WN15UKX beats the school run queues

It's term time in the city, a so the morning rush hour is worse, and we've seen the return of the mid-afternoon one, seen here.

In order to get anywhere, you need "flexible and imaginative solutions" as our Brexit negotiators say.


Here the driver of WN15UKX finds it impossible to make progress without risking their wing mirrors.

Residents of the inner city know that having wing mirrors is a sign of weakness, but here the driver of WN15 UKX isn't going to let the fact they value their bodywork slow them down. Instead, a neat little nip up onto the pavement, a quick sprint at 14 mph down the pavement and they are on their way. Maybe he was late for child pickup. Because you wouldn't want your child to walk home: it isn't safe, not even on the pavements.

Its drivers like this which give us selfish wanker BMW owners a bad reputation.

Montpelier's Flowerbox Problem

Shocking footage reaches us of this, Old Ashley Hill, in Montpelier, where someone has placed two flowerboxes on the pavement outside their front door.

So what? people say, In the background there are two cars on the pavement, X385MJW and WV07YVZ, taking up space. Why worry about the flower boxes?

Here's why: it's illegal. The Pedestrian Liberation Front has been dredging up pavement legislation, and discovered Section 28 of the 1847 Town Police Clauses Act. This act threatens a fine of up to £1000 pounds and 14 days in prison for anyone who commits any of the crimes listed there, which includes

Places or leaves any furniture, goods, wares, or merchandize, or any cask, tub, basket, pail, or bucket on any footway.

The flower boxes: criminal. The cars: doing what needs to be done.

We shall report them to the police.

Incidentally, the law also makes it a crime to "Slaughter any cattle, except in the case of any cattle over-driven which may have met with any accident", and also clarifies that "The word “cattle” shall include horses, asses, mules, sheep, goats, and swine".

This is going to cause problems in Kingsdown when they next sacrifice a goat to Elder Gods in the midwinter festivities. They shall have to make sure that the goat is slaughtered in the road, and perhaps move the Wicker Man to Freemantle Square, otherwise they too will be in trouble.

Pavement blocking: does it help us motorists

October's bike park movement on Cotham Hill was apparently to help the local cafe -the one that is being repainted as "manga manga" have some outdoor seating. Well, we don't know or care about that, but one thing that does interest us is whether the newly positioned bike parks do enough to discourage walking?

The combination of some seemingly accidentally badly placed bike racks with some shopping signs put out for passing cars does make it very hard indeed to walk across this road, and so should discourage students from doing so. FirstBus and we motorists will benefit from this, obviously.

But does it work? We can still see people trying to squeeze past all the furniture.

The bike racks make cyclists feel welcome, even if the one we see is heading towards a junction which we hope the GBBN proposals will make impossible for them to cross.

Furthermore the other side of the road is still open to pedestrians, and if they can't skateboard down the pavement, they just switch to the road instead.

It may make walking less pleasant, but it isn't enough to stop the locals and students from getting in our way.

Keeping the Abbey Wood shared use paths in good condition

Drainage Services are busy up by the MOD Abbey Wood area in the North Fringe, keeping the drainage in a bit of S. Gloucs well drained.

Some people might think that it is somewhat antisocial blocking an entire bike/foot path when the dual carriageway alongside has almost no traffic, at least not until the tailspin housing estate sells some more houses.

But think about it. Badly drained bike paths force cyclists into the road, where they could interfere with us.

Furthermore, this particular path enables a combined bicycle and supermarket journey, in which the shopper cycles to the A4174 Sainsbury's and pushes both the bicycle and the shopping trolley home. This is not possible on on-road, vehicular cycling routes. These people should be grateful for getting such an open bit of pavement to share with pedestrians, even if we hate them on the other pavements.

Nice

I pay road-tax, so I expect my roads to be kept in good condition.

No point in driving a brand new 4X4 and getting it ruined by ruts and potholes in town.

So it's nice to see that Coldharbour Road, in Bristol, has now been resurfaced.

Also nice to see the Council putting up helpful signs for me as I drive to the Cambridge Arms for my six pints of wife-beater.

Impressive, clear and thoughtful.

What I though particularly good was the way that road was kept clear at all times, with the pavements being used for the cones and signage. Perfect.

The only minor downside was swerving to avoid the cyclists with bleeding noses in the middle of the carriageway as they avoided the well placed signs.

Serves them right, they're usually on the pavement anyway.

The politicians are stealing our pavements!

We had looked forward to seeing one of the party leaders doing their set piece "one of the people riding on a bike" shots, so that we could accidentally clip them in our vehicle. Indeed, we drove around all morning looking for such a scene, but presumably their minders had recognised that the only people who ride bicycles in this city look and smell funny and it doesn't help win votes in the rest of the city, let alone the country. Eventually the passengers in the back of the bus started demanding that they actually get to Fishponds, so we had to return to our scheduled route. Also you have to be careful when you go off-route in a double decker, as low bridges can catch you out.

We are grateful, however, for this photo send to us by Andrew Stagg, who was part of the press entourage. It shows Nick Clegg, out for a walk in Westbury on Trym to meet people holding up mobile phones or banners protesting about something or other.

Think about it. A walk? Who walks in this city? Unless it is someone going from the school-keep-clear zone in their 4x4 to the school gate, or someone in the B&Q car park picking up a jet hose for driveway cleaning, the only people walking are the very elderly, children and students. The elderly are going to vote for whoever the Daily Mail tells them to, children can't vote, while students, on account of the fact they don't pay any tax yet, shouldn't be allowed to walk on the pavement, let alone have any say in who runs the country.

Yet here we have it, someone trying to be one of the people, despite the fact in this city to be one of the people means spending a hour a day stuck in the A4, A4174, A370 or the M32 roads swearing about the incompetence of the car in front, or stuck on Gloucester or Whiteladies road complaining about bicycles and pedestrians.  And to achieve this photoshoot, the pavement -our pavement- has been cleared of cars, the double yellow lines backed up by extra traffic cones and there are police around who are fining neither the politicians nor the protesters for using our parking area to walk around on.

Indeed, one of the security or propaganda minions is actually walking on the road, which is normally a ticketable offence as far as we are concerned, certainly something which absolves us of any blame if they should end up under our bus.

People still keep asking which politicial party Bristol Traffic, the city's premier car-centric news outlet will support. Well,  nobody has made an offer which is compelling enough, by which we mean a carrier bag full of money in a currency we trust, that being US$, Euros with german artwork on the coins and Swiss francs. When we asked the UKIP for their advertising funding in Euros they weren't willing to oblige. Do they mistake us for idiots? Bribe us in Sterling? Don't be serious!

BRI Hospital Parking access

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.

1. 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.
2. 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!

Progress by St Michaels Hospital

Contributor "A" pointed us at Southwell Street, said we should check it out to see what had changed since our last visit.

Oh yes. To reduce the risk of pedestrians being hit by cars pulling out of the hospital's underground car park, the pavement is now blocked off, with a sign:

CAUTION:

beware of

exiting traffic

from

car park

Ideally, that would be enough to discourage pedestrians from attempting to use this road, especially given the removal of the pavement on the other side and the placement of a large yellow barrier across the road. This pavement was the only place they could walk, so removing that option should stop pedestrians getting in the way.

For some reason -perhaps the fear that the Kingsdown Conservation Group includes lawyers, they haven't come out with some no entry to pedestrian signs -though we are pleased to soon have some footage of such signs nearby. Instead they have painted a path on the road, showing pedestrians where to walk.

One concern we had -would pedestrians have the right of way over cars, even though they were now walking on a road. Because on a pavement, after all, one of those pesky little laws says you aren't actually allowed to run over pedestrians -even if they are in the way.

Testing the system was fairly straightforward -wait 30s for a car to come out, see if it does anything resembling looking or giving way to pedestrians. No, it's a road, pedestrians should not be there, its OK for W99AER to cut them up.

Only one question remains: how to get access to the car park? If this area goes residents only, those spaces will become invaluable.

Incidentally, this marks our first nomination for the 2010 Bristol Traffic Anti-Pedestrian awards.  More welcomed.

Insult to injury

Hospitals. Places where ill people go -even walk. Exactly the kind of place where good pedestrian access would seem important. Yet today we have photographic proof that cyclists selfishly occupy the pavement.

First, outside Hampton House, a woman on a bicycle makes a phone call on the pavement.

That is despite the fact that the cars MW02OUC and RF04ZFW have gone to a lot of effort to not provide any room for bicycles, that there is only enough space left to get a single width push-chair through, yet some tax-dodging cyclist gets on the pavement just to take a call. Do you see us car drivers pulling over onto the pavement to make a call? No. Exactly.

At the bottom of the hill, the BRI ontology unit car park. A cyclist has selfishly parked their bike on the railings, so making this part of the pavement unusable by pedestrians.

Yes, most of the footpath is closed and pedestrians walking to Accident and Emergency or many of the other BRI facilities are forced to walk down this road, hoping that no road traffic is coming up the hill and round the blind corner at speed. For a bicycle to occupy some of the few metres of footpath is a crime they should be clamped for.

Eastfield Road

Last week's coverage of Eastfield Road raised a comment by kebablog

I'm often on that road, don't usually have a problem with that particular car. The one that parks on the corner by the garage or the massive caravan thing poking out are much worse.


Odd also how there is no mention of the 3-4 bicycles that are often chained up at the bottom of the road, between them all being shackled to the railings and lamppost they manage to block the whole pavement. I make sure to give them a nice kick on the way past.

Well, we always respond to customer feedback. This weekend the caravan looks OK, but yes, there is a van on the corner

However, as this is a quiet road for walking down, the van WF05YFG is not inconveniencing anyone.

The other side of the road, yes, the bicycles and the bins are a problem. Especially with that little street sign thing making it hard to get round.

If you look closely at the bikes, you can see that the back wheel of one is toast and these thing are not in active use. They are possibly abandoned by the previous years' students -who have moved onto proper jobs with proper transport- and are now left to clog up our streets.

This is another argument in favour of bicycle registration and taxing: you'd be able to recognise an abandoned bicycle by its expired license and so remove it immediately, the way the DVLA clamp cars. No printed/human readable tags though, nowhere for them. RFID tags embedded into the frames. Easy to scan, easy to track, a nice source of data.

This also shows another potential problem with the cycle city program. If the council want's to get people out and about on their bicycles, that means getting the bicycles out, which means that residents may not want to carry them up stairs -parking on the pavement is the remaining option.It's bad enough with their bike stands taking up space on shopping streets, even the back roads will suffer.

Back to normal

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.

Bristol Snow Chaos: Breaking News

It seems that the blogosphere does have a use. Here at Bristol Traffic we use it to promote the car and pavement parking, whilst relentlessly pursuing an anti-cyling agenda.

Others, however, appear to use blogging as some sort of way getting messages across, to Bristol City Council, for example. Over on the BristolGreenBlog Chris Hutt managed to be challenged to a dual by Cllr Jon Rogers.

It seems that today, possibly as a result of that dual, we motorists are now being scorned as Bristol City Council begin to actually clear the pavements. We have photographic evidence, gathered by our roaming reporter, that highly visible gangs of ex-Street Cleaners are actively trying to improve the conditions of Bristol's pavements.

When will this nanny state pandering stop?

Pedestrians holding up traffic

These cars are having their journey through Cobourg Road, Montpelier held up by a selfish pedestrian.

The tax-dodging walker is happily strolling down the pavement, ignoring the fact that the only way to get down this road by car is to drive with two wheels on the aforementioned pavement. Because the pedestrian is uncaringly occupying the same space, the cars are forced to crawl along at his speed.

Readers Letters

The Bristol Traffic mail room has been flooded recently with an unprecendented amount of letters, postcards and telegrams from readers in response to a recent post, with most correspondance expressing how underwhelmed readers were with the synchronised van display. One reader writes in to say that not only did she find it unimpressive, but she also feels she can do better! "What's so special about parking up the pavement? I do it every day! So does everyone! I don't see why those vans should get to have their photos on your website. How do I get a photo of my skills on your website? I've enclosed a couple in case you can show them. I think they're rather special and as you can see from the windscreen so do the authorities in charge of the awards. Not only have I got all the way up the pavement but I've done it in an area that will gain maximum attention from pushchair users. Hope you can show off my talents too, Shirley Parker RK06 TZG"

Well Shirley, although your skills are obviously impressive enough for an award, we have to say that your display is still not on a par with the vans. One area you are lacking in is stamina. While you managed to hold your position until just before teatime, the vans held strong for almost a whole week without flinching once. We do feel that your attempts deserve recognition though for good effort.We noticed too that you have used the often favoured pavement outside Playspace on Barrow Road in St Philips. We know that if your display was being judged by our panel then points would definitely be deducted for lack of originality. Although it has to be said, displays of pavement parking are become a rarer occurence here after partons of Playspace expressed a dislike of the parking methods, details of which were passed on to the management, who have obviously launched quite an effective awareness campaign to stop people parking in such a manner, as can be seen in the photo below.

A radical difference I'm sure you'll agree. Although driver WN56FTO didn't agree pointing out that unloading her child into a pushchair to get from the car to the building she was greatly inconvenienced by the extremely inconsiderate parking of driver WM06JFX which stopped her being able to get her pushchair and child along the pavement and they had to go around on the road to get past.

We'd like to offer a solution and show an example of the parking configuration the following day.
Although it looks remarkably similar the configuration of cars in the above photo is actually subtly different from the previous day. Whereas the cars were previousley arranged with one at the front and two at the back, they are now the opposite way around. Having WR53 ZVN and WF53YWN arranged next to each other at the back means that R869 DTG at the front has clear access to the entrance without having to risk the road and everyone is happy. Subtle yes, but it's amazing what a difference a small change and a bit of common sense can make.

Of course there is also the option of parking over the road on the other side, and while it will involve crossing the road it's a danger and sacrifice that some people are willing to make, because they're selfless and kind like that. Driver YG58HXX has not only parked over the road but also a few yards down the road meaning they'll have to endure some serious walking to get to their destination too. But that's ok becuase if it means putting other peoples safety and convenience first then they're all for it.

Not only are they going out of their way for others, they are also letting unobservant cyclists know that the dedicated cycle path that passes under Barrow Road helping cyclists avoid having to cross over the Barrow Road / St Philips Causeway crossroads, has well and truly come to an end at this point.So it's not all just about winning, it's also about due consideration for those around you as exemplified by YG58HXX. After all life's not a race. It's not about reaching the finish line the quickest, but enjoying the scenery on the way.

As the famous saying goes, If you don't stop to smell the flowers once in a while, you'll probably spend less time standing on the pavement next to them and statistically be less likley to be in the way of someone who needs to park on it.

Hedge Funs Update

Following on from a previous post examining the important role nature can play in a childs upbringing and the opportunities for first hand experience provided by the cars parked on Bright Street we are pleased to bring you an update with the current state of progress regarding the car vs hedge vs pushchair situation. It appears someone has come up with a perfect solution... and removed the hedge.Meaning that silver van M991LHB and blue Golf P601LKP have plenty of room to park on the pavement and still allow enough room for pedestrians and for wheelchair access as requested in the leaflets that the Police have been leaving on car windscreens in the area.
The covers of the leaflets placed on windscreens in the Redfield / Barton Hill are a bit cryptic not giving much of a clue to the advice they contain, unlike the ones placed on vehicles in St Werburghs which have the advice clear to see.

" There have been considerable parking problems in this area recently including:
* Parking on the pavement.
* Parking on both sides of the road which restricts access to emergency vehicles.
* Parking on a cycle lane.

Police will be carrying out regular patrols in this area and will be issuing tickets and considering removal of vehicles if they are causing an obstruction. Please park with consideration and leave a wheelchair width space on the pavement and enough room for an emergency vehicle to get through. If this is not possible please park elsewhere. "

So in conclusion, pavement parking is Police approved as long as you leave enough space for a wheelchair. And if there's not enough width on the pavement it's a good idea to remove whatever is causing the obstruction on the other side of the pavement before considering removing the car.

In the case of Y499NLC seen here on Picton Street...
a simple removal of the wall along with the fire exit that is currently cramping the space on the pavement would be a perfect solution. Not only would it open up the width of remaining pavement to allow a wheelchair through, it would also allow anyone who became trapped in a fire inside the adjacent building to escape without having to risk the horrendous possibility of scratching the car when attempting to use the fire exit.

Demi Demi

Deborah Harry may not live here, but ...

The 4x4 on the right of the photo is parked legally, wheels off the kerb.

The Kensington Arms is just a few metres away (sustainable destination).

And there's a song going around in my head, by Blondie. (OK, not Demis Demis, but Denis Denis - I'm sure you're humming it too by now).

Until now I thought demi-drives only existed for cars. But the owner of this bike proves that virtually anyone can take control of our pavements.

Respect.

UPDATE - Lame post, sorry. Forgot I'd saved it, meant to add a bit more (worth saying), but I'm out of Bristol this week.

Note to self: must try harder.../pay attention... (delete as appropriate).

Cars wanted for cash

Contributor "A" posts in this picture of Autoclick on Church Road, who try hard to get the attention of passers by through the combination of a solid steel gate and a sign.

You might think that a sign positioned in the middle of the pavement would catch the eye of pedestrians more than cars, but
1. people who are walking may have a car at home, and are clearly positioned to sell their car off.
2. The sight of a pedestrian crashing into the gate and sign will attract the attention of passing vehicles. These people may see the sign and later, when they wish to sell a car off, return to this showroom.

Branding

We can't come out and say "premium German-branded cars park worse". All we can say is "premium German-branded cars appear a lot in our database", but that's a self-selected dataset and not defensible. What we really need is access to a (suitably anonymised) dataset from Parking Services, say a week's worth of issued ticket data, with all the number plates replaced with random numbers and some other tweaks to prevent de-anonymizing, but with car make/model retained. We'd also need to know the percentage of these brands in use in the city compared to other models, to see if there was a significant variation. Then we'd know.

And, being city-wide, it would stop us being picking on particular schools. Like Christchurch School, Clifton, that appears to have a serious parking problem. The problem being: not enough space for everyone driving in. And seemingly everyone who does drop their kid off there uses Ein Auto aus Deutschland.

X21SJC may actually be a resident's car parked on the school-keep-clear zone, so denying parents their rightful place.


The parents are forced to park round the corner, the red BMW H674HJO narrowly avoiding being scraped by a small child having the audacity to cycle to school with a parent -neither of them wearing a helmet. We are shocked and appalled by the risks these people are taking.

Further along, another Mercedes R116KTC.


At least the disabled parking area is left alone.

Some of these cars could belong to residents. We'd need to audit the street on a Sunday morning to build up a better model of who is parking where round these narrow streets -streets that voted against becoming residents parking, incidentally. Presumably because it was obvious to all that an RPZ would take the pavements on these roads out of play, which would be unacceptable.

UWE shared paths

We've been picking on Bristol University for a bit, which is unfair. They have a staff-pay-to-park policy in their limited parking spaces, no-student-parking, and even cross-charge the departments for their vehicles parking permits. Most students at the university probably walk there.

But UWE, out on the fringes, is a different story. It's very isolated. Some people walk, but otherwise -bus, bike or car. The U1-U5 buses are fantastic, and as students who live on-campus get free bus permits, their existence must help reduce the number of students killing themselves from being stuck in an industrial estate somewhere near parkway.

Time for a closer look. Here is the Coldharbour Lane shared pavement.. The Cyclists Touring Club are very critical of pavement cycle lanes, as they are so inordinately hazardous at the junctions. Is this lane safe for bikes?

Well, there's an expectation that you cycle on the right of the pavement, which must help foreign students blend in. But you are expected to pull out and cross a junction -does it have signs warning traffic out of this housing estate about the risk?

Sadly no. The give-way signs are painted for the road junction, not the pavement. The presence of the (listed?) pillar helps reduce visibility

Further south, the same thing: the path just has a give way -not a stop, just a give way- that pushes you straight under cars. Nice. And, because bikes heading in both directions are expected to stay on the same side of the pavement (white line -no crossing), there's the risk of a head-on collision with oncoming bicycles.

Do note that bikes are given give-way to pedestrian signs near the pedestrian crossings.

Whoever designed this lane must have been concerned that some bikes may survive the first two junctions and so threaten pedestrians, hence the give way.

There are rumours that much of the Cycle City funding is dedicated to such lanes. These particular pavements are in South Gloucester -a council that seems very fond of shared pavements, dual carriageways and roundabouts. We will have to explore nearby, to see their most recent development.

It's for their own, good, you know

This the flight of steps between Oxford Street and High Kingsdown, within the proposed RPZ, on a weekday.

Car W424XUR is parked so close the steps that it is impossible for pedestrians to use. The mother and daughter are having to delicately traverse the lower step, then squeeze through the gap between it and the car in front in order to get to the kids playground and pedestrian-friendly housing estate of High Kingsdown

Similarly, this well wrapped up woman with a walking-stick had to fight her way past this car.

Some people, would probably denounce this as a classic example of selfish car parking by car drivers who only care for finding somewhere to leave their car, rather than the safety of pedestrians. But that is wrong.

Under this car, there is in fact a very large, icy puddle. If the car was not completely blocking pedestrian access, the small child would end in it up to their ankles, creating a medium-priority cleaning problem for the mum (yes it's cold, wet and muddy, but no bodily fluids are involved). The ice round the fringes of the puddle are exactly the kind of place where someone who relies on a walking stick is likely to slip and injure themselves.

By parking where it has, this driver has selflessy managed to prevent at least one injury and one child cleanup incident. Thank you driver of car W424XUR! thank you for you contribution to child and adult pedestrian safety on our busy streets!