I say we dust off and nuke them from orbit

The Alien series have gone from groundbreaking space-horror to a repetitive collection of cliches. They always start with the protagonist, Ripley —or a Ripley-substitute actress— innocently asleep in cryosleep, dreaming while the ships cross between the stars. A small blinking light by the frosted face is the sole sign of life.

And then something changes. A computer starts beeping. the light blinks a bit more, shadows cross the peaceful face of Ripley as she and her colleagues are awoken, once again, to defeat the Alien.

And it will be defeated: that much is a given.

The real variables are: what form does the final battle take? Whether technology, as represented by the android, is on the side of good or bad? Whether they've finally got around to redesigning space craft so as to have air vents too small for aliens to fit? And who will be the idiot who takes too close a look at "that funny egg thing".

With such a limited set of variables, the last few films in the series have been really, undeniably, repetitive. Everyone must wish that they put the series to bed, put Ripley in the cryochamber, shut down the android and walk away —because everyone is getting bored of it.

Which brings us to the council's latest plans for a metro line on the Bristol to Bath railway path.

Some people may be shocked by this, but others, we go "Again?" "Not again!". Not in fear, but in the tired despair of people who went through all of this a decade ago. Last time: thousands of people out celebrating victory over a council that had concluded that it was a stupid idea. This time, again, the council pays some consultants for some ideas on transport, and again, they say "oh look, there's a former railway line here", pointing to the BBRP, and again, it all kicks off.

Well, so be it. Right now the railwaypath.org has been in its cryosleep, costing $13/year to keep alive —much less than a sustrans membership.

And now, the console is beeping, the light flashing a little faster, and it's time to turn things on again.


What next? The monster will die, that much is a given. What is unknown is what order do the victims die —which councillor ends with the facehugger and who goes looking for the missing cat and ends up never being seen again?

We shall see. For now, we are just at the opening scene

beep. beep. beep. beep.

tip for the wise: motion detectors need a warning sticker "aliens may be in the air-vents"

Metrobus on the railwaypath? Again?

the West of England partnership, henceforth known as the Bringers of Woe, have a consultation on a transport vision for the future.

Key points

1. More people are going to live in Bristol
2. More people are going to live Weston Super Mare, despite evidence to the contrary.
3. More people are going to live in middle of nowhere dormitory towns near bristol, and hold unrealistic expectations about being able to commute into the city 

So, they have come up with a vision. That's a sort of a value between "no idea whatsoever" and "have a clue". Interesting to read, and so derive goals not just of Bristol, but the Outer Wilderness

North Somerset doesn't want anyone cycling to Bristol. We knew that, but their map doesn't even show the existing Festival Way as "a strategic cycling route", let alone propose it actually continue the extra 1-2 miles to reach as Nailsea. Instead they want an uprated A38 and a few tens of millions making the M5 more dangerous by turning the hard shoulder off at peak hours. Most interestingly the A38 to go to the M5 in a new junction. It's not clear what that will do, but apparently "This corridor experiences severe congestion ". If that statements is true, then the adverts for the Junction 21 Enterprise Zone you see while wasting hours at passport checks at BRS are lies. The advert? "15 minutes to Bristol". The reality? Not a chance. Yet here we are, with North Somerset saying "good transport links" on the J21 site, yet "experiences severe congestion" in another. One of those two statements is false —and if its the advertising, someone may want to complain.

Suggest: N Somerset consider alternative transport options to sitting in a traffic jam on the M5, and be open about its issues in the J21 site.

South Bristol doesn't get a callout of its own, just coverage in Bath to Bristol corridor. There's a small problem here in that the key public transport route between the cities is the train —and central government have removed electrifying this stretch of line from their "vision". That is, not even on some random future deadline which they can postpone, it's an outright "we don't plan to do this". Which means that the one change which would have really improved carrying capacity on the line, reduced transit times and pollution from trains in the cities? Gone.



Saltford is promised a bypass.


They also discuss LRT -Tram- along "the A4 Corridor". That's an interesting term there, as it doesn't mean "Along the A4", it just means "along the Avon Valley". There are two other options there (ignoring tarmacing the river). There's the train line, and then there's the Bitton-Bath stretch of the Railway Path, the stretch which has the steam trainists practising their hobby on a weekend. Could this be time to reinstate steam trains between Bristol and Bath? Brunel would be proud —they didn't have electricity in his day, after all.

Suggest: residents of South Bristol may have transport issues of relevance too. Anyone who cycles in Bristol might want to look more closely at the LRT routing.

Avonmouth, Shirehampton and Clifton Villages



Still a vision of getting the Henbury train loop in; still a vision for some more stations. Gloucester Road to Filton  and beyond and Whiteladies Road/A4018 to Cribb's causeway down as Strategic Cycling Routes. We have no idea what that means, and suspect the WoEP don't either, other than it means "no need to care about it anywhere else". Not that being a strategic cycle route will stop anyone painting out the bike lane.

Other points

1. "enhancements to the public realm". This is planner-speak for spending money on brickwork rather than functional transport systems.
2. There's not a single mention or illustration, anywhere, of people walking other than the phrase "cycling-and-walking" where the money will be split and each group will get their half of a pavement which will now have a white line down the middle. Yet for the inner core of Bristol and Bath, walking is the primary transport option. (we have no idea what it is for W-s-M, it probably involves riding a goat). 
3. Page 14, or "other charging mechanisms.". That's either a parking tax, Low Emission Zone tax, or a c-zone charge.

And finally, a look to the north east. That dashed green line? "Light Rail Transport —Route to be determined"


Unless you are going to build a tram line down up Fishponds road, there is only one place to put anything in there: the Bristol to Bath Railway Path.

The last time the WoEP wanted to put a bus down there, there was a mass uprising of inner Bristol, with some support from outside. Doe they really think things will have got better now? Do they not realise that killing the path for the sake of a slightly faster commute to/from Emerson's Green is going to be acceptable? Not a chance.

Suggest: recognise that the traffic volume, walking and cycling, down the BBRP is higher than any tram can achieve, and doesn't cost £2.6B. Council would be better off filing plans to run trams down there into the box of "stupid ideas we will pretend we never considered".

Brian Rogers of Kingswood: speaking the truth

We've been a bit quiet recently. The main problem: thinking of new things to say.

Everyone has this problem. Take this well thought out letter from Brian Rogers of Kingswood.

It certainly pushes our buttons:

1. affluent middle classes cycling
2. holding up important people on their way to work
3. tax-payer funded lycra clad louts
4. sanctimonious, car-hating people
5. fill up the car parks

That would be a good article: tax dodging affluent (actually, this is probably true), car hating, and driving to our favourite parking spaces. It would make a good article, and we have formally invited Brian to actually write for us. All he'd need is "in our lane", "red light jumping" and "speeding along too fast" and we'd win this week's Daily Mail "lycra lout" bingo.

Of course, the same day that George "coke" Osborne announces that air passenger duty won't be applied to people flying in and out of the city on private planes is particularly bad timing for the tax-payer funded text. Remember: those people who live in Monaco and fly in for three days a week may retain non-resident tax payer status, but they hold up the economy, and adding £30/week on the already outrageous cost of (tax free) jet fuel would force them stop flying in to the UK at all.

Brian needs to work on his timing a bit there.

Furthermore, a quick web search shows that he wrote pretty much the same letter  a year ago.

 irresponsible for the city council to pour tax payers' funds into a cycling track that is, well, just a hobby for a privileged and sanctimonious few?

See? The same problem we have. There's only so much orginality you can do from one point-of-vitriol. Brian is having trouble writing the same letter once a year -you can imagine how hard it us for us.

Maybe its time for the team to retire

Railwaypath Ghost Cyclist

We've been using the term Ghost Rider to describe someone who chooses to die on a bicycle, usually by RLJ-ing. The last video of someone on a bike crashing into a pedestrian causes us to look at the rest of taypet21's video collection. This person is a threat to the rest of the city. really.

Look at this video where he crashes into someone walking down the railway path. It's like he sees the women, and rather than try and slow down, he speeds up and runs into the screaming. If this was us, we'd destroy the evidence rather than put it up on youtube

Tax-dodgers: we knows who you are

Don't think we aren't building up a list of subversives. Here is "Adam Eff", on the railway path, sporting a Bristol Bike Project T-shirt and pushing one of his children in a fancy bullitt bicycle for a price at which he could have bought a car with a few years left in it.

And what's that at the front? One of those little bike-cams, if we aren't mistaken.

As George Osborne says of these people:we will find you and make you pay

Spring and the skippers are out

The Evening Post has missed it; the AA failed to issue any press releases. Yet now that spring is here, a new threat to the city has arrived: skipping.

This man is skipping along the road, no hi-viz, no helmet, and looking happy. We don't pay our taxes to be stuck behind someone on a skipping rope. Did he have to take a test for this? Is the rope licensed? The sooner every pedestrian is required to wear a hi-viz top with a registration number the better, as then we will be able to report these people for unlicensed use of skipping rope on a public highway.

Railway Path Signage

As the extended route through Wickham Glen goes on, signs are already up on Alcove Road pointing to Eastville Park

Similarly, there are signs off Fishponds road letting pedestrians and cyclists know that their reserved route is nearby

To help cyclists get to this oasis, Avon Home Carers of fishponds have graciously parked both cars WU10LLV and WU60MHN up on the pavement, so creating a wider road for the cyclists.

We hope the tax dodgers are grateful, for, as the logo says "we care"

Shocking scenes from the BB Railway Path

Central government have recently provided enough funding for the WoEP to look at some ongoing work, such as the BRT to Ashton Gate and the A38 to A370 road.

But not to what the city really needs: buses on the railway path. Because three years ago this month, the Campaign to Save the Railway path was founded.

We sent our van over there to see what was lost. Look at it. On a weekday morning, people are cycling along without helmets or hi viz.

The one person who is has a yellow top on has one that says "police", but even they said "hello" to us as they went past, instead of the usual greeting "are you the driver of this van, sir?"

We filmed the path for a few minutes, and noted nothing happening at all. One or two people trickling down.

At one person every 20 seconds, that's three people a minute, 45 people every fifteen minutes. Which, co-incidentally is the number of people a 60 seater BRT bus would have if running at 75% capacity on the fifteen minute schedule originally planned.

You could say, therefore, that these people cycling and walking here the same traffic capacity as the BRT system. But look at them. They are not important people, -they are people that live in the inner city, not the nice suburbs. They aren't revenue earners, they are people who either through lack of money or willingness have chosen to not live in a nice pleasant suburbs where pedestrians walking are something to complain to the council about.

The West of England Partnership weren't just thinking of people like themselves, who live in the suburbs, they were thinking of the environment, especially the newts. Look at this sign

PLEASE TAKE CARE
NEWTS CROSSING

Now 45 two wheeled bicycles every 15 minutes, that's 90 wheels, in an hour 360 wheels. But four buses an hour, what's that, 4x4=16 wheels? Newts would have been exposed to far less risk if this had been made a bus route.

These people who use this path, they talk about the environment and nature, but do they care about the wellbeing of the newts and the WoEP's plans to save them? We think not. Only South Gloucester and North Somerset do, by doing their best to discourage walking and cycling in their parts of the ex-Avon county.

But even there, we hear of opposition.

Cliché Touché

Concerned reader "A" has written in to us:

"The driver of the black SUV WP07CCE travelling along Barton Hill Road decided to overtake on the blind corner where it meets Barrow Road while I was cycling to join the Railway Path. This was despite the fact that I had taken the lane to round the corner to discourage such a dangerous manoeuvre. It being a blind corner he couldn't see the cars coming around the corner towards us from Barrow Road and swerved back in towards the curb to avoid them, very narrowly missing crushing me. All this so that he could pull up and wait at the red light around the corner.

As his window was open while he queued at the red light I took the opportunity to very calmly and nicely ask him to please not do that again to anyone as he could very easily kill or injure someone. That is all I wished to say and I started to cycle away.

His response was to shout that I "shouldn't be in the middle of the road" and should "keep to the edge". When I explained that I had moved to the centre of the lane to discourage anyone from overtaking on a dangerous blind corner his reply was that I had to keep to the side unless I was going to "pay tax to use the roads" and that was within his rights to pass so close as he pays to use the road. When I replied that I also own and pay duty on a car (as I think that is what he was suggesting) his reaction was to shout "you're not in it today though are you you f***ing pr**k!" and then put his foot down and ran the red light to get away."

Well A, it's not often that we like to admit to agreeing with anything a cyclist says here at Bristol Traffic, but in this case we feel you have a slightly valid point.

While we don't think it right to criticise the motorists driving skills (as he's really just doing his bit to fight the war on motorists) we do feel that his reasoning needs some working on. As motorists we are finding it increasingly difficult to rely on the old dependable catch phrases of "you don't pay road tax" and "you should be at the side of the road" as unfortunately we have to admit that we do now know that roads are now paid for out of general taxation and council and government endorsed Bikeability lessons do encourage cyclists to take lanes to discourage dangerous manoeuvres from drivers around them. In fact we're actually even slightly disappointed that one of our own fellow drivers is still attempting to employ such over used clichés.

We can however suggest that the best option in this scenario would have been to adopt the new methods of simply pointing out that by choosing to cycle on such car packed roads the cyclist is obviously a freak, probably smells and point out the direction of Glastonbury for him so he can join all the other hippies.

It's probably also best to avoid repeat situations on this particular corner too as there is always the danger that if it happens regularly then the authorities might do something silly like adjust the road layouts or speed limits to calm traffic to protect cyclists. A bit unlikely though. Our research does show though that this isn't the first time that something like this has happened on this corner, although the following footage seems to have been filmed while travelling in the opposite direction around the corner and the car Y117GNY manages to get at least slightly in front of the cyclist and isn't confronted by unexpected traffic coming the other way as he overtakes on the blind corner rather than taking the whole corner directly alongside him and performing the emergency "squash the cyclist to the curb" manoeuvre to avoid unexpected oncoming traffic as WP07CCE allegedly did.

Chris Hutt: died, march 2010

Down at Zetland Road Last Month, we were comparing illnesses. Jon Rogers, has to nip down to the BRI with chest pains, one of our B.T reporters awakes to discover a paramedic in the room on account of an "incident" in their sleep, and Chris Hutt was considering an electric bicycle because of his newly developed Angina.

Sadly, it turns out that Chris's problem wasn't going to cause that much inconvenience. Jon Rogers sent an email out this morning breaking the news that Chris was found dead:

Terrible news

Chris Hutt was found dead yesterday.

Friday 26th February was the last time I saw him, when we were all together at Zetland Road.

John Grimshaw sent me this,

"Cycling has lost a doughty champion. He was also the best plumber in the west!

"I have lost a colleague of so many years, the best of route devisers and cycling companion, and a friend indeed.

"I know he was seen as a thorn in your side, but without his support I doubt that key cycle routes we now take for granted would have been built so well, or even at all.

"His last two messages concerned the ongoing threat to the railway path and the beautiful River Avon route to Hanham. Might you consider as a fitting tribute to this so dedicated Bristol Citizen, declaring the railway path inviolate and rebuilding the riverside path to a standard he would have enjoyed?"

As John says, there is already so much around Bristol that is the better for Chris's work and energy, and those two suggestions would add to his legacy. As far as I am concerned, the railway path is already inviolate, and the riverside path would be brilliant.

My last email to him said, "Aware that not heard from you for a week or so. Trust you are well and taking a well earned break!"

We will miss him.

Jon

Here are some of our photos from the Zetland Road visit; Chris is pointedly refusing to wear hi-viz or a helmet; his bike is the pink tourer chained to the railings.

Chris was not only prepared to argue the technical details of bike/pedestrian paths and crossings, he understood that a junction or stretch of bike lane is meaningless on his own -and that for Bristol to be a city you could live in without needing to drive, everything needed to join up, so you could walk or pedal around the city.

He helped found the Bristol Traffic site, as discussed in an email in May 2008:

I carry around a cheapo digital camera and use it to similar effect, although sometimes you've got to be quick. I've posted a few on my blog , but it would be good to have a site where we could all post such pics, something like "Bad driving in Bristol". It would be a public record which could be referred to the police and authorities

Obviously Chris missed the point, our site exists to praise our fellow drivers rather than criticise them, but we happily accepted his photos, and even have a couple in the pipeline. Chris did eventually come to see things our way, and so embrace our anti-cycling award process which he was unable to give to Jon Rogers:

While most known in recent years for his Green Bristol Blog and regular appearances on the Evening Post, where his role as Agent Provocateur to the E.P.'s usual stance was there to upset the readers, his key contribution to the city was -and will continue to be- the Bristol-Bath Railway Path. With John Grimshaw and others in the Cyclebag group, they built the Railway Path while nobody was looking. It was the West of England Partnership's plans to run BRT down this route that brought him back into the cycling activists world again, and ensured that the current generation of traffic planners came to fear his name. The R.P. not only gave East Bristol a better pedestrian/cyclist route than any other part of the city, it showed the country what a city could become.

He also organised some other rides, last year his Discover Bristol route took in the M32 underpasses, the Frome Valley and led to a lovely showdown between John Grimshaw and Chris regarding routing options.

We shall miss Chris, but we shall also remember him. Everyone who walks or cycles the Railway Path is benefiting from the work he and others put in to building that path, and it exists as a wonderful memorial to everyone who wanted to change our city, to make it a better place.

The Bristol Traffic Team.

BRT still planned for the Railway Path? Have they forgotten?

While listening to the cycle campaigners whine about features to see which one we should award a prize to, we heard one of them complaining that apparently due to pressure from South Gloucestershire council, the Bristol-Bath Railway Path is still on the route map for Bus Rapid Transit.

Now, we in Bristol Traffic don't use the path, for obvious reasons: pedestrians and bicycle routes are not for us. Readers may suspect therefore, that we are in favour of this proposal. No we are not!

We  are opposed to any plans for BRT here because we remember the whole 2008 BRT-on-RP debacle.

Within a few months of  the proposal becoming public, cunningly slipped out in a survey of transport users arranged for a weekday when all cycling representatives were meant to be at a meeting in Oxford, a joint campaign between the people living along the path, and anyone else in the city who used it, got the council to change their minds. A success for them, but a disaster for us, the pro-car pressure groups.

1. It was only going to be for buses: no benefit unless buses got removed from other routes, yet they wanted to keep the existing bus lanes around.
2. We don't like bendy-buses as they are harder to overtake compared to double-deckers
3. We may not like the path because cyclists and pedestrians are always walking or cycling to and from it, but having buses go to and from it would be worse.
4. The economics are atrocious, and it will fall to us, the road-tax and petrol-tax payer to fund it. We have enough government and banking misjudgements to pay for, thank you very much, given we live in a country whose financial problems are somewhere between Greece and Portsmouth F.C.
5. It created the militant cycling and walking activist organisations we now have to deal with. Before: a few losers who would sit in a pub and complain about how traffic lights endanger them. After: many more losers who sit in a pub and smirk about how they get the council to fix traffic lights that endanger them.
6. Their protest blocked the city for a day. Yes, they protested on a Sunday, but you weren't driving a minicab, being blocked on Baldwin street and when you start shouting to the cyclists about MOTs and road tax, having hundreds of protesters argue back.
7. The Evening Post betrayed us. Day one, on our side "tough actions are needed". Soon, sob stories of walkers and cyclists on the path, from nature lovers, from other people standing in the way of progress. We can no longer trust them. Last week for example, a whole week's coverage of the parent school run and resident parking plans: no criticisms of cyclists, even in the comments. Even the B.T. Approved-commenters, the mad people who have their browsers set up to use green fonts for their comments as it reminds them most of green ink, switched sides.

The WoEP targeted the Railway Path for BRT even though the economics sucked because they felt it would be politically less controversial than anything that went near the M32. Well, they were wrong, and they created the enemy we all have to deal with today.

We do despise those path people and their park -look at out our past coverage - but it was  these BRT plans that started this mess. If the WoEP wants to finish off some old unimplemented plans, they should dredge up the Motorway-over-the-harbour plans from the late 1960s, the ones North Somerset commuters will really appreciate, not this anti-car but still anti-bicycle disaster that will only make things worse,

Speaking of the activists smirking in their pubs, some people may have heard the rumour that a member of the Bristol Traffic team will be giving a presentation at the Bristol Cycling Campaign meeting in the Cornubia Pub on Thursday March 4, 8pm. We deny any knowledge of this, and suspect that it may be someone pretending to be from our organisation to give us a bad reputation. If it is one of our team members, we hope that they denounce the troublemakers, give them some advice on how to drive, and get bought beer from the cyclists' tax-avoidance money.

Traffic Calming the Railway Path

The greenbank development has surfaced again, with the developers asking for more input on their plans to build houses straight on to the path. The previous proposal was rejected by the community as having 20 paths opening on to the path was felt to be dangerous.

This time the community has the option of the same number of paths, or half as many, with the option of traffic calming. Oddly enough, there is no option to reject the proposal, which is clearly a bug in the web page design. It's tricky, getting those <select> buttons right.

Railway Path: 24 years old

That known subversive, Chris Hutt, is celebrating 24 years of the Bristol-Bath railway path's existence. He may celebrate it, having helped build it, having snuck out with other troublemakers like John Grimshaw, and built the country's premier walking/cycling path while British Rail wasn't looking.

But think of the damage it has done for the city. A stretch of Bristol is forever deprived the option of a railway line. When our strategic partners, the West of England Partnership, tried to reclaim this wasteland for bus use, all those whining tax-dodgers got together and fought it off. Yet it was built for such public transport in the first place.

We do like to visit the R.P., primarily as it is a good way of keeping our eye on those subversives: Chris Hutt, Josh Hart, Steve Meek and others. Here, on the first Sunday in August, we have one of the original subversives, John Grimshaw, cycling from Bath to Bristol.

Why exactly is he cycling on the path? Is he enjoying the first sunny day for six weeks? No, it is part of a train journey from Wiltshire. Apparently he and three others were thrown off the train at Bath, because there were more than the official number of bicycles (2) on the train.

From John's perspective, he is probably thinking that it was lucky that he had the foresight to build a 15 mile walking/cycling path, just in case such an event should occur. But look at it from the train company's perspective: this man stole a line from them, the least they can do is make him use it.

Elsewhere we see that some subversive is advocating boycotting the cafe at Bitton, because the hobbyists want to extend the railway line. It was a railway line once, it can be again. A volunteer-run train service running one train a day could be a valuable contribution to our city's transport needs.

Remembering Pete Taylor

Where the Railway Path runs into all the schoolkids crossing to whitehall, there's now a sign up: Thank you for not driving.

It is more than just a recognition of the fact that so many of the people on the path are doing just that, it is a way of remembering Pete Taylor, who was the man behind the signs.

There's going to be a memorial on July 18

We will meet at the Kebele centre at 9.30-10 on Sat 18^th July. For those of you that don’t know it, you can get directions at the website - . It is hoped that a few people will bring some cakes, and we can have a coffee and nibble whilst we all gather. Pete loved cake so this seemed to be a fitting start to proceedings!! Let me know if you are up for bringing cake contribution!

We will then amble down the cycle path to the Oak trees Pete planted where we will scatter his ashes and remember him. Everyone is welcome and people are invited to share their memories and celebrate his achievements in any way they see fit – music, talk, poems, songs – whatever!

I’d really appreciate it if people could spread the word via word of mouth, and please also forward this email to anyone I’ve forgotten to send it to.
Many thanks and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible on the 18^th.

Kind regards,

Genevieve Taylor (Pete’s niece)"

For those of you who don't know the full story, there's a two page article in this summer's Bristol Cycling Campaign magazine. Pete used to find acorns, germinate them and nurture the seedlings until they were ready to be planted, which he then did. The oaks growing along the path are his work, and they will outlive all of us.

Railway Path traffic

Here are some people out on the railway path on the first two evenings of June.

The whole of East Bristol's walking and cycling commuter traffic appears to be heading home by foot or by bike.

Some slipstreaming others on their road bikes and their tri-bars

Some with the entire family on push chairs and on foot.

Others running. Fast.

Some points to note

1. Everyone is enjoying a warm, dry week. Some of those people on their bikes have even taken off their hi-viz clothing and helmets.
2. It is representative of Bristol: every skin colour, all out having fun, together.
   
3. Every one of these people is deprived of the option of getting a bus home on this route.

As the elections come up, some evil people are trying to argue that we can split Bristol on race grounds. This is fundamentally wrong. Especially from a party that tries to claim the Irish as part of their British nationals. The Irish nationalists have not taken up guns, semi-automatic rifles, semtex and home made truck bombs to be considered part of Britain, yet that is exactly what the BNP are trying to do. There are some aspects of C20 history that the BNP are clearly ignorant of -probably pretty much everything since 1901 onwards.

While dividing Bristol on race or ethnic group is fundamentally misguided, what can be done is divide Bristol on transport options. Yet nobody is standing up an being proud to admit that they fought for Bus Rapid Transit on this path. Instead everyone is trying to claim credit for stopping BRT-on-the-path. Where are the councillors who will fight for FirstBus? Where are the people willing to stand up, point out that this path is wasted space and money denied the strategic partners of the city -FirstBus- and that Bus Rapid Transit would be an improvement over this morass of suffering.

Pete Taylor

Continuing a week of bleak news, we are saddened to forward the announcement of the death of Pete Taylor.

Here he is, presenting a petition against building houses on Railway Path parkland to one of the local councillors, Faruk Choudhury, who is wearing a genuine Bristol Traffic approved high-viz top to walk down a footpath safely.



Josh Hart says

I'm afraid I have some very sad news for those of you who knew Pete Taylor, the Easton activist responsible for the 'thank you for not driving' signs around Bristol. Pete died yesterday at home- it appears that his bad and worsening asthma finally got the better of him. I didn't know him that well- I moved in down the street 6 months ago, but I do know that he had a really good heart and I always looked forward to seeing him chopping wood outside for his stove. He could be brash, condemning our car culture and lashing out against pavement parkers, but his activism sprung from love- mostly a love of our planet I think (he was the one behind the 'i love my planet' bike stickers).

Pete would literally spend all day writing letters to MP's and councillors on issues of traffic and quality of life and this persistence paid off with the city council's adoption of the thank you for not driving signs and stickers. He told me proudly the other day that he had successfully got the diesel generators banned from Broadmead after a long campaign. Undoubtedly Bristol is a greener, more livable place because of his quiet, diligent efforts.

On a more practical note, if anyone knows his next of kin or any close friends and family, please contact the Bristol coroner. If anyone knows anything about a funeral or wake, please post it here so people can pay their respects. Really we should all get together and have a big street party in Pete's honour. He was a really good guy.

I went to lay some flowers in front of his house earlier and his whole end of the street was clear of cars- no doubt that would have brought a smile to his face....

Rest in peace old friend.

Josh

Pete Fryer, of CREATE, has this to say

I was very sorry to hear the sad news that Pete Taylor had passed away over the weekend

I worked with Pete Taylor over the last ten years on campaigns to promote responsible motoring such as the 'Switch off' and 'thank you for not driving' campaigns. Pete was very active as a deep green in earlier years until asthma got the better of him. He was responsible for introducing recycling at the Glastonbury Festival and planted many thousands of native trees during the 90's. He was awarded the Lord Mayors Medal for his environmental activism in these fields and that of promoting cycling.

Peter didn't just talk green he lived green. It would be hard to find anyone in Bristol with a smaller carbon footprint (and lower energy bills) than Pete and many of us will miss his generosity of spirit and generosity of produce from his allotment - a real love of his life.

Pete made sure that bureaucrats such as myself kept our promises and kept moving in the right direction even if we couldnt move with quite the urgency or speed Pete felt was necessary to save the planet. He produced many ideas and challenged both officers and councillors on a regular basis.

I will miss him as an activist and as a friend.

Pete Fryer

Peter Robert Fryer
Environment Manager
CREATE

I met Pete in the railway path and greenbank campaigns, where his willingness to get out on the path and corner people to get them to sign petitions and come round to our way of thinking was invaluable. In this time of networking, facebook groups, twitter and the like, there is still no substitute for people who will go out there and argue their cause in the street, who will put in the hours needed to get things done. Pete was such a person, and without him. the city is poorer.

Like Josh says, time for a party.

Mercedes Hit and Run - Fishponds

While Bristol mourns the tragic loss of Troy Atkinson in the city centre, it is worth noting that the day before there was another hit and run involving a Mercedes, this time at the junction of Alcove Road and Fishponds Road.

According to the Evening Post

"A 40-year-old man was riding a black racing bike towards Bristol on Fridaywhen the incident happened.

At around 7.45pm, a blue Mercedes turned into Alcove Road and knocked him to the ground, causing him to suffer minor cuts and bruises."

We checked out Alcove Road to see if there were any blue mercs on the pavement. Not today. Two vans on the corner, providing a lovely bit of traffic calming by hiding all chances at seeing oncoming traffic.

And a car, WN56ULM, proudly sporting its "baby on board" sticker to let people know that this car has to park on the pavement to get its small child in and out the house.

Overall, not a nice place to walk or cycle, which is a shame, as it is one of the access points to the Railway Path.

It is probably a quirk of statistics that two hit and runs collisions involving Mercedes cars happen in the same week, but it is also worrying. It is nice to get onto the R.P. and enjoy the safe chaos of the evening traffic up and down the path.

Secret Plans of the WoEP

Here is a bit of Fig 2 on Page 4 of the Executive Summary of the BRT proposal for Ashton Gate, the one that is causing the Prince Street Bridge controversy -the one where it turns out the WoEP have been secretly planning to take one pavement and one lane of the bridge and ban bikes from the bikes+pedestrians area created last October.

Look at the route from the centre to Emerson's Green. That is the railway path. Have the same team that has been secretly planning to take over from a bridge, been planning to run buses down the BRT? Isn't that what they promised to stop doing last year? Well, I don't think we can trust them.

For anyone not involved in that struggle, remember that the WoEP had been secretly planning this for at least a year, made a commitment to focus on the railway path route not because it made economic sense, but because it would be less disruptive to cars. It wouldn't just remove a park from east bristol and destroy the best footpath and bike route in the inner city, it wouldn't solve the congestion problems in/out the M32, and be surprisingly useless. Yet this diagram, seemingly prepared in Jan 2009, shows it is still a dream of the WoEP.

And so it begins -again. Have they not learned their lesson? Do they not know fear? Do they not realise that the protest group hadn't even begun its direct action campaign? In particular, the "let's try and get a bike on a FirstBus bus" event was going to be hilarious, a proposal to show that the claim that BRT+bikes could be combined wouldn't work by having everyone try and get their bike onto buses all round Bristol. Then cycle to the next stop ahead of the bike and try again. Some of us were looking forward to this.

This plan has success written all over it

We in Bristol Traffic are pleased be the first blog to recognise the "reality on the ground" and celebrate the granting of planning permission to the Chocolate Factory development, a development which will bring progress to Greenbank, including progress to the green hedgerow along one side of the railway path.

The railwaypath is a family bike path at weekends. But what is interesting for the parent may not be for the child. Look at this photo for example. The parent may be enjoying their workout towing some extra kilos to bath and back, but what of the child. They get bored. The only bit that has some interest is the Bitton Railway, as trains are one product pushed at small children -in the form of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Closer to the city centre, no trains. But now we will have that other centrepiece of child literature to look forward to, Bob the Builder, at work. This will make family bike journeys more fun. Once the multiple new access stairs to the railway path are laid out, we will also have some places between the stairs to let the kids run and play, free from the risk of passing mountain bikers doing a bit of high-speed offroad. Hopefully the residents will contribute to this family feel by providing some picnic benches and play facilities.

The E.P. says, "This plan has success written all over it". We say "mission accomplished!"

Council Planning committee

Hot off the presses comes pics of the council planning committee visiting the railway path, to see whether it will need traffic calming once they run steps down to the tarmac. It is hard to tell if it is better that they chose a quiet period rather than the morning rush hour, or not. Peak period would have shown how daft steps would be, but that may have just encouraged traffic calming.

While this picture was being taken, the council staff were saying that they don't want me interfereing as this is not a formal site visit and it would not be fair for me to make representations without the architects being present too.

This is a good point, and one we in Bristol Traffic agree with. Henceforth, when David Bishop has a meeting with George Ferguson without any minutes being taken, we expect to be invited and given equal talking time.