We know that people have been complaining that the concorde way still forces people to cycle through bicycle-unfriendly roads in horfield. However, we have hard evidence that John Grimshaw is happy to use it. Here we see him on Dovercourt Road, looking perfectly happy. Furthermore we see the shared-space concept being rolled out, as the bus stop provides short stay paveparking for motor vehicles, parking which provides a space for bicycles to get buy Such shared spaces are clearly to be encouraged, even if the Guide Dogs for the Blind charity is complaining about such things.They say: how can you tell where the pavement ends? We say: when you walk into a car it means you are about 50cm from the pavement. Next question?
Both cyclists who read this site will be interested to hear that the North Fringe cycle route, linking Abbey Wood with the Farm Pub, will be installed this weekend; the schedule still says "February". Here is the view from the B&Q side.
Sadly, for those cyclists, the council is still looking at selling off the land, so the greenery may not last for long.
Further up the route, the council is preparing for the event by parking vans saying "look out for cyclists" up on the pavement.
By parking directly opposite a road junction, the council van CN06CXR ensures traffic approaching Wordsworth Road will know to look out for bicycles.
That's why were horrified to see this footage from Horfield.
Within a couple of seconds, our van encountered two pedestrians and a cyclist -with one of the pedestrians walking in the road as if they had the right to. This is not Montpelier! This is a nice fast road where people park up on the pavement to let passing traffic through. Yet today, somebody walking. Here!
We had to drive up the rest of the road in shock, until the sight of all the cars and vans up on the pavement reassured us that this was a temporary event.
Our coverage of the anti-car streets of Horfield generated some comments from 2nd2none driving school, who seemed to misinterpret our photos of one of their instructors cars parked on the pavement as some form of criticism. Nothing could be further from the truth! We are merely jealous that the instructor who lives in the area has some empty pavement outside their house that they can call their own. In the inner city we can spend twenty minutes driving round looking for some space on a buildout or zebra crossing, yet in the suburbs, there is a bit of pavement every household can call their own. The only time we've ever said anything mildly critical of this driving school was when we caught them parking legally in Montpelier, because that's failing to teach people the local skills. Robbies driving school never gets caught doing that.
by this comment you dont actually drive and are simply a busy body with nothing better to do than ride around complaining about trivial things like this.
Bristol Traffic is a community project that exists to document, not take sides. You appear to have taken our coverage as some form of criticism, for which we must apologise.
Anyway, the driving school made some valid points, the first one being:
we teach our pupils to park correctly but anyone can clearly see that these roads are far to small to do that. ... at times parking on the pavement is unavoidable as to keep the road clear for other users.
Exactly. There is the theory "don't park on places you aren't allowed to", and practice "park where you need to" -and its the difference between the two which we find fascinating, and why driving school and L-plated cars get extra coverage that normal cars don't usually merit. We aren't criticising, merely observing and documenting.
Now, -and this is where it gets interesting- some people replies to the driving school's comments, not agreeing with them, but instead pointing out the bit of the highway code that discusses parking on pavements! This is shocking! Even more so when at more than one of the people replying claimed to be a contributor to the site! We shall have to pay more attention to who we let submit photographs and videos, as some of them clearly hold different opinions from our own -and the rest of the tax paying motorists in the city who subsidise their pedestrian lifestyle. See that? Pedestrian. It's come to mean "slow". There's a hint there.
as for the highway code, this is a rule book that was written in 1931 with approximately 2 million cars on the road and the motor car being a non essential commodity, not the 27 million cars that now exist on this small island. There simply isnt enough road space for driving or parking and Bristol has one of the worst managed road systems of any city's.
This is precisely what we think, which is why we exist to document how utterly out of touch the highway code is, such as its complete lack of exemptions for anyone like us doing deliveries in town.
Look at this white van, WP57WGW, parked over a zebra crossing at the bottom of Cotham Hill December 8 2010! Zebra crossings and belisha beacons are a 1930s idea -time to move on!
Look at N&C deliveries truck N6MOV, who know that unloading pallets takes priority over solid white "do not cross lines" and double yellow lines alongside them on the Cotham Hill on December 8. Yellow lines? Obsolete! Time to move on!
Again -what a coincidence- here on Cotham Brow, December 8, Falafel King's delivery van WR58GWG is parked up on the pavement on double yellow lines. Yes, the old highway code says you must not do this, but if you need to get falafels into van, what else can you do? Double yellow lines? Pavements wide enough for pedestrians? Obsolete! Time to move on!
We close, however, with this video of the streets in Horfield round where the 2nd2none car was spotted, giving viewers from outside the city a harsh introduction to this area's problems. The roads aren't wide enough for cars to park two abreast, and the alternative -park on one side walking a bit- would involve walking a bit. As for double parking -forget it! These aren't the wide streets of Clifton.
The 2nd2none driving school must feel so proud as they drive round these streets, seeing what may be many former happy customers, not only having got past the test, but parking in the streets the way people in our city really need to do -even in the parts of town where there are still spaces on the other side of the road.
And of course, if you want to get new customers for your motor vehicles, there is the tilleys tactic, namely co-opting the bike path, footpath or pavement to sell your wares. Every pedestrian whose route is obstructed by a driving school vehicle will realise that driving not only gets them round town better, it lets them park conveniently afterwards, and so will be more tempted to spend the money to learn to drive.
Along dovercourt road, we see a member of Keiths Driving School and a paying customer getting their paveparking right.
Note how
the wheels are all aligned
it is further in than the nissan micra, so should avoid being scraped by passing traffic
the driver has left enough space for a pedestrian to pass
Learning such skills are what makes the difference between a low-end driving school and a high-end one. We just hope that the driving examiner recognises the harsh truth about Horfield's parking problems, and doesn't live a noddy-land world where people park on the roads and even then not opposite junctions or within 50 feet of a corner.
Yes we've seen this car before. The miracle that is an internet-scale index/search engine tells us we saw WR08HXK in exactly the same place in Chedworth Road, Horfield, back in March.
Well, before your customers are ready for the pavements of Monty, you need to teach them how to get on and off the kerb safely, and quiet roads like this with plenty of dropped kerbs are ideal. One issue though: six months? And their customer is still learning? That's not good.
A heartwarming letter from someone on the opposing team reaches our inbox, with photos.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Slug Date: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 4:26 PM Subject: Police don't have a problem with pavement parking To: bristol.traffic
I hope you are pleased that you now have the police on your side with regards to pavement parking.
I reported this car V298FAN at 9 am this morning, and to my surprise found it was still in the same place with no sign of a ticket on 7 hours later, so I phoned up the police and found out they had been to Tilling Road and looked at the car during the day and decided that it wasn't blocking the road and that there was enough room for pedestrians to get by.
I have re-reported it as several parents found it difficult getting their children past this obstruction right on the inside of quite a blind bend. The policeman is obviously narrower than me (must find out what diet he is on), and because he has been provided with special work clothes he doesn't mind brushing up against the prickly beriberis plant (whereas I don't want to spoil my cashmere cycling jacket). The lady on a disabled scooter/wheelchair couldn't fit through either (maybe she could also go on the policeman's diet).
Slug
As usual, complaints from alternative transport enthusiast are a metric by both we and HMG's Minister for Cars, the Rt Hon Philip Hammond are measured: the more the better.
We must remind our supporters that this is why they must attend their local PACT meetings, here the one on October 11, to make our priorities known, and not those of people like this "slug" person, who is clearly wasting police time just when the country can afford it least.
Tilford road is handy for Southmead Hospital, incidentally.
A lot of the cyclists complain about cars parking on the pavement, while we, the majority of the city defend our need to this and complain about the cyclists on the pavement.
But what if those who park on the pavement are cyclists? This car, R471EJW, has an "I'd rather be cycling" sticker in the back of it, up on the pavement of Dovercourt Road.
Do we defend their right to park here while denouncing their urge to cycle? And what about the cyclists? What do they say?
