Home » Archives for March 2011
Friday in Dub
Posted by Kimberly on Thursday, March 31, 2011
Where are the 20 mph zones they promised?
Posted by Kimberly on Wednesday, March 30, 2011
We feel that the whole incident documents a more fundamental problem. The 20 mph zone isn't delivering what was promised.
The opening sequence shows how a bicycle doing 18 mph held up the car, but as soon as they go a little above 20 mph to get past them, there's another oncoming bicycle before the blind zig-zags. Even the bicycle video documents the other problems: the pedestrian and their dog on Brook Hill, the two bicycles on Upper Cheltenham Place, the two kids playing with a Pogo Stick in the road -our road- at 1:14, and then another bicycle. At least the car with the hazard lights on has paid for the right to be there.
Where are the 20 mph zones? The signs show them, but the car would have been lucky to have an average speed of 10 mph across the entire journey. We were promised 20 mph limits, yet it only takes one or two people walking, cycling or even pogo-sticking around and you brought screeching to a halt. We have been betrayed.
Brunel Ford -proud to sponsor the Concorde Way
Posted by Kimberly on Tuesday, March 29, 2011
- The tax-dodger takes the photograph and says this will be the reference "before" photograph: kick-off!
- The driver rightfully points out, no yellow lines -hence legal. 1-nil!
- The tax dodger responds: blocking dropped kerbs are illegal as is obstructing a cycle route, and that they could call the police. 1-all!
- The driver counters with "you are cycling on the pavement". 2-1 to Brunel Ford!
- The troublemaker tries to respond with "that's because there is a large vehicle blocking my normal access point". Offside!
Incidentally, can we say that we agree with all the comments added to the youtube page -our site does not in any way condone walking, cycling or public transport.
Dovercourt Door markings
Posted by Kimberly on Monday, March 28, 2011
You are absolutely right about the location of the symbols on Dovercourt Road they have been incorrectly marked due to an error using old plans. We will rectify this.
We agree, anything trying to encourage such subversive actions as not driving in the city needs correction. On that topic, we are pleased to announce the Brunel Ford are now the official sponsors of the Concorde Way, The extension of the Farm Pub Path. More to follow soon.
Breaking news: parking restrictions encourage higher vehicle speeds
Posted by Kimberly
The important people in Clifton have been successful in adding one-way streets by Clifton-college, so making easier to do Range-Rover and Volvo XC60 dropoff, and held up the provisioning of bicycle parking on the grounds that it degrades the listed buildings. However there still aren't enough places to park our important cars. How to add more parking, without appearing blatantly selfish? The answer is obvious: push for it on road safety grounds.
This is the tactic planned for tomorrow, with the following proposals in the set.
- Lay-by at the bottom of Hope Chapel Hill: Existing parking restrictions encourage higher vehicle speeds
- Pembroke Road (St.Pauls Road end). More on-street parking would reduce vehicle speeds.
We hope all our local supporters turn up for this, and support the proposals and so make sure that we outnumber any cycling/living street troublemakers who sneak in and start calling us selfish gits who are more concerned about having somewhere to park our third car outside our houses than doing something to fundamentally improve Bristol's liveability. Those people don't realise that having somewhere to park our third Landrover -it's more than just a car- does improve Bristol's Liveability. Certainly it makes it easier to walk from the Landrover to our house, and by saving us driving around, reduces pollution and the CO2 emissions from our 3L V8 engines.
Futhermore, once that parking is in, it will be that much harder to put in bike lanes, so any ideas for adding some segregated route up Pembroke Road -our secret high speed alternative to Whiteladies Road- would be killed forever. It's important to do this now, before alternate transport plans progress.
Yes, those troublemakers will say "if we want parking we should have voted for the RPZ", but they miss the point: that would have restricted the number of vehicles we could own. Furthermore, by reducing the number of vehicles parked on the roads on a weekday, vehicle speeds have increased and Clifton is now a more dangerous place to walk. We have a spreadsheet we've just made up to prove it!
Note also that a large number of the other schemes (Ambrose Road, Cliftonwood Road, Alfred Hill, Westbourne Place and Redcliffe hill) are complaints by people about how parking is interfering with pedestrians. It is important to attend to stop this, otherwise the troublemakers will pick up on the complete hypocrisy of pushing for extra parking to calm roads in some parts of the area, while having to introduce bollards and dropped kerbs in other parts. We want parking everywhere, and no RPZ in our way.
Walthamize the planet, and have a nice day.
Stealing our Roadspace
Posted by Kimberly on Sunday, March 27, 2011
[photo by Martin of Bristol Culture]
Red Bull: on the motorists side
Posted by Kimberly on Saturday, March 26, 2011
[photo by Martin of Bristol Culture]
Friday Afternoon Quiz
Posted by Kimberly on Friday, March 25, 2011
Crossing not in use
Posted by Kimberly on Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Cycling Practises Condemned
Posted by Kimberly on Tuesday, March 22, 2011
These government drawings don't come out and spell out the harsh truth: people on bicycles could be communists, and it was the duty of every driver who believed that a strong authority in government was the solution to our problems was to cut up the "traffic dodgers" and discourage them from even trying it again.
Lovely!
Game Theory and Junction Blocking
Posted by Kimberly
In highway-code theory, blocking junctions is selfish and can lead to total gridlock.
In Game Theory, as applied to Bristol City streets, blocking the junction is the correct thing to do. why?
- You know that nobody is going to penalise anyone who blocks a junction.
- If you block a junction, when the road ahead eventually moves, you will get through.
- If the other players in the game -the other vehicles who get time at the lights, block the junction, you don't get a chance to drive yourself, hence will never make progress.
- You are therefore forced to pull out and block the lane -if you know the other players will do the same thing.
- The other players know the same thing, -that your best strategy to make progress is to pull out and block the lane.
- Therefore they will pull out and block the lane themselves, as it is the only way they make progress.
- Therefore your best strategy, given your knowledge of their best strategy, is to pull out.
This is why drivers in the city don't get annoyed by other cars doing this. They'd do the same thing. The only way to change this would be to change assumption (1), that there is no penalty for blocking a junction.
Game Theory: the maths you can play on the commute. Even if you don't realise it.
This is the roadspace they are stealing
Posted by Kimberly on Monday, March 21, 2011
This misses the point. Every bicycle on our road is stealing roadspace just from the taxpayer who could fit in the same space. What is worse, by slowing down the vehicles behind, they are slowing down important people to their speed.
Here is an example, Stokes Croft at about 9am one weekday.
You can hear a car sounding its horn -it's the black golf turning left at 0:12. Why is it upset? There is a bicycle going straight on in its way. It should not be there! There is a small cycle lane in the left side of the road used for parking, and if the cyclists aren't using that, they are holding up people in a hurry -they deserve to be harassed.
We count 10 bicycles going towards town in a minute -one every second. They have effectively stolen the left lane from important people. Admittedly, that left lane is a bus lane right up to the soon-to-open "tesco minimart designated parking area", formerly known as "the cheltenham road bike lane". We know that bus lanes are for important people to drive in or park in, and these troublemakers are denying us this right.
This is the real failure of the Cycling City program, that during its lifetime the number of cyclists on the road has increased, and that by doing so, they are taking away road space from the city, even without any new bike lanes or paths appearing in the city centre.
Bristol Trails Group: forest ride day, March 20
Posted by Kimberly on Sunday, March 20, 2011
Cycling City: pavements and 20 mph zones
Posted by Kimberly on Saturday, March 19, 2011
Fortunately, there is no bike parking to take away space from motorists, which as Councillor Gollop points out, is a key reason for the Cycling City program's failure.
What they have done, though, is dropped the speed limit to 20 mph. The goal here, "supposedly" was to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. The ABD oppose it because, they claim that it will force drivers to look at their speedometers all the time. This is a bogus argument, because the same rule would apply to 30 and 70 limits, yet they don't complain about that. It's also bogus because the ABD don't realise that busy people are too busy texting to look up at road, let alone the speedo.
No, the real issue with 20 mph zones is this: it slows down people in a hurry just as much as if there was a bicycle in front. It may be designed to make people on the bicycle feel safer, but even there are only one or two bicycles an hour going up or down this road, it slows everyone down all the time, so imposing external costs on the entire city. It may not be explicitly removing road space, but it is removing fast road space, which is the real problem
One or two people are bold enough to fight back. As our van was up on the pavement we caught one who is best appreciated in the sound of this video.
You can hear the motorbike engine revving up as they go past the slow-moving cars, cars forced to slow down by anti-car speed limits. You can also hear the 4x4 revving its diesel engine as it slowly accelerates out of the 20 mph zone, as the 30 mph sign is in sight. And you know the rule of speed signs: if you can see a faster one in the distance you can speed up to it. It's not clear this car is doing over 20, it may just be working overhard in a low gear. This is a steepish hill.
We thought this was one of those videos was going be something we could resell to the Daily Mail "how a 20mph zone forced this motorbike into a head on collision with a 4x4", and so provide a compelling argument against more 20 mph zones in the city. But the motorbike eventually noticed the vehicle coming up the hill and pulled in.
Keeping clear
Posted by Kimberly on Thursday, March 17, 2011
More biggerer and betterer.
Posted by Kimberly on Wednesday, March 16, 2011
We have a good start already in the M32 but there's more work to be done if our vision of the future is to come to fruition.
Here as a reminder of why the plan must be seen through is a short film by a young man highlighting where London failed to match up to our vision.
cycling city: removing pavement space from motorists
Posted by Kimberly
The bikelash has arrived!
Posted by Kimberly on Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Here in Bristol, Cllr Gollop is one person who has taken a public stance, denouncing the Cycling City program for spending money, not increasing the number of cyclists they promised, and for taking away road space from us, the important people.:
"The Cycling City initiative brought in match-funding which has delivered new cycling routes but these have largely been achieved at the expense of the majority of road users - by reducing road space or capacity.
This is why Cllr -soon to be Mayor- Gollop is in the lead for the 2010 Bristol Traffic "councillor of the year" award. He's our kind of councillor.
Some of the cycling troublemakers have been asking "where are all the bits of road that Cllr Glossop said had been taken away for bicycles". That's tough -we had to nip out and get one of those cycle bristol maps and do some research.
- Bike lanes? Same as ever: short stay parking.
- Keep clear zones at school? Same as ever, though some yellow lines are going in -lines we can't blame on the bicycles.
- The Kingsdown RPZ? The locals voted it for it so they'd have the opportunity to park after going for a drive. Selfish actions by inner city troublemakers, but not cycling-city work.
- Bike Parking? Yes, this has taken space away, something to cover later.
- 20 mph zones? A topic for another day.
It seems to us, the things that have got worse over the cycling city timescale then are
- The removal of paveparking opportunities
- The 20 mph zone
- The increased cost of driving
- The showcase bus routes.
What then was Cllr Glossop trying to say -what did he really mean? He meant this
To us, the important people of the city, the Cycling City program is a failure because the number of people on bicycles and hence in our way has increased.This is of course the Daily Mail commenter line, but everyone is afraid to come out and say it. Not us, not John Cassidy -and not a lot of Evening Post commenters, but they don't make the proper economic argument. We shall.
It doesn't matter that no direct road space has been taken away in the inner city apart from eight paid parking spaces --the mere presence of bicycles slows us down. The fact that these people pay nothing while the cost of driving continually increases makes us even more angry.
Every bicycle holds up traffic, so while the private costs of a bicycle are low, the external cost is high. A bicycle occupying a whole lane takes up as much space as a car -and because it's going at half the speed, it slows down the cars behind it more than a single car would. The congestion cost of a bicycle is therefore higher than that of a motor car!
That's the real issue with the Cycling City. Not the infrastructure, not just the parking -taking away our pavements. It's the increase in bicycles on what the cycle planners call the key cycle routes to the city, but for which we have a different name: the main roads.
We've been saying this since 2008. Us, on our own, sometimes with help a couple of times a week from the niche papers the Evening Post and the Daily Mail. The BBC, they're on our side with Top Gear, but that's relegated to BBC2 now, and in their news broadcasts they don't often have people that speak our language. Even the AA, the RAC and the Association of British Drivers don't come out and spell out the real costs that cycling imposes on our city. As far as politics goes, we have Glossop and the Ministers Hammond and Pickles on our side -but the only party that wants to ban bicycles from important roads was the UK Independence Party. Nobody else speaks our language.
This is changing. Welcome to the bikelash.
[For anyone wishing to congratulate the councillor, his contact details are online. Why not email him and congratulate him for being on our side!]
GPS: the rest of the press catch up
Posted by Kimberly on Monday, March 14, 2011
This doesn't surprise us, because we made this claim back in 2001, in our article "BMW - No Joy: GPS is a SPOF", using Volpe 2001 as the reference paper. We pointed out that BMW made naive or misleading comments about the reliability of GPS, helping to retain an unrealistic expectation of the failure modes of a tool designed to prosecute a conventional war or the opening exchange of a nuclear war rather than help you get home in time.
We've never mentioned it, but we did get a reply from the ASA on the 29 of November 2009 -a paper one- in which they stated that:
- We were the only people that complained.
- It was meant to be metaphor, and therefore the fact that the failure of GPS could cause widescale destruction to the national transportation infrastructure was unimportant.
Waste
Posted by Kimberly
They are a sop to cyclists, who, we read, are an articulate and vociferous minority.
To the general motoring public, however, they are a waste of good road space. They increase the length of our traffic jams, and contribute substantially to our waiting times at traffic lights. They lessen the length of our 'platoons' that can get through on a green, yellow or red light. They are rubbish.
Which is why we're heartened to see that the two major providers of rubbish disposal in our great city are fiercely competing to get rid of this wasted space.
SITA have the inside, VIRIDOR have the outside. Between them they have the wasted space covered.
And look, not a tax-doging cyclist in sight.
So much for re-cycling.
Optimising the School Run
Posted by Kimberly on Sunday, March 13, 2011
This the Cotham Hill/St Michaels Hill mini roundabout, one of the high points of the city, and wonderfully representative. This is an excellent example of how the removal of traffic lights permits an efficient traffic flow.
But today, cars aren't exiting Cotham Hill. At 0:10 you can see why. The parent on the school run has opted not to pull over into the cycle lane, or even drive to keep-clear area in front of the school. Instead they just stop at the top of the road, let the kid out, a child who can then safely walk to the traffic island, and then over one more lane before reaching a zebra crossing, then get to school. The parent can get to their destination without any detour, without even struggling to get their car out of the bike lane and into the main car lane.
This action encourages physical activity in the child, and reduces congestion near the school. It also enable the child to cross the road safely. At 0:18-0:20 you can hear one of the vehicles behind expressing their concerns over this action, by sounding the horn. But if they were on the school run, why not let their kid out at the same time?
A dooring post mortem
Posted by Kimberly on Saturday, March 12, 2011
Leigh Road in Clifton, a quiet but narrow road and slightly uphill, the tax dodger is doing under 10 mph by our estimate. Watch the red car coming up on the left at about 15 seconds in. At 0:19 you can see the door opening and hear our unexpected reporter being surprised by the event.
The normal advice given to cyclists for road safety is "stay out of the door zone", which we, the road tax payers object to as it means "stay in the way of important people". This video shows another issue. A road like this, there is no position a cyclist can take that is out the door zone, because if they are far enough away from the left side to avoid a risk from a car there, they are in range of the other side. This is despite the parked cars doing their best to avoid such problems by parking on the pavement wherever possible.
The only solution which we can see here is to ban bicycles from such high-risks roads. For their own safety. We shall be writing to Councillor Glossop -the official Bristol Traffic Councillor- for their support.
Job creation scheme
Posted by Kimberly on Thursday, March 10, 2011
Hello to Van Hire Bristol!
Posted by Kimberly
Whoever it was that posted the comment made some well informed comments showing their mastery of the the English language, and their complete failure to read the bit where we warn that anyone posting adverts will be publicly criticised, along with ignorance of the nofollow attribute hence the fact that adding comments to a high page-ranked site like ours does nothing for their own ranking:
Hey I like the post very much. This is really a very good post with very good information.
Thanks a lot for sharing the post very much. You know what I like the title of video very much which insist to watch the video to me. :)
Keep sharing such stuffs.
Well, we don't care whether you like the title or whether you think it's a really good post with very good information, and we shall keep sharing such stuffs without being asked. What we want to know is this? Is the white vanYB06BDO one of the Van Hire Bristol fleet?
Furthermore, if we rent a van from you:
- Does it automatically come with pre-insurance cover for running over bicycles and pedestrians?
- Will you be upset if comes back with scratches and blood on the bumper?
- Does it have a tow bar to provide audible feedback when reverse parking (crunching sounds)
- What driver training will you provide showing us how to drive and park such vehicles, especially while texting?
- Did you actually pay somebody to write such an atrociously badly written comment?
- What did they promise in return?
- Did they read the warning notice before they commented, and did they understand the consequences of their action, namely that they consented to have your site discussed in a posting all of its own?
- How does it feel to have a web page making fun of you (as promised in the comment form) come back ahead of you in searches?
- Given that some people may view the video as portraying a mildly negative opinion of white vans in the city -despite our own view that they are an essential part of the national economy- do you feel that it is wise to have your brand associated with such incidents?
- Did you ask the person who promised to boost your page to read the pages first? Will you request this in future?
- Have you asked your outsourced SEO agent about nofollow tags and the fact that they mean that none of our google pagerank (5) transfers to yours (0) -and that the comments have at best no effect whatsoever?
- Are you aware that because Google own blogspot, there is the possibility that at worst they will use the URLs in postings downgraded as spam to actually penalise such sites in their search engine?
- Have you a way of asking for your money back?
Thank you for your participation in the Bristol Traffic Project.
co-existence
Posted by Kimberly on Wednesday, March 9, 2011
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?
Keeping clear
Posted by Kimberly on Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Here again are the benefits of Cliftonwood life: considerate neighbours. See how well P731EBD and WN56XCJ are staying off the bit of Goldney Road marked 'KEEP CLEAR'.
The BBC: we know they are on our side
Posted by Kimberly
"Whilst we recognise the merits of promoting cycling as a leisure activity for the individual - delivering personal health benefits and helping to improve the environment for all - this form of travel is unlikely in the near future to be a major means of commuting.We ourselves aren't convinced that it should be encouraged as a leisure activity if it slows down important people -and the same goes for walking. There could be designated "leisure areas" -call them parks- to which people could drive and try walking and cycling before driving home.
Like we say, we were a bit disappointed by the radio program, as it viewed the fact that the number of cyclists on the road to meet the ambitious goals of the city as "a failure". The fact that there are more now than ever before is what constitutes the failure in our eyes. It has legitimised cycling in some parts of the community.
We are surprised therefore that the BBC radio took such a pro cycling stance in the radio program, because they are uusally on our side. Top-Gear, Horizon documenting car crashes safety improvements without discussing the fact that some of the most expensive cars on sale have the worst pedestrian safety scores.
They are on our side for the following reason: they are important, so they drive to work. That means not stopping for anyone even walking a bicycle over a zebra crossing, here on Whiteladies Road, just by the BBC offices.
Note however, the driver of F59XHW doesn't drive down the bus lane before the left turn, it always indicate before turning. We would drive down the lane and then turn without indicating, and we think Jeremy Clarkson would too. Signalling communicates intent to the opposition.
The school run in St Werburgh's
Posted by Kimberly on Monday, March 7, 2011
The AA driving school: for the road ahead
Posted by Kimberly on Sunday, March 6, 2011
The "improved" Southwell Street Shared Space
Posted by Kimberly
Southwell street represents all that is inner Bristol. A road on a hill, old houses, the pavements turned into parking and barrier in the way to discourage people from walking and cycling. To attempt to change this is not just an attack on the hospital, it is attack on modern British society!
Keeping the pavement free of bicycles
Posted by Kimberly on Saturday, March 5, 2011
Concept motorcycle design by Jessada Sutthi
Posted by Kimberly on Friday, March 4, 2011
Keywords: digital concept motorcycle chopper bike illustration art design by jessada sutthi udon thani tailand illustration matte painting professional concept artist sci-fi science fiction futuristic motorbike in garage concept
YA55VDY does the 'croft
Posted by Kimberly on Thursday, March 3, 2011
Clifton Downer
Posted by Kimberly on Wednesday, March 2, 2011
We think it's fine when they pick on the Redland Mums, after all if you live outside the catchment area of a school, but manage to get your child into it, you can't be expected to fully understand the etiquette attached to driving and parking in the 'hood.
But over here in Clifton, we pay proper road tax, and like to send our kids to public schools. We all have cars, and nobody important walks in our streets. Yes, poor people, the blind and the elderly may have to use pavements and take trains, but we're far too wealthy to worry about them. Which is why we're miffed that P32OSX and AK55BFY have been ticketed for obstructing dropped kerbs.
It appears that Bristol City Council (who seem to think they own the pavements) want to persecute us for simply parking where it's most convenient.
Of course, parking fines are nothing to the good residents of Clifton. So we'll just carry on.
Southwell Street: Bristol's Shared Space
Posted by Kimberly on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Safe passing
Posted by Kimberly
As you can see the Important Pickup moves safely into the contraflow to pass the bicycle, and then cuts left, so giving the bicycle room to share the ASL with them.
Isn't that generous?