Search

Whiteladies Road: a weekday dataset

Posted by Kimberly on Sunday, October 31, 2010

Our last trip down Whiteladies road shows that on a weekend, yes, pedestrian shoppers did hold up through traffic. This implied that yes, the FirstBus/Showcase bus route plans to reduce pedestrian crossing options may benefit their schedules, but we were worried about the impact on us cars getting out from side roads.

This video is different as it's a visit by our expendable cyclist on a weekday morning, down the bus lane from Oakfield Road, and through the Triangle as far as University Road, where they head off. Commentary first, analysis later.


At 0:24 FH56CVV switches lanes early, but as everyone else in the RH lane who isn't turning right also goes left, they are forced to give way to the vehicles in front of them anyway.

From 0:29 to 0:40, a bike lane that even waltham forest would be proud of. Its worn-out nature hints that it's popular with larger vehicles, while the trees keep it bumpy.

At 04:40 A9VNG is in the ASL, but we suspect that it was in there when the lights change. Why the suspicion? One car in the pedestrian area and one in front in the yellow hatched "only enter when clear to exit" area stopping cross traffic from St Pauls Road and Tyndall's Park Road getting across. Incidentally, Tyndall's Park road (on the left) here is no left turn, St Paul's (on the right, into Clifton) is no right turn, so all congestion coming up from the Triangle is Whiteladies Road traffic. Note also this junction provides no time for pedestrians to cross when the traffic isn't actually allowed to drive -if only all major junctions in the city were like this, congestion would be much improved. The BBC offices are on the left, incidentally.

Following the cyclist who is commuting without helmet, body-armour or hi-viz clothing, we eventually discover what is holding up WL-road traffic, it's the "triangle" gyratory system, which our tax-dodger hits at 1:43. The underlying problem is that Whiteladies Road traffic is forced to give way to traffic coming from the right, which initially means traffic from Clifton. Further on, at 2:17 we get held up by traffic all coming into the city from the A4 or the Hotwells's Bridges and then up Jacob's Wells road.

There are four lanes here, one for parking, one turning right at the next junction, and two straight on, but that leftmost one is lost even to vans ignoring bus-lane signs, not just by the police car at 2:41 but by the taxi-rank at 2:53.


WN59UDP is held up by these taxis forcing them to wait with all the in-town traffic, so as soon as they can they cut left in front of the bicycle, through the pedestrians and up University Road -only to find that the Biffa refuse collection lorry is in the way and ignoring the important traffic being held up. Finally passing that, they can sprint up to Woodland Road, where as you recall the Evening Post was campaigning against two paid parking spaces going away, which we felt was overreacting as nobody parks their except arts students, and their tuition fee increases will eliminate that luxury.

However, today we can see that the paid parking area is also popular for parental dropoff outside Bristol Grammar School -and it actually makes for a nice, low-chaos dropoff area. Admittedly, there isn't enough of this short-stay parking right in front of the school, forcing some parents to stop in the double yellow lined areas, but the alternative would be parking on the other side of this (one-way) street, forcing the children to cross the road. Would you want your children to cross a busy road like this? Exactly. Parking on the double yellow lines outside the school entrance is the only safe place to drop your kids off and be sure they get to school alive.

Now, returning to the Whiteladies Road issue, what does the bus plan proposal change on this stretch? The Oakfield Road crossing will be moved further away from the road, so making it less useful to pedestrians trying to walk from Cotham to Clifton or bag. Plus one point. But, this makes it harder for cars to get out or over from these roads, so minus one point.

Heading in to town, the right hand turn to Clifton will be removed for all but buses. This will turn Oakfield road into the primary rat-run option, but as we've seen, the moving of the zebra crossing makes it trickier. What they aren't doing is extending the bus lane any further south, and they are leaving that toy bike lane in there. We say toy as its so half hearted that no rational cyclist will think they are welcome -what with the faded paint and tree roots, but its very presence implies that some people in the city do welcome cyclists. No, better to remove it and put a cyclists dismount sign up.


Entering the triangle is more informative. Congestion is caused here by traffic joining the road from other places (Clifton, Jacob's Wells Road), and whatever is slowing them down on their final journey. There are no pedestrian-only lights or zebra crossings to play with, so there's little that can be done to make pedestrians feel less welcome, no tricks to make the schedule more accurate.

And that's the key problem. The goals of the showcase route are faster bus journey times and a more predictable schedule. Removing and moving zebra crossings will only help with this out of hours, on weekends and midday, because on a weekday morning the problem is more fundamental: Erlang's Laws. Congestion is a result of the ingress rate of a queue being higher than the egress rate. The reason vehicles can't leave whiteladies road isn't that there are vast numbers of people struggling to turn up Cotham Hill (more on that another day), or any of the side roads, it is because the merging of multiple queues at the triangle creates a bottleneck which having one lane dedicated to bus stops and a taxi rank doesn't do much to help.

And do we care about mid-day firstbus schedules? No -and neither should anyone else. People using the bus at weekend and mid-day weekdays are either people who can't afford a car, people with bus passes, or people who have made some ideological decision to take a bus: passengers FirstBus can take for granted. If they want to make money, they need to get the commuter traffic, and quite frankly, changes to pedestrian crossings aren't going to do it. They may help us car commuters by reducing the number of pedestrians and cyclists, but given our dataset implies that the Whiteladies Road congestion is due to problems in the city centre, those crossing changes aren't going to help buses or our cars on whiteladies road at peak hours, which is when it matters to us as well as FirstBus.

Sorry FirstBus, but whatever datasets you have on congestion problems on Whiteladies Road, they were clearly collected by FirstBus or Council staff during their working hours, rather than during am or pm rush hours. This is the only explanation why your proposals don't just do nothing for us drivers while making pedestrians and cyclists suffer, they don't appear to help buses either.

That's the irony there. This proposal has already got the cycling campaign saying "oppose this it's anti-pedestrian and anti-cyclist", it's also anti-car, but we think it manages to be bus-neutral at the same time. That takes skill, that does.

More aboutWhiteladies Road: a weekday dataset

Delivery Vans

Posted by Kimberly

A lot of people complain about delivery vans, but consider this: they are the price of internet shopping. You cannot buy things online and expect them to be delivered by bicycles, so vans it is.

Here we see a royal mail van, an ikea van, and a sainsbury's van edging through Meridian Road, Redland.

These people know the width of their vehicles. Even so, we suspect the IKEA van fears addresses in Montpelier.

This shows an interesting consequence of those people who say "I don't need a car", because they buy their IKEA "malmo" sofas online and have them delivered along with the supermarket supplies and some books from amazon. You may have avoided your own car, but this is the congestion you are creating instead.

Not that we wish to denounce on-line shopping and local delivery. Indeed, we will draw our readers' attention to Bath Ales, who, if you sign up for their email letter, will sell you 12x500ml of their Dark Hare beer for 12 pounds -very good value, with free delivery in the BS postal district, as well as bits of the BA area. One warning though, the van that does the delivery does say "Bath Ales" all over it. This means you had better be in when they deliver, otherwise your neighbours will note a Bath Ales van arriving, someone taking a crate of beer out and hiding it behind a dustbin, and before you get home they will be the ones enjoying a fine stout. A detail to be aware of.
More aboutDelivery Vans

UWE to the Farm pub, by way of Purdown Camp

Posted by Kimberly on Friday, October 29, 2010

Someone posts us this (long and dull) video, with commentary.

They say:
You are always whining about bicycles in your way and how your road tax is wasted on bike lanes, but look at this. At 5pm I can get all the way from UWE to the Farm Pub, St Werburgh's, by bicycle, through fields, without using any tax-funded bike lane, public road or blocking any vans, fifteen minutes door to door. You try doing that in your white van. Apart from the 30s waiting for the lights to change on Muller Road so I can cross it, it's lovely and traffic free. So please, stop complaining so much.
Some of our team members also enjoy the fine beverages served by the farm pub; indeed, one of those white vans may be ours. We also agree, that at 17:00, to drive from UWE Frenchay to the Farm pub will take 30 minutes minimum, by either route:
  1. A4174 to M32, round St Pauls Roundabout to Mina Road and then that new 20 mph zone to the pub.
  2. Down to Stapleton Road then traffic lights and traffic jams to Mina Road.
Does this want to make us get out or van and start cycling? No. What it does is reinforce our demand for a new road from UWE to Lockleaze, and a re-opening of Boiling Wells Lane from Muller Road to St Werburgh's. This will stop both Lockleaze and Ashley Vale from being forgotten parts of the city.
More aboutUWE to the Farm pub, by way of Purdown Camp

Whiteladies Road : offpeak issues

Posted by Kimberly on Thursday, October 28, 2010

We sent our expendable cyclist on downhill run of Whiteladies Road on a Saturday afternoon. Note people with the orange bags. That means small-revenue-sainsburys shoppers, either locals or students. The supermarket relies on a high turnover of these poor pedestrian people to compensate for a lack of parking. However, these people then get in way of us who are driving to or from proper supermarkets.

Put differently: the pedestrians who walk and shop locally not only take up space in the supermarkets they go to, they slow down shoppers who shop elsewhere.

What this video does shows is that at off peak weekend times the congestion is caused by people walking around. Therefore, the GBBN proposal to remove the zebra crossing seen at 1:32 (and implicitly, crank back the crossing time allocated on the lights at 1:28, because now there will be a full sequence scheduling right and left turns as well as straight on) may benefit at this time of the week: the off peak times.

But rewind a bit. Note how all the cars pulling out from any side road rely on the goodwill of cars on Whiteladies Road to get out. Because you may as well while you are waiting -you would hope someone else was as generous back- and because it costs you nothing. If the pedestrian crossing options were cranked back, then not only does it make it harder for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the road -which clearly we are happy with- then it will also be harder for cars to cross the road, unless someone added more traffic lights at these side roads. And we don't want that, do we?

This makes us think that part of the FirstBus GBBN schedule is not just to improve scheduling by removing pedestrian/cyclists holding up cars and buses, its secretly trying to stop cars getting across the road too, because we take advantage of the stopped traffic. There's a price see. And, because the parked cars will be removed, it's harder for you to edge out when making a turn. Instead of being safely protected from bicycles by the first row of parked cars, now you either need to hang back in the side road (as if) or pull out in front of the bus/bike lane and have people whine at you for being in their way.

Returning to the video, note at 1:40 the car double parked on Cotham Hill forcing the other cars past it. Sometimes you need to do that, park next to your destination, nothing wrong there. But if the proposal to remove the zebra crossing goes away, vehicles turning into Cotham Hill from Whiteladies Road, especially those coming down the hill, would pull in faster. The zebra crossing is a form of traffic calming. Without it, it would become more dangerous to double park your car in a popular shopping street, or to overtake such double parked cars.

Again, this is why we are in a moral dilemma regarding the Proposed Bus Route. The key benefit for us would be if it reduced the number of pedestrians in our way, but even we recognise that a limited number of pedestrians actually helps cross traffic. 

More aboutWhiteladies Road : offpeak issues

3D concept vehicles by David J

Posted by Kimberly

Cold-Levian on Deviantart. Some ships.







Keywords: three dimensional modeling digital composite render concept truck vehicles locomotive size beast automotive transportation designer david j cold levian futuristic sci-fi video game film movie transport concepts
More about3D concept vehicles by David J

M5 work

Posted by Kimberly on Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"Paul N" sends us this video of what the M5 was like on October 26 between Bristol and Cirencester.

As people say, where were the police? Yes, there was an accident up the road, but surely one or two could have been diverted to direct people to drive up the hard shoulder and then U-turn up the slip road? Without that, vehicles doing that -such as the skip lorry- are taking their lives into their own hands. We pay our taxes so that we can drive the wrong way up a motorway slip road safely!
More aboutM5 work

New link: road justice

Posted by Kimberly

We've added a link to a new site today, Road Justice.

This is a Canadian site which puts up photographs of the terrible thing cyclists to Vancouver, such as cycle around without helmets. They also have that hard taxpayer/cyclist split that we use, though they don't yet call them Tax Dodgers!

Road Justice! Welcome to the debate about the future of transport in the cities of the world!We have one concern though: are they some kind of spoof? I mean, to criticise a cyclist just for standing on the pavement, or not having a helmet? Yes, we hate them too, but there aren't actually laws against owning a bicycle -yet.

They also ask for money, which makes us wonder if they are trying to trick us out of the money we have left after income and petrol tax takes away most of our earnings for bike lanes and buses. We have had enough money stolen without them asking for more.

Anyway, the link is up there, we are keeping an eye on them to see if they stay consistent and aren't some kind of trick site put together by tax-dodging cyclists to discredit us, Bristol's premier traffic news outlet. The fancy web site design and the demands for money are warning signs. If we think they are spoof, we'll delete the cross-link before long.Credit for the Copenhagenize blog for bringing this site of fellow-travellers to our attention.
More aboutNew link: road justice

Ferrari California

Posted by Kimberly


Ferrari California, originally uploaded by Willem Rodenburg.

More aboutFerrari California

Porsche 911 GT2

Posted by Kimberly


Porsche 911 GT2, originally uploaded by bboland67.

A Porsche 911 GT2 at the 2010 Philly Auto Show.

More aboutPorsche 911 GT2

Southwell Street: the ongoing crisis

Posted by Kimberly on Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Our secret instrumentation of cyclists, with some followup chat, shows us how these people endanger pedestrians and patients on Southwell Street.

Look how they
  1. Cycle along the "pedestrianized" bit of road on Southwell Street, so endangering anyone forced to walk along this bit of road by the no-pedestrian barriers around the car-park entrance.
  2. Pop up on the real pavement to get around the gate completely blocking the road.
  3. Stay on the pavement to get past the van V722LAE parked in the no parking area by the gate.
  4. Leap onto the road and endanger pedestrians crossing the road, the delivery vans, and the cars dropping staff off.
  5. Swerves into the oncoming lane to get past the Ginsters cornish pastry lorry.
In the past, someone suggested to us that we should make Southwell Street the official logo of Bristol traffic, as a combination of a gate to block bicycles and a pavement closed to pedestrians represented our city. Well, it does -these cyclists ignoring the hints that the NHS gives them -that cycling to school, work or the nearby university is wrong- show us the problems we face in our city. What else can we do to ban them?
More aboutSouthwell Street: the ongoing crisis

Observability

Posted by Kimberly on Monday, October 25, 2010

Our complainer from the past, "Slug" says they went to the PACT meeting to complain about some car on the pavement. Apparently the Police actually need to see someone obstructed before the vehicle is causing an obstruction.

This is a useful fact to know. From now on, whenever we park our car on the pavement -such as here BS51VDX does on a build-out by Cotham Brow, we shall wait for some family to get a push-chair past, and get a photograph of them as they pass.

With such a photograph, we can demonstrate that our parking did not cause any obstruction, hence is ineligible for any penalty.
More aboutObservability

Vehicle concepts by Albert Yu

Posted by Kimberly

Al Yu Industrial Design concepts. More on conceptships.























Keywords: albert yu al yu automotive design concepts sci-fi industrial design concept art san francisco pasadena art center college of design graduate disney epcot test track attraction amusement park ride designer
More aboutVehicle concepts by Albert Yu

The cult of YA55VDY and the impact of the Whiteladies Showcase Bus Route

Posted by Kimberly on Sunday, October 24, 2010

Mid life crises. What do do? Sports cars? Mamils? Fixies. No: stalking. It's under-respected, and what the Internet, from Google to Facebook was made for.

We in the B.T. Project have taken up stalking one vehicle, and are pursuing it round the city. YA55VDY: the van that we are proud to have never ever seen parked even vaguely legally.

It's more than just a protest against anti-car, anti-van features, this takes dedication. Here, for example, you could park parallel to the double yellow lines, unload safely and pull out without having to back up blind into Picton Street first. But no, the driver has chosen to park 1m away from the kerb, echelon style, to make a statement. Deliveries matter.

We also have some footage from one of our secretly-instrumented cyclists going down Cotham Hill -you can see the distinctive shape of the van enables our tax-dodger to recognise the vehicle from a distance. This van is now famous!

Now, what's inside the van? We couldn't be bothered to drive over and look, but one of the cycle activists we were haranging here in Monty did -Captain Bikebeard says "yoghurt". Now we know.

In fact, this van is now so famous it deserves its own Facebook fan page. One van, one driver, prepared to stand up against an oppressive state by refusing to park where they make him, instead always -even if it means going out of his way- parking "illegally", as if the state gets to decide where is and isn't legal to park your van.

A few days later, we see it now on the double yellows on Whiteladies Road. 

The showcase bus route proposes changes here, so where the van is parked to unload will become a dedicated left turn into Cotham Hill, with its own light sequence. The Cotham Hill zebra crossing will go away, be replaced by some lights which will allow us to drive through while pedestrians wait to cross (as if we didn't do that already), while the addition of a new lane and pedestrian refuge will make walking across the road harder -and well-nigh impossible for any parent with bike plus child trailer or tagalong, which our secretly instrumented report appears to be doing.

This is why we have mixed feelings about the showcase bus route proposal.

Against:
  • Removes commuter parking from Whiteladies Road.
  • Encourages bicyclists to cycle up and down the road
Pro
  • Increases short stay parking on Whiteladies Road.
  • Removes a zebra crossing used during the rush hour by slow-moving children and students.
  • Adds a dedicated feed-in lane to Cotham Hill.
  • The feed in lane will suddenly abandon the cyclists from the safety of a dedicated lane to a situation where they have to merge right into the Whiteladies Road lane just at the same time that all the Redland Mum traffic turning left is trying to swerve left to get into this lane, so putting off the cyclists from every trying to commute by bicycle ever again.

One of our concerns here is that, in the age of austerity, we don't see why any money needs to be spent so that cars can cut in from Whiteladies Road to Cotham Hill. We force our way through the zebra crossing anyway, so all it does is actually increase the likelihood that we get held up by a red light; removes the option of turning right from Cotham Hill to Whiteladies Road, and makes it harder to get a lorry through the corner.
More aboutThe cult of YA55VDY and the impact of the Whiteladies Showcase Bus Route

Whiteladies Showcase bus route: the implications

Posted by Kimberly

Up the top of the hill, we will lose all day parking, so the commuters suffer.

But in exchange, short-stay parking, so it's a trade off.

Where there may be a clear benefit for us drivers is at Whiteladies Gate, where we have common interest with FirstBus: not being held up pedestrians. Today, inbound traffic gets held up not just by cyclists and traffic, but by one or two cars turning left into Cotham Hill having their turn blocked by pedestrians on the zebra crossing.
Even on a quiet sunday afternoon, hordes of people just walking are stopping drivers getting to important places. Similarly, cars trying to head into town are held back from making progress to the next traffic jam by the pelican crossing, which schedules lots of time for schoolkids and other low-priority pedestrians to cross Whiteladies Road at a crossing we have covered previously.

This is unacceptable -so we are glad to see that the traffic planning department has recognised that the war on the motorist means putting the pedestrian in their place.


More subtly, given that our vehicles too have been known to hold up bus traffic, we are smugly pleased that these proposals seem more focused on pushing the tax-dodgers out of the way of buses than doing anything to make driving into the city by car hard. A lot of important people live up this hill, and they have to get in somehow.
More aboutWhiteladies Showcase bus route: the implications

The proposed Whiteladies Road Showcase Route

Posted by Kimberly on Saturday, October 23, 2010

There's been lots of coverage of Whiteladies Road on this site recently. Why? Bristol Traffic is not a news outlet: it is a documentary, and we were collecting defensible "before" data. The "before" being "Before the Whiteladies Road Greater Bristol Bus Network proposals go through". There is a consultation in progress, they even have a shop for it, here, the one marked "To let" with the shutters up.

What is proposed?
  1. Bus lanes on the inbound direction in the mornings, (the far side in the photo below), and on the outbound direction of an evening.
  2. Restricted parking.
  3. Changes to the pelican and zebra crossings at Whiteladies Gate
  4. Removal of the Right turn from Whiteladies Road to St Pauls Road -except for buses.
  5. Lots of other changes up by the downs.



Currently the parking areas provide excellent commuter parking, but they force shoppers to park on double yellow-lined traffic island areas, as that is the only area left for important people to park like the sports car T4LLO.

The traffic islands make it safer to cross the road once you've just parked your car V259MOV alongside one of them.

All will change. More details to follow.

We are not yet ready to denounce this as another war-on-motorist development, as our research hints to us that pedestrians will suffer the most and cyclists will find what is given with the bus lane is taken with changes to crossings. For some reason the council hasn't come out and spelt all this out, though as it is something that would get us motorists behind the plan, they are missing an opportunity there.

Incidentally, these pictures were taken out of peak hours, hence the lack of vehicles. One point we would like to emphasise is that if you are going to make decisions on how to improve bus schedules and rush hour traffic, then you should collect data at that time of day, go to the site between 08:00-09:00 or 17:00-18:00, otherwise you will be lulled into a naive state of optimism where you think that shoppers and motorists all happily dance around the city waving flowers and being nice to each other.

This is why we are delighted to see that the cycle campaigners are being invited to visit the site between 11:00 and 16:00 on a weekday, when, apart from the school/student traffic after 15:30, there is limited conflict. It gives us hope that the war on motorists really is over, and the council is on our side by giving the cycle campaigners an unrealistic world view.

-----Original Message-----
From: Francis Mann
Sent: 19 October 2010 15:28
Subject: Greater Bristol Bus Network: Whiteladies Rd (Have your say in the cycle infrastructure review)

Dear All,


Bristol City Council would like to invite you to take part in the 'cycle
infrastructure review' of the above proposals. As you may be aware Bristol City Council's Public Transport team have recently started the informal consultation process for the proposed Greater Bristol Bus Network on Whiteladies Road.

The Cycling City team have recently appointed an independent consultant to
 facilitate the cycle infrastructure review of the route and we're pleased to welcome Camden Consultancy on board for the process. Camden Consultancy started off the first cycle infrastructure reviews in the country and have since then conducted hundreds of these reviews for cycle stakeholders and local authorities both in London and elsewhere.

This is a great opportunity to have you say and obtain improvements for 
cyclists along the corridor, as well as having unrestricted access to the project team for these proposals. We are proposing a site meeting with stakeholders at the start of November likely dates are Thursday 4th or 11th November to coincide with the informal public consultation process. Our preference is for 11th as all officers can currently make this date, we would look to have the inception meeting from 11am onwards, followed by a site visit after lunch, before finishing at 4pm when it starts to get dark.

Please could we have expressions of interest and availability by next
Tuesday 26th November. As the GBBN project team unfortunately missed the last Bike Forum, everyone who attends the forum is welcome to come along and view detailed plans of the proposals before the inception meeting and site visit, we will let you know the final date for this as soon as we have confirmed it.

Any queries please let us know.


Kind regards
More aboutThe proposed Whiteladies Road Showcase Route

HSS Hire Bristol: Traffic Calming the cyclists

Posted by Kimberly

Sainsbury's Local is now open in Gloucester Road, so you can "shop locally" without having to go into local shops. Of course, any one who does this will miss out on the pain-au-chocolat which the Bread Store has raised to an art, but sometimes you're in too much of a hurry to queue for them or talk to the staff.

What the new shop does have, and presumably will have the cyclists and students of Bishopston happy, is a contraflow bike lane just next to the shop, here on Elton Road. You can just see it under the HSS Hire van NA09EZJ.

Presumably the driver was worried about cyclists in a hurry endangering these new shoppers, who would be unused to such things, so he has positioned himself for the safety of these pedestrians. The fact that he is wearing hi-viz shows he recognises how cyclists on a the pavement can endanger pedestrians, and how it is important to be visible to them.
More aboutHSS Hire Bristol: Traffic Calming the cyclists

3D concept vehicles by Gavin Rothery

Posted by Kimberly on Thursday, October 21, 2010

Gavin Rothery's portfolio. More work on ships and robots.











Below are vihicle renders from the movie MOON.

















Keywords: 3d three dimensional vehicle concept art model software renders by gavin rothery production set art from the movie moon directed by duncan jones winner of the 2009 award for the best british independent film.
More about3D concept vehicles by Gavin Rothery

Kingsdown update

Posted by Kimberly on Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Shocking footage in Kingsdown, where we can see the paint lines for the resident parking zone going up, even though the zone isn't going live until 2011.

We even have video coverage of a drive-by review of Freemantle Square, showing two things
1. They've even yellow-lined the corners
2. The parking area is to narrow for a premium SUV -it's almost as if they want us van drivers to feel unwelcome.


That's OK, we are used to be hated. And we aren't scared of yellow lines on corners. Indeed, this fellow driver has managed to park on two corners at once
This is something to be impressed by.
If the council had not selfishly put bollards up by the double yellow lines , it would have been able to park on the pavements instead.

While admiring our own upload, youtube recommended this related video, which is quite entertaining, by one bristolcyclista, who is getting pretty irate at WR54HRW for turning over them.

Bristolcyclista -if you had not been on a bicycle, you would not have been nearly hit. Therefore, you are the cause of the situation. You may think "but what would she have done if I was in a car", but the answer there is simple: it depends on the car. Everyone gives way to a battered white van or a 1970s volvo.
More aboutKingsdown update

What cost for others paying the ultimate price?

Posted by Kimberly

Not a lot, fellow motorists will be pleased to hear.

Kill a cyclist as a professional driver (despite previous convictions for speeding and driving whilst using a mobile phone) and just 200 hours of community service is required thanks to Bristol's finest Judge Neil Ford (I am sure the motoring surname is a coincidence!)

That is just double the sentence for beating a cyclist unconcious if they should clip your wing mirror.

If you kill a colleague by running over him in a lorry that you should not be driving because you are blind in one eye and cheated on your eyesight test to get your licence then that is 150 hours of community service. At least you do not lose your driving licence though! Just 9 points and a restriction to cars rather than HGVs - Thanks again by the way Judge Ford for that one too.

Mind you a word of warning. Make sure you stop if you kill someone because you are too blind to drive. A poor motorist who has glaucoma and cateracts will have to serve 4 months in jail of an 8 month sentence for killing a cyclist, obviously not for taking a life but presumably for failing to stop and only being caught as he returned home having attended the meeting he was driving to in the first place.

But despite the minor risk of a slap on the wrists you still need to be careful. Remember there is a fellow motorist with one eye about in Bristol.
More aboutWhat cost for others paying the ultimate price?

Lamborghini Miura

Posted by Kimberly

Lamborghini Miura

1966 Lamborghini Miura
In 1964 the Lamborghini Miura project began.Lamborghini wanted a car with central engine, two-seat, lightweight, low and attractive style. The experienced development team was formed by New Zealander mechanic Bob Wallace and the Italians designers, Bizzarini Giotto, Paolo Stanzani and Gianpaolo Dallara.

The car, named in honor of Don Eduardo Miura, creator of bulls as Ferruccio Lamborghini, appeared at the Geneva Motor Show in 1966.

Marcello Gandini, a young designer at Bertone, agreed to do and drew one of the most beautiful cars in history, despite the strong inspiration from the Ford GT40, De Tomaso Vallelunga and Ferrari 250LM.

1971 Lamborghini Miura
The Lamborghini Miura was 4.37 m long and only 1.05 m tall. He had a long and wavy hood, with retractable oval headlights. The interior was all covered with leather and many instruments in the center console. The space, even for just two passengers, was reduced. Therefore, some buttons like the trigger of the headlights and windshield cleaner were installed in the ceiling. Another problem of the Miura was the overheating of the engine behind the seats. The V12 engine was 3,929 cc, four triple-body carburetors and 350 horsepower. Five-speed manual gearbox.

The Lamborghini Miura accelerated from 0 to 100 km / h in 6.7 seconds and reach 280 km / h.

Because of defects in comfort and durability, Lamborghini promoted in 1969, improvements in Lamborghini Miura, who won air conditioning, power windows, radio, glove box on the dashboard and seat belts for three points. The engine has a new compression ratio. The power increased to 370 horsepower and top speed rose to 285 km / h. The name was changed to S Miura
New changes came in 1971 with the Lamborghini Miura SV (Spinto Veloce). The power increased to 385 horsepower and the car reached 300 km / h.

More aboutLamborghini Miura

Lamborghini Miura

Posted by Kimberly

Lamborghini Miura

1966 Lamborghini Miura
In 1964 the Lamborghini Miura project began.Lamborghini wanted a car with central engine, two-seat, lightweight, low and attractive style. The experienced development team was formed by New Zealander mechanic Bob Wallace and the Italians designers, Bizzarini Giotto, Paolo Stanzani and Gianpaolo Dallara.

The car, named in honor of Don Eduardo Miura, creator of bulls as Ferruccio Lamborghini, appeared at the Geneva Motor Show in 1966.

Marcello Gandini, a young designer at Bertone, agreed to do and drew one of the most beautiful cars in history, despite the strong inspiration from the Ford GT40, De Tomaso Vallelunga and Ferrari 250LM.

1971 Lamborghini Miura
The Lamborghini Miura was 4.37 m long and only 1.05 m tall. He had a long and wavy hood, with retractable oval headlights. The interior was all covered with leather and many instruments in the center console. The space, even for just two passengers, was reduced. Therefore, some buttons like the trigger of the headlights and windshield cleaner were installed in the ceiling. Another problem of the Miura was the overheating of the engine behind the seats. The V12 engine was 3,929 cc, four triple-body carburetors and 350 horsepower. Five-speed manual gearbox.

The Lamborghini Miura accelerated from 0 to 100 km / h in 6.7 seconds and reach 280 km / h.

Because of defects in comfort and durability, Lamborghini promoted in 1969, improvements in Lamborghini Miura, who won air conditioning, power windows, radio, glove box on the dashboard and seat belts for three points. The engine has a new compression ratio. The power increased to 370 horsepower and top speed rose to 285 km / h. The name was changed to S Miura
New changes came in 1971 with the Lamborghini Miura SV (Spinto Veloce). The power increased to 385 horsepower and the car reached 300 km / h.

More aboutLamborghini Miura