The Ice Man Cometh

After my petulant outbursts yesterday about Bristol City Council's failure to deal with hazardous pavement icing, even when specifically reported to them, there was the usual exchange of jibes on Twitter which resulted in Cllr Jon Rogers (Executive Member for Transport & Sustainability no less - below) challenging me to go out with him there and then and spread some grit.

I could hardly refuse and so for 40 minutes or so after 9 p.m. passers-by on Queen's Road, Clifton, were entertained by the sight of two scruffy middle-aged men scrabbling around grit bins like tramps scavenging dog ends. We quickly emptied one of the two local grit bins but the grit in the other was rock solid and unusable. Still we managed to deal with the worst sections of the footway and it was gratifying to see that people immediately started to follow our line of grit over the ice (visible to my right below). One even said thank you!

So that's what can be achieved with a bit of gumption. Jon Rogers' has a lot of that, it has to be said. He even lectured me on how to walk on the roads against the oncoming traffic to avoid having to use slippery pavements, explaining that you don't give way until you see the whites of their eyes! And I thought I was the militant one. To Jon even the snow and ice is an opportunity to assert a new paradigm for the concept of sharing the roads. I'm all for that.

Priorities Made Plain

However much Bristol City Council might talk up how important they think walking and cycling, their true priorities are laid bare for all to see when the snow falls. Here we have a view of Queen's Road, Clifton, from 1 p.m. on 21st December, a little more than 12 hours after the snowfall. The main roads are of course clear and operating normally but the pavement in the foreground at the junction with Richmond Hill, the main walking route from Clifton, remains untreated and walkers are already sliding around as the snow is compacted to ice.

This location is notorious for becoming treacherous for walkers after snow falls since it is heavily used, slopes markedly and is shaded from the winter sun by the adjacent block of flats. Yet there isn't even a grit bin at this location. One of the nearest grit bins is located on a traffic island by the Victoria Rooms (visible as a yellow lump in the distance below), convenient for use on the road but hopelessly inconvenient for the footways. Even four days later no attempt had been made to deal with the ice, other than to wait for a thaw, and the pavement remained treacherous.

 Down at the Docks it's a similar story. The south side quays are largely shaded by adjacent buildings from the low winter sun and by 25th December the snow had turned to an almost continuous sheet of ice and remained so for days afterwards. And this at a time of year when a walk, jog or bike ride around the Docks would be a very popular and necessary recreation. But the ice has clearly put so many people off, not to mention those who've ended up in hospital with sprains or fractures. Should it not be part of the duties of the Harbour Master to ensure that quay sides are kept safe for walking, jogging and cycling, the main ways in which most people interact with the Docks?

The Council's policy appears to be to grit and clear the main road network, but not including footways or cycleways, however important they may be. That is simply inconsistent with their new rhetoric about encouraging cycling and walking. This coming week, with sub-zero temperatures forecast for every night and some sleet and snowfalls, will see many more 'accidents' as people follow the Council's exhortations to walk or cycle to work. We have the right to expect strategic walking and cycling routes to be identified and treated in the same methodical way as the strategic routes for motor vehicles.

PS - It seems the Evening Post take a similar view.  Oh dear.

Taxi Attack

One of the joys of cycling in Cycling City is the occasional attack by one of Bristol's taxi drivers. I don't know what it is that makes them so belligerent, perhaps it's being stuck behind a wheel all day, moving yet sedentary - very unnatural. I guess they think they can vent their frustration with impunity on lowly cyclists, which actually they normally can because, as I know from bitter experience, there's no way the police will ever take any action, even if there are independent witnesses.



Tonight's escapade involved taxi no. 258, reg. DG52EYA, driven by an overweight Asian gentleman (that last term used facetiously). I was cycling back, somewhat ironically, from a 20's plenty for Bristol (promoting lower speeds) meeting in town and was just turning off Queen's Road, Clifton into Lansdown Place (right background above) at about 10 pm, when I noticed a people carrier type taxi trying to overtake me on the inside of the bend, on the right hand side, even as I was turning at the narrow junction. I held my position and this prevented him from completing his manoeuvre.

That's when the deliberate harassment started. He repeatedly honked his horn at me and then drove along beside me, still on the right hand side of the road, telling me I should keep to my side of the road! I decided to try to get his number so edged closer to him until I eventually brought him to a stop, after much honking of his horn, so getting myself in front of him and writing down the taxi and registration numbers on the back of my hand. At this point he got out and tried to grab my bicycle and a little tussle ensued, with some rather unimaginative epithets thrown in by him - words I don't accept on this blog but if I said "you f...... c..." I think you can work it out.



I then let him go on his way, having secured the identifying information. But then remembered that I had my camera with me, so set off after him again, catching up with him at the end of Mortimer Road where it joins Clifton Down Road, where he was waiting to join the end of the taxi rank queue. I stopped behind him and took the picture above. My hands were shaking so I'm afraid it's a bit blurred. At this point he got out and starting shouting obscenities at me again, asking why I was taking a picture of his taxi and trying to push me over.

Being a cyclist of many years standing (or should that be sitting?) I'm quite used to handling this sort of aggression, especially from taxi drivers. The thing is not to escalate the physical side (unless you fancy your chances). A bit of pushing and shoving is no big deal once you've calmed down. So I eventually extricated myself and set off home, determined to tell the world about the kind of people who Bristol City Council consider to be fit and proper persons to hold taxi licenses.

Cars have their uses

Recent weather events remind us that cars have their uses in helping to keep highways clear of obstructions and debris of one sort or another. In freezing weather conditions cyclists are best advised to stick to the roads and give cycling facilities a miss because the roads will generally be salted and kept clear of snow and ice. But this is not entirely the consequence of the Council's road maintenance priorities being focused on motor traffic. The traffic itself helps to keep the roads clear by displacing snow, slush and water from the road surface.



Thanks to the Council's misguided attempts to encourage cycling we have a neat illustration of this at Prince Street Bridge (which some of you will have noticed is a bit of a cause célèbre on this blog) as pictured above and below. In the first we see how snow and slush collect on the motor traffic free side (left) compared to the side still used by cars (right) where even the footway is clearer. In the second we see that heavy rain leads to the creation of large areas of standing water on the motor traffic free side (left) but none on the side used by cars (right). In either case it would only require freezing temperatures overnight to turn the standing water or slush to ice to make the surface deadly dangerous.



Standing water on the streets seems to have become a prominent feature of Bristol from about the time that Avon County Council was abolished 13 years ago. I guess a generation of old style highway engineers, who foolishly thought their main responsibility was maintaining the highway infrastructure, disappeared along with Avon and were replaced with aspiring social engineers more interested in how they can bamboozle us into changing our individual behaviour to fit in with their targets for modal shift. Anyway, here's a long standing (well over 10 years!) seasonal body of water, Lake Pembroke (area 21 square metres), to be found at the junction of Pembroke Road and Queen's Road in Clifton.



Picturesque though Lake Pembroke is, passing traffic causes waves to wash across the western shore, totally inundating what vestiges of the footway remain above high water level, so soaking any pedestrians unfortunate enough to be passing. The remedy is of course to unblock the drainage gully located at this point, but that would involve someone from the Council having to leave the comfort of their nice warm dry offices to have a look and actually risk getting wet, which would really be asking to much of the poor dears.

Residents' Parking - the Democratic Option?

Bristol City council's plan to introduce Residents Parking Schemes (RPS) this year is proving predictably controversial. Following the council's initial consultations last summer it became clear that there was a fair measure of support for RPS in some inner city areas abutting the existing Central CPZ (Controlled Parking Zone), particularly Kingsdown, Cliftonwood and parts of Clifton.



These areas suffer from high levels of parking by commuters displaced from the city centre by the cost of parking in the Central CPZ. Residents and visitors alike find it extremely difficult to find parking spaces in those areas and illegal, obstructive and arguably dangerous parking is rife. In addition the levels of car ownership within some of these areas, where most houses have been converted into flats, may well exceed what is available even without commuters. So it is not surprising that there is a support for RPS.

However there remain a substantial minority in the proposed RPS areas who are opposed to the idea and many outside the proposed RPS areas who also oppose the idea because of the knock-on effects on their areas as parking is displaced outwards. At the same time there is also a substantial minority outside these areas who support the idea and want to be included, for much the same reason, including this blogger.



There is evidence of building resentment between the pro RPS and anti RPS camps with rival web sites and rival leafleting taking place. The divisions have been amusingly characterised on Bristol Traffic in sectarian terms. The next big confrontation will be on Monday 5th January when the RPS is reconsidered by a Council committee following a call-in decision by the Conservatives last month. Both camps are expected to turn out in force to bolster their positions, so it should be good for entertainment value.

All of which led me to wonder if there was a less divisive, more democratic option whereby people could opt in or out of the RPS on an individual household basis rather than the currently planned collective area basis which is bound to cause resentment. Of course individual households will be able to choose whether to sign up to the RPS and thereby have access to the controlled parking spaces within the area under the present proposals, but the provision of controlled parking spaces will be all-or-nothing, within or without the defined zones.



But what if the provision of controlled parking spaces was made proportional to demand? Suppose 50% of households in a particular area want to opt in to RPS, why couldn't an equal number of controlled parking spaces be provided, only available to those household who have chosen to pay to join the RPS? Those households who choose to remain out of the RPS will continue to compete for the remaining uncontrolled spaces as at present.

Some or all of the controlled parking spaces could double up as Pay-and-Display spaces as in the existing Central CPZ to make better use of any spaces unused during the day. That would help address the visitor parking issue. Pay-and-Display charges would have to remain high (£1 per hour?) through the evenings and week-ends (unlike in the existing CPZ) to ensure that spaces remain available to RPS residents at these times.



Signing of the RPS may be more complicated than with an all-or-nothing approach, but if so that is something that could be resolved in due course with appropriate changes to the regulations. Other than that I can't think of any significant objection, other than it being an innovative approach (shock, horror). Of course there's no chance of the Council giving this option serious consideration unless pressured to do so by the public, so it's up to you lot. Is it worth a look, to avoid a lot of resentment and unpleasantness creating rifts in our communities?

Illegally parked cars pictured - P939MLX, VD05CTE, LD54ZPY, WU54NXW

Better in than out

The news that Bristol is set to go ahead with Residents Parking Schemes (RPS), which leaked out last week thanks to an injudicious blogger, is forcing car owners in Cotham and Clifton (see proposed RPS zone below) to have a serious rethink about their position. It's one thing to vote for or against RPS when none are in existence, quite another when you know that the streets near you are going to have one, displacing much of their parking in your direction!



The displacement of parking from RPS zones will be much greater than most people realise. Not only will there be the commuter/visitor parking targeted, but also all the illegal parking which is currently tolerated, including parking near corners and of course on pavements (at least we hope). Many streets which currently have parking on both sides by 'virtue' of pavement parking may find that they will only have designated parking on one side under RPS. Plus designated 'Pay & Display' places will be taken out of what's left for residents.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm all in favour of that. But adjacent areas aren't going to know what hits them. And there's more. The areas selected for the first RPS zones contain a lot of houses converted to flats and Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), so it's unlikely that more than one permit will be available per household. So what will those households with second or third cars do? Why, park outside the RPS zone of course. In some cases these residents vehicles may not be used much more than once a week, but they will be parked permanently in the streets just outside the zone.



So the worst outcome for anyone with a vehicle to park on-street (which includes me) is to be outside but within half a mile of an RPS zone. I don't suppose I'm the only person in Clifton or Cotham (proposed RPS zone above) with enough brains to work that one out, so as the truth dawns we can expect a bit of a scramble to get included in the pilot schemes. It's also clear that enforcement of parking regulations is only going to happen in RPS zones so even non car owners have a vested interest in being in one.

To explore the reasoning behind this from a somewhat cynical perspective see James Barlow and The Prisoner's Dilemma and Salami Tactics. There are also interesting observations on RPS over at Bristol Traffic, who have kindly made the maps shown available for download. Long live the fraternity of bloggers.

Welcome to Southville Roads

I'm not sure if I started it all back on May 18th, but some of my earliest sidebar posts were pictures of badly parked cars, followed by my first blog on parking on 1st June. The excellent Bristol Traffic promptly took up the theme and has since turned it into an art form with creative sarcasm. Now my Google searches have picked up another blog on the same theme - Southville Roads - started at the beginning of September. I've added a link to my sidebar.



I like his style (assuming it's a he - it usually is since women generally have better things to do with their time than vent their frustrations via a blog), not quite as wryly detached as Bristol Traffic but still witty and with the anger more evident. That's my baby.

So that's Southville covered and Cotham/Clifton tends to feature in Bristol Traffic, leaving 30 odd wards still crying out for their own version of Bristol Traffic. Blogspot blogs are very simple to set up and cost nothing in money (although plenty of time, once you get addicted), so how about it before the market gets saturated?