The Battle of the Bearpit Continues

We are pleased to have another photo from "TH", who is rapidly becoming out city-centre correspondent, today with another "Bearpit Incident", this one being rated as "minor" in the international Bearpit Incident Scale.

Apparently the Snap-on van was trying to cut into the road running into Park Row, when the car which was following the markings on the road went ahead and followed the markings on the road, forcing the van to cancel its plan. The van driver is apparently making their views known to the driver of the car.

No, this is not the Bristol Traffic van. Furthermore, the tactic of staying the right hand lane all the way from the end of the M32 to this roundabout is effective as it is the least congested, especially at the bearpit roundabout itself. but you should start to cut in earlier, once the lights from newfoundland way go green, then stay in the right of the two lanes past the bus station -so avoiding any waiting buses. You should only swerve into the left hand lane after passing the bus station.

This is one of the problems of driving like a local in Bristol: you have to know the real solutions to every junction, not what is painted on the ground, which are merely hints for tourists.

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Left Hook at Kellaway Building Supplies

A tax-dodging troublemaker emails us this video to say "Is this white van DK04TBX that nearly ran me over on June 10 in its rush to get to Kellaway Building Supplies on Shaldon Road yours?"

Here is the response composed by our lawyers

• Askmid says this vehicle is a VW Transport T30TDi. As the Bristol Traffic Team's white van is a Ford Transit at least ten years older, we deny responsibility.
• We think all criticism of this van is unfounded, as by accelerating past the bicycle before cutting over it, it left plenty of room.
• By indicating its intent to turn left while it went past the bicycle, the cyclist had plenty of time to take evasive action.
• Kellaway Building supplies plays a key role in supplying everything a white van in the building trade needs apart from copies of the Sun and cans of Red Bull. As the Bristol Traffic van is a key part of the Bristol sex industry supply chain, Kellaway Building Supplies rarely appears in our list of destinations, apart from when meeting the needs of an individual with an obsession about loft insulation. A superinjunction prevents us identifying the specific board members of one of our local football teams.

We trust that these answers are satisfactory.

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co-existence

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?

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Kingsdown update

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.

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Pedestrian plays Frogger

We like the site Fight Bad Driving ; it gives us ideas. But where do you see them denounce pedestrians? Never. The AA does, as usual, months behind us, and then only for not paying attention to our midlife-crisis sports cars or our parental-crisis 4x4s. We, are the only site prepared to come out and denounce pedestrians just for being there, in our way, on the pavement, the zebra crossings, and acting like these places belong to them, instead of us, the tax paying motorist.

We are pleased, therefore, to get a new video with commentary from Rhode Long, showing why pedestrians and bicycles together are a danger to our vehicles:


Rhode says:

If pedestrians are going to jump red lights then they should do so when there are not cyclists around. Had this one on Southmead Road been a second earlier it might have resulted in the cycle swerving into the side of my car. Dents from people pull out quite easily but a cycle is full of pointy metal pieces that will cause scratches to the paintwork and necessitate a re-spray. 

We concur. And neither of them would have been insured, would they? Did that pedestrian have a helmet? A license? They shouldn't be allowed out.

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