travel from Wales and templemeads. Fortunately, no functional connectivity from the Severn Beach line, as that would actually make it possible for commuters in that part of the city to get in by train rather than by car -so threaten the entire economy of the city.

There are some signs of it being used, and that bicycles are a problem. All along the signs up to the station: no bicycles, and cycles dismount.

Coming down the hill, in the other direction, the same signs, in case bicycles come from that direction.

what kind of criminals do people here fear?

Ones who ignore police warning signs, although the fact the 1835 law they cite is about pavements beside public roads, doesn't cover footpaths, railway bridges and probably not even the bit of railway car park by the sign may be one cause.

There are also cycles dismount signs on the footpath signs, again, presumably disregarded.. We were not aware that cycles on pavements were such a threat to society in this corner of the Abbey Wood sprawl, but clearly it is. 

After a bit of research, we identified a potential cause. If you look at the abbey wood area on the council-supplied map (large PDF file), it's clear all the footpaths and footbridges are marked as green, places bicycles are welcome. There is a small note "Bridge please walk", but it doesn't say how far, and it doesn't cover the footpath with the cycles dismount sign.

The fact that the councils are giving away maps encouraging cycling is leading to this problem of bicycles on pavements, one the police are left to deal with.

All money enforcing cyclists dismount signs should come from the cycling city budget!

Coverage

People email us at bristol.traffic at gmail.com and say our coverage focuses too much on the problems of the inner city, what about further out of town? Good point. The council is anti-car across the entire city.

Look how vehicles are forced to park on the pavement, here on Kendal Avenue, between Lockleaze and Filton Avenue. They are lucky to have a 4x4 like L467DPL (?), as the kerbs aren't very dropped here.

Park like this is tricky, but luckily the local driving schools like 2nd2none appear to offer an After you Pass lesson
in it  on Chedworth Road in their car WR08HXK

It is a skill needed, whether you drive a car or an BCC/NHS Bristol van like DA07EJF, forced onto the pavement so you can make a delivery onto Wordsworth Road.

We welcome coverage across the entire city, to show how this persecution knows no bounds