Southville's runner problem

Things must be a bit quiet in the Cyclist/Pedestrian wars right now, so the Evening Post has had to concentrate on that other bubbling issue: runners running along pavements.

Mark1864 makes a comment "This is ironic for the EP. A bunch of pedestrians moving faster than other pedestrians are causing problems on the pavement." We think we know who this person is. And yes, it is funny. This is the best set of comments in the paper. Despite the best efforts to turn this into the usual cyclists on the pavement debate, it's mostly pedestrian vs faster moving pedestrian.

One constructive comment from bobob03 is "There are quite a lot of pavements that hardly get any use along the ring road between the M32 and Emersons Green ." Yes, we love the idea of a large group of runners driving from Southville to the A4174 ring-road for an evenings run, except for the small detail that on a weekday evening that drive will take about 45 minutes. Plus the fact that the A4174 ring road is about as exciting as spending an afternoon with an elderly relative who keeps forgetting who you are and repeating the same conversation, again and again.

Anyway, while we are smirking at the comments, we have a fear. These runner groups, who go along in big packs, talking to each other, may form a militant "Bristol Runners Association", who will then go on and demand things like the right to run along pavements in the city -0ur parking areas. Then they'll want zebra crossings retained, rather than pelican crossings, so they don't have to spend three minutes running on the spot waiting for the lights to change.

Better to nip this in the bud right now.

pavement work in Southville

"MB" sends these shots of some vehicles in Greenway Bush Lane. Southville.

He notes that even the trucks are parked on the road.

Only one vehicle is showing how much they care about their paintwork and wing mirrors that they choose the pavepark option.

We don't see what MB is complaining about.The council owns the task of repairing all the pavements in the city, and, as such, have the right to park on it. The only unusual thing is why nobody else parks their either.

Coronation Road Cycle Path

The Coronation Road bike path is a source of excellent photographs. It is also an item of regular contention in the comments section of evening post articles, the key comment being "why aren't you tax dodging cyclists using it instead of holding us up", apart from when the comment is "why are you cycle terrorists trying to run us pedestrians over all the time"

Well, we sent someone on a bicycle (it's OK, it was a Sunday) to ride the route. At the Bedminster End, we can see some tourist signs clearly marking the split between the pedestrian area (on the right), and the cyclist route -the faded markings to the left.

The approaching cyclist is on the wrong side, though the presence of the Bristol Traffic van (we were unloading the bicycle) may have been a factor. Note, however, the new signs up on the walkers side showing them the route to the Malago stream/footpath/bike path. We aren't entirely sure why anyone walking or cycling would cross just there, rather than at the pelican crossing right behind the camera, and we aren't convinced that signage was something this path was short of.

Anyway, on to the path. As you can see, the presence of large trees down the centre of the path does complicate things, as do the lamp posts, the road signs and other pavement features. Fortunately, for both us drivers and those cyclists, there no 20 mph signs. This road is deliberately kept at 30 mph, because the council recognises it is a key traffic route in and out the city, especially for somerset commuters coming in on the A370, A369 or even A4/Avonmouth Road. Since the council stole the Queen's Road dual carriageway, this is a faster route to drive to the Templemeads area from the nice places out of town.

Because of its critical nature as a key traffic route, it is essential that cyclists stay out the way, yet many of them don't. This video of the cycle route shows that anyone complaining about it is a whining troublemaker who should be grateful for what they get doled out for free. It also shows that they have forgotten the time when the path stopped at every tree and diverted them roadward, not pavementward. This not only annoyed the cyclists, but could inconvenience us drivers too, so we are slightly more pleased that now it is the pedestrians who are held up.

The big problem is the trees, not only do they force cyclists to swerve into the pedestrians lane at speed, they hide the signs in the middle of the path behind them, and could increase risk at night, especially from unlit cyclists. Fortunately, the many street lights positioned in the middle of the lane reduce the risk of a cyclist not seeing any of the many pieces of street furniture. Furthermore, there are now banners up round the city encouraging cyclists not to cycle without lights to reduce the risk of them hitting any of the trees here.

Looking back, we see no alternative option for this road. As we have seen from the Muller Road build-out which attempts to provide a safe cycle route on a main thoroughfare, that just creates congestion on a key access route for the city.

A better option would be to remove this route, and ban bicycles from Coronation Road. Even if they do cycle up the path, we know later on they will be in our way, in town. Saying "No bicycles welcome here", sets everyone expectations up clearly, but this this path only does it halfheartedly.

They have stolen our Bemmy

A quick drive to Asda Bedminster, best car park near the city centre.

Only parking for six bikes, not under-cover, unlike the trolley parks. Keeping trolleys dry: important. Keeping bicycles dry: not important.

Even the access system makes it hard for bicycles to get back towards Southville afterwards without forcing them to encounter Coronation Road or North Street.

Yet look! Just round the corner: a 20 mph zone!

One that covers the area. The whole of Bedminster and Southville south of  Coronation Road, is now 20 mph. This is so wrong.

Fortunately, Asda's one-way system forces bicycles onto the 30 mph roads, so discouraging anyone from shopping that way. Customers who don't drive can't buy as much, yet still take up resources in the supermarket: space, queue time. They should be discouraged on the grounds of commercial profitability.

Coronation Road: safety enhancements

More news from our new contributor, flytopia. These pics also mark our first photos from a google nexus one phone, which also includes GPS location data in the images. Handy.

A concerned citizen has noticed the danger posed by the roadwork signs on Coronation Road (i.e. a cyclist may fall into the road, blocking traffic).

They have selflessly parked their car M442AHU on the cycle path, creating a far more visible deterrent to cycling.

Coronation Road Improvements

We have a new contributor, "flytopia", who has some good news about the Coronation Road bike path. It's been made more dangerous. In their own excellent words:

On this blog you've often mentioned the excellent Coronation Road cycle path. The path does a fantastic job of bringing cyclists and pedestrians into conflict, as cyclists swerve round the many large trees and streetlamps into the paths of angry oncoming walkers.

If the cyclist chooses instead to ride in the road they will face abuse from drivers, who rightly point out they should be using the cycle path provided. This sends a clear message to cyclists in Bristol - you're not welcome.

However, the immobile nature of the trees leads to a problem - people get used to them. The cyclists know when to slow down, and the pedestrians know when to expect cyclists to try to squeeze past them. What we really need is a few extra obstacles to shake things up a bit.

Now these signs may look a bit obvious - after all they're designed to be seen from a long way off, so the cyclist has time to react, slow down and avoid swerving into old ladies. But the fun comes in the evening when the cyclists are returning from town.

The backs of these signs are invisible in the failing light, especially for those cyclists that are not using lights (which is pretty much all of them, right?)

I've stuck a brief video on YouTube. Unfortunately I didn't catch anyone crashing into the signs and it was raining so I didn't stick around. I got a cyclist sticking to the road and a sensible hi-viz runner

We thank flytopia for their contribution -both photographs and commentary! We hope for more in the future!

Lift? No -a chairlift!

Now we come to the climax of our Clifton Week, the real reason we spent time there. We were in fact being sponsored by the city to come up with a dramatic plan for Bristol

Following up our engineering proposals for Clifton, here is our big one. Rather than just propose a lift to bypass Park Street, we have something far more ambitious, which would also become a tourist attraction

It's for a chairlift from Southville up to the Promenade on Royal York Crescent -one that takes a bike on the side. Here is what it looks like from the passenger seat. Incidentally, this bike was stolen in 2007 -there is still an outstanding death penalty waiting to be applied to whoever is caught in possession of it.


Think about it. A single cable could run from Coronation Road, over the Avon and the harbour, and swoop up the hill to Clifton. Once your bike is up there, most of the city is a downhill. Even if your final destination is the centre or Gloucester Road, a lift up the hill, followed by a bit of a descent, is all you need. The lift would eliminate all the problems of negotiating hotwells or Prince Street Bridge -that could be given over to Bus Rapid Transit. Indeed, we estimate a new chair lift system would cost less than a new bridge. It's all electric, so with a good green source of energy, carbon neutral.

Furthermore, as it would help pedestrians get from Clifton to Ashton Gate, it would provide fast and easy way for pedestrian shoppers to get to and from the proposed Tesco Ashton Gate supermarket, a worthy proposal only resisted by a few subversives and their videos. We hope that this new city chairlift could be funded from Tesco's Section 106 levy.

There is one problem: bike panniers and tagalongs are both tricky. Panniers are uncool, upgrade to a satchel. As for the tagalongs, that's a problem the engineers can worry about.

20 mph Bristol

It has been officially leaked to the local printed press: Bristol is to get two 20 mph zones. The plans have flaws, but what is interesting is their size: Montpelier and much of St Werburgh's are included in the East zone; Southville and Bedminster in the South Zone. Leaving only the North Zone, the West Zone and the Outer zones before we have city-wide coverage.

This means that it will be safer for parents to push their puschairs along the road in both areas. All the main roads are remaining full speed, so crossing the road at the back of this photo will be as dangerous as ever.

Oddly enough, St Werburghs north of the tunnel is 30mph, so bikes heading south can run into this van at full speed.


Presumably the speed limits will be enforced to same rigorousness as cars blocking crossings, parking on yellow lines or bike lanes/paths

This is a wonderful event in Bristol's transport history, and we look forward to the same positive experience that the Portsmouth 20 mph zones have been shown to deliver.

Look for more commentary on Green Bristol Blog and Southville Roads.

Heather gets her trike back

It is nice to get an email from Heather Anne Watts announcing her stolen tricycle has been recovered.

From her email on December 24

"Hello Everyone

Thanks to all of you who have displayed posters and passed on the message about my stolen tricycle.

The police telephoned me last night to say a member of the public had taken my tricycle to the local police station.

I am off to South Bristol to collect it later today.

Merry Christmas"

That is lovely news. This theft got a lot of publicity, and because it was such an unusual vehicle, actually recovered. A rare and welcome event.

Stolen Trike

Someone in Southville has had their red adult tricycle stolen, "(red Tri 1) was stolen from outside Reg's house 19.00 Friday 5 December 2008.
Pashley - large rear basket."

Here is a pic of the trike being ridden the wrong way round a roundabout during the Biggest Bike Ride event -it's certainly an unusual vehicle.

Anyone spotting it should contact Heather Anne Watts. She's listed in the phone book; call her there if you see it. Email wise, heather57anne -at- hotmail.com.

Heather, we wish you luck on your search to recover it; we will keep our eyes out. One thing to consider. Unusual Red Trike. Southville. Who do we know there who would like an unusual vehicle to travel around in? Someone who wears red trousers?

Triple Lines!

Southville Parking forward over this snap of the Range Rover M22MAX on North Street, on triple lines.

Presumably triple yellow lines mean really, really no parking. Maybe. Unless you really want to.

Coronation Road Crash

We have a photo of the flowers left on Coronation Road at the site of Friday's fatal motorbike/lorry collision.

There's also a letter from his sister; it is very sad. Clearly, he will be missed very much by his family. It should not have come to this.

Coronation Road bike lane

Joe Evans also sends in a photograph of the Coronation Road bike lane, though there is a car blocking the view.

If you look past the car, you can see the path, which goes alongside the Avon new cut. This path is famous for its greenery. On the Bristol-Bath path you get greenery beside the path. Here you get mature trees in the middle of the path itself. This is why this bike lane is one of the most popular in the city, right up until it comes to a halt behind this car, P719UHY.