Some of the cyclists think that if there are enough of them on our roads the rest of society will suddenly welcome them, it will suddenly become safer, and that everyone will happily dance around singing Dutch songs. Well, we have some bad news there
The increase in the number of people cycling, combined with the rises in petrol's costs, merely makes us angrier and more resentful
It's not enough they aren't paying to use the roads, they hold us up. The more bicycles, the more we get held up. We can experiment with this by secretly instrumenting cyclists and then collecting the videos, and seeing if conflict increases or decreases over time.
Here we see white van YB06BDO being held up by a bicycle as it turns into Cotham Hill from Aberdeen Road. It stops. What does the rider have to complain about? At least this driver wasn't on the phone.
He stopped, polite discussion followed. None of this road-rage stuff. A friendly city. Why do they complain so?
Aberdeen Road, Cotham. A one way street with the main entrance on Hampton Road, just past the car parked by the dropped-kerb build out with its hazard lights on. A bicycle locked to the road sign. We've covered this road before, mainly on the topic of school runs and parking.
Never looked at the houses much. Student houses. You can tell. The driveway converted into bicycle parking.
But this day: different. A police car with the engine on sits outside one of the houses.
This is where the current suspect in the murder of Joanna Yeates was apparently arrested.
We have nothing to add on this topic; Bristol Culture has done a better local analysis than the rest of the country's press. What we can do is show people what Canynge Road, where Joanna lived, is like. It's never had a mention here before for one simple reason: it's not interesting enough. It's a quiet road between Clifton and the Downs, most notable for providing parking for zoo visitors in summer. Otherwise, sleepy. Or it was.
Now the police stand outside one of the houses; a camera man stands across the road. One person is believed to have been murdered in the house just before Christmas, two other residents have (separately) been arrested and questioned -one of them charged. Whatever the outcome, Canynge Road will be tainted for a long time -like Cut-Throat Lane in St Werburgh's. It has gone from what was a quiet route for cyclists (it's faster to drive on the parallel road as this one is too narrow at the Clifton end), and somewhere for people to live, to a road with a dark history.
In Clifton and nearby, there's now a clear feeling of relief whenever someone who is potentially the murder is being detained by the police: that it is suddenly safer. Because Clifton is a safe part of town, and such things don't happen there, the way they do in Patchway, or down in Somerset, in Cheddar. Things that happen there don't merit national news coverage, despite the grief and suffering the relatives of those people will be going through.
Here we see the junction of Aberdeen Road and Whiteladies Road, with the car VA08SVZ forced to park sideways on to the pavement up by the corner.
Despite the double yellow lines, they aren't blocking the dropped corner.
What they are doing is forcing turning traffic to slow down, and by narrowing the road they are providing a "build-out" like feature for passing pedestrians, even those pushing bicycles.
As such, we think even the pedestrians-rights groups should be supporting the driver for parking in a way that not only conveniences them, it helps improve pedestrian safety!
