This old chestnut

Posted in response to a blog about proposed 20 mph zones in Southville at simplysouthville.blogspot.com

"Ah! This old chestnut again. We've had 20 mph zones here in Redfield for 10 years now, along with all the associated traffic calming measures and street furniture, including signs which say you're leaving a 20 mph zone and entering, um, a 20 mph zone. Total lunacy, but apparently all in accordance with the regulations.

Unfortunately and to our annoyance and despair, the signage makes not a jot of difference to the speed of 90% of motorists, either on the 'rat-run' side streets or the main road, where, alarmingly, a lot of traffic still travels at around 40 mph and sometimes a lot faster.

The brickwork chicanes are almost always driven across, rather than around, the contraflow systems force cyclists onto the pavements, gutters or into oncoming buses and other traffic.

There are so many cars and so little enforcement that drop-down kerbs, zig-zag lines, bus lanes, cycle lanes, yellow lines, speed bumps and pavements are routinely parked on.

I've come to the conclusion, after a decade of first hand experience, that the 20 mph zones here, are in practice, worse than useless, not only lulling pedestrians and cyclists into a dangerous false sense of security, but degrading the meaning and regard for laws / regulations in general.

If, after 10 years of living in a 20 mph Home Safety Zone, with signs designed by local school children announcing, 'Think! 20 Is Plenty', the majority of traffic still travels at dangerously high speed and those same school children - or rather, by now, their offspring - have to wait for ages at the side of the road in the aforementioned Home Safety Zone, before dashing across, it really hasn't worked.

Everyone here - residents, pedestrians, cyclists and motorists passing through - knows that it hasn't worked, either to their convenience or disappointment.

Why would Southville be any different ? Would it be properly enforced there ?

Don't bother - you'll save a few quid and maintain some semblance of respect for the law."

Zig Zag Wash

There aren't enough hours in the day to document all the dangerous and inconsiderate parking that goes on in the city but I thought this was worth stifling a yawn for. Safe in the knowledge that the council and police couldn't be arsed enforcing their own laws, this bloke is washing his car on the zig-zag lines by the crossing on Church Road and I hereby claim my chief I-Spy supermatch bonus points.

Zig A Zag

This thoughtless cyclist has locked his bike to the bike stand outside Tesco in Redfield, thereby preventing passenger access to the car parked on the zig-zag lines approaching the crossing.

Tunnel Vision

The first time I cycled through this tunnel on the Bristol-Bath cyclepath about twenty years ago, it fair blew my mind. It didn't have any lights back then, so you really had to concentrate on the light at the end of the tunnel. Besides that nice metaphor, on a hot sunny day the experience was and still is, like cycling through a fridge.

Mr Brown Bag

Yes Mr Brown Bag, I'm taking a piccie of you and your car, parked on a double yellow line at 9 a.m. on Church Road. Stay where you are, and hopefully you'll get squashed by a bus.

Take a stand

I might moan about pathetic cycle parking facilities at major supermarkets, that's because they're multinational corporations that are happy to dedicate acres to car parking, but one thing that's never bothered me cycling around this city daily for over a decade, is a lack of places to leave my bike.

The council, however, have decided that it's a good idea to liberally sprinkle the pavements in East Bristol with unnecessary bike stands, adding to the already stupidly cluttered street furniture that includes 10 ft tall metal poles with postage stamp-sized signs on top and signs informing motorists that they're leaving a 20 mph zone and entering, um, a 20 mph zone. Doh !

110 Days

110 days since travelling by car.

Shouldn't I get some sort of rebate ?

20 mph Ph.D.

Are you sitting comfortably ?

This is a 20 mph sign at the end of Edward Street as it enters Church Road, Redfield, next to the Chinese takeaway, indicating that this stretch of Church Road is 20 mph. Right ?



Wrong. This sign, 50 metres away, at the end of Verrier Road, by The Old Bank, shows the end of a 20 mph Zone as you enter Church Road. Or does it ? Surely, that's what a crossed out 20 means, with the words 'Zone Ends'. So what's with the other 20 in the red circle ? Perhaps the speed limit's still 20, but the 20 mph zone has ended. Uh ?

I knew I should have taken a Ph.D. in street furniture.

No matter, this lunchtime, a police car sped up Church Road on the wrong side at 80 mph, without siren or lights, which at least gives the impression that everyone else is doing under 20.

April Fool

Judging by the speed of traffic on this stretch of Church Road, Redfield, the 20 mph sign must be some kind of April Fool's joke.

Or Not

Scrap that last post. Looks like the man's going to get his way and build anyway.

Solidarnosc!

Some sanity at last, in the publication of findings from the public consultation over plans for mashing up the cycle expressway into town and ripping up the hedgerows in Greenbank.

It seems that enough people have objected to possibly make a difference to the development.

Bristol City Council Consultation Findings

19th century bike rack

Two more reasons why this 19th century bike rack doesn't get used.

i-spy

I'm not the sort of sad sack to go around photographing every car I see parked on a cycle lane or pavement. Life's too short. However, on a short trip into the city and back today, chief i-spy spotted the following:

- A taxi sailing through a red light, seconds after I'd crossed the road. Incredulous, I checked again to see if the lights had just changed back to green, but no. Beware these colourblind missiles of death.

- Half a dozen lorries parked on the entire pavement, making everyone walk in the road.

- The lights at Bristol Bridge signal green for cyclists, directing them straight into the path of pedestrians crossing over the road, also on a green light.

- This 4 x 4 parked on a cycle lane outside a hairdresser.



- This car parked on the pavement outside a launderette.



- This ve hickle, designed for the plains of Montana, dumped on the pavement like a warthog on a sixpence.

Accoutrements

The world would be a different place if motorists had to take a huge padlock and chain, or massive D-lock, everywhere they went. Arriving at a supermarket this morning, I realised that I hadn't brought my lock with me. It didn't use to be a concern when I had a D-lock fitted in a bracket on the bike, but I don't anymore, so I have to remember to take a lock with me, which I hadn't.

What to do ? Ask the charity collector in the foyer to mind it ? Bother a security guard ? I put it in a corner, near a payphone, had a glance around to see if there was anyone around likely to nick it, then dashed in for a speed shop. It might have cost only £50 second-hand ten years ago, but to an opportunist ?

It must be hell to have a bike worth something. You'd need a lock worth the same again.

And let there be lights !

What if motorists had to take a pair of front and a pair of back headlights around with them, removing and attaching them every time they parked ? And what if bikes had built in lights, front and rear, mounted in the frame and pedal powered ? Not for £50 perhaps.

08/03862/F

Received notification of the outcome of the planning committee meeting regarding the mashing up of the cycle path in Greenbank : It's got the go ahead, subject to the completion of a Section 106 agreement. "Section 106 agreements are drawn up when it is considered that a development will have negative impacts." (But the development's such a good earner for so many people with their finger in the pie that it's given the go ahead anyway, never mind the wildlife, green space, impact on the environment or the priority cycle route)

Parklife

Bung it here, nobody will mind.

Every little helps

£3 billion profit, but no sign of a better bike rack at Tesco's Eastville.

George, Bungle and Zippy

By now, property developer George Ferguson has made a name for himself in Bristol as the guy who wants to build on the Bristol - Bath cyclepath. Not content with building on the substantial site of the old chocolate factory in Greenbank, George and his partners at the council, Bungle and Zippy, think it would be a good idea for our newly designated Cycling City if they wrecked the hugely popular and important cycle route by building houses on the green strip of land outside the boundary of the old factory, destroying hedgerows, apple trees and a public bench, impeding the free flow of cycle traffic and setting a precedent for more development along the once tranquil cycle route.

Ok, so there's nothing unusual about a property developer obtaining land by dubious means and ramming in as many high density dwellings as possible to maximise profit with no regard for other land users. What is astonishing however, is that the very same George is lauded as the city's pre-eminent spokesperson for cycling, to whom we should all look for advice and guidance.

In a fine example of Greenwash, George is trying to push through the development on the cyclepath as a benefit to cyclists, when anyone with a gram of sanity knows that his plans will choke and strangle this important commuter and leisure route and increase the likelihood of the development of a diesel bus route in the years ahead.

bbc.co.uk/insideout

Cycle killer, qu'est-ce que c'est ?

Feeling pretty sick in my stomach about the ongoing proposals for the development on / next to the cyclepath in Greenbank. There's really just no need. It seems more than insensitive, stupid even, to spoil a green space and annoy cyclists and other users of this linear park, when there's more than enough scope for development within the existing boundary of the old chocolate factory. Besides taking every opportunity to voice my opposition and register objections through the permitted channels and getting friends to do the same, I can't see what else to do. It seems that the council only narrowly rejected, or put on ice, plans to develop the path as a bus route, so I fear that plans to build much needed houses will be approved, thereby setting a precedent for more development along the path and the eventual approval of the bus route proposals.

Despite the need for and value of a wildlife corridor, linear park and priority cycle route, I expect that the developer will convince the council of the higher value and need for housing and the role of the development in regeneration of the area. But can they really be persuaded that slowing and hindering cycling and the destruction of green space is an acceptable outcome ?



The loss of a view and the disturbance caused by a development are not permissable objections, which is not to say that they shouldn't be expressed, although to do so risks being labelled a NIMBY. Nevermind, I've got much worse labels for them, though name calling doesn't get anywhere. It's just that the chaos and noise around there when it all starts, together with the development of an athletics track and floodlights on the Packer's Field will make the area unbearable for months leaving horrible scars when it's finished.

vowles the green
the story of a hedge
bristol traffic
green bristol blog
railwaypath.org

Pork scratchings

"Fine, call the police then", I suggested to the VW Golf driver, who was moaning about a scratch on his arse. I'd been cycling past Lawrence Hill station when he'd overtaken, then swerved in front of me into a parking space which wasn't really there, leaving his back end jutting out into my path. Given the 'choice' of getting mown down by the traffic behind or clipping his boot, I chose the latter and somehow managed to avoid sprawling on the road under a bus.

Although I'm well aware that if you drive into the back of someone it's usually your fault, I doubted that the third umpire would have agreed, which is perhaps why I found myself hanging around to argue with my new acquaintance, who looked barely old enough to have a licence.

I'd bent a brake lever, my thumb was throbbing and I'd just survived another close call. All the petrolhead could care about was a tiny scratch to his chariot. Seeing that he didn't want to call the plod and the Hawkeye replay wasn't going to happen, I cycled off.

Dirty half dozen

These pathetic cycle parking facilities at Morrisons' supermarket in Fishponds are the best for miles around, just as long as it's not raining and no more than half a dozen cyclists want to shop at the same time. Given the paltry amount of shopping that it's possible to carry while cycling, it's against the best interests of supermarkets to encourage shoppers to make their journeys by bicycle. Far better then to provide a token space between the disabled parking bay and the cash point machines, where cars and 4x4s are constantly reversing, turning and parked. That'll learn them to shop properly.