School runs, UK vs US

This is a 2003 photo of a 14 month child about to be towed four miles to kindergarten.

This is Corvallis, Oregon, a small US town where apart from a university there is ~fuck all. As a way of getting the child to school, the roads are quiet enough that it's much less stressful than in Bristol. Herel, you can never be sure someone has seen that trailer before they cut you up at a roundabout. Corvallis? It only has one roundabout and you can avoid it with ease.

You do not need to worry about the safety of your child when getting them to school by bike in a town like this.

Indeed, once they are a teenager you don't need to worry much about them on the back roads, unlike near Bristol, where outside town, "quiet" roads like Beggar's Bush Lane are viewed as opportunities of drivers to sprint. In Oregon, you can send your child ahead and not worry.

In contrast, in Bristol, you do worry about that school run.

You want to be in front of the child, to get the cars to stop at the roundabout. But also at the back, in case the threat comes from that direction. It's worse when they decide to cycle to school on their own, as worry about their journeys. It's a relief when they decide to start walking with their mates instead.

But journey to school and back is the only bit of their day you need to worry about.

In contrast, in the US, you worry about the safety of your child in the school. That town where nothing happened was 50 miles from Springfield, OR, where in 1998 one of the high school shootings now considered "small" took place. And its 110 miles north of Umpqua Community College where in 2015 someone killed ten staff and students.

In those sleepy middle-class US surburbs and towns, you cannot trust your children to be safe, because all it takes is one unstable person and a gun and their school ends up in the list of "US school killings"

Britain: we've had that tragedy in Dunblane: fix: no more handguns. Indeed, we have even allowed automatic rifles until an afternoon in Hungerford, thirty-one years ago.

Yet too many people in the US are unable to accept that such solutions "no guns" work, and all they are left with is trying to escalate it. Would you feel safer at school knowing all the teachers were armed? Not really.

Maybe, just maybe, this time, with the anger and voice of the children themselves, things may change.

#NeverAgain

A Death on Brook Road

There's almost no coverage of Brook Road on this site, not because its out of our normal coverage area, but because nothing ever happens there. Apart from one incident where a manic van driver on a phone forced our reporter to jump off their bike and onto the pavement, nothing.

Which is why its so awful to hear that someone died here: Nick Graydon, age 27, died December 9 2017, after injuries sustained from a collision with a cyclist on Brook Rood who had apparently turned into Brook Road from Lower Cheltenham Road.

It happened at 8pm, which is of course dark.

Articles say "he stepped out from behind a van". Which is something we want to highlight, "stepping out from behind a van" is not exactly uncommon in Montpelier: it is also known as "walking around Montpelier". Because key feaatures of the area are vans, people walking, and pavements narrow to nonexistent. As an example, here's a continuation of the previous video, crossing Monty during the primary school run: count how many times somebody steps out from behind a van.

Like we said, we don't know the details. but "stepped out from behind a van" is one of those statements which pushes the blame onto the deceased, like "the cyclist swerved to avoid..."

Anyway, let's see what happens next after this, a tragic death which shocked everyone nearby.

Two cyclists killed in Hanham

As has been nationally reported, two cyclists were killed in Hanham on Sunday afternoon. The driver of the car has turned themselves in.

The thoughts and condolences of most Bristolians, whether they cycle or not, will be with the friends and families of the deceased.

Bristol is a much smaller town than London; you end up recognising and becoming acquainted with many people, just because you pass them and meet them more often. For that reason, its possible that one of the regular Bristol Traffic submitters may know of them -or know someone who does. Right now: uncertainty; the only news anyone has are the snippets that come out on the press. On that topic, the Evening Post has shown the decency to turn off comments in their coverage of the tragedy. Having idiots post comments about helmets is not appropriate or welcome.

For those people outside the city who don't know Hanham, well, it's unappealling to cycle through. Kingswood has long had a tradition of being outside Bristol; Hanham similar -and it's not far from St George -one of whose resident's was convicted last year of a "moment of madness" road rage attack on a cyclist. That's not representative of the area; another way to view it is as "a part of the city that is not yet a cycling city".  The A431 may be a more direct route from Bitton to the city centre, but the Railway Path is preferred by cycle. Even there, the Kingswood stretch is the one where you are most likely to encounter a teenager on a motorbike.

There's no reason to speculate on the killing itself, except we will use that term: killing. Someone made some decisions on Sunday that resulted in the death of two people.

Assuming it was the driver who drove off after the crash who made those decisions, the track record of the UK legal system's ability to deliver justice in death-by-car killings is very awful. Sometimes the penalty can be less expensive than a parking ticket.

We've seen the Avon and Somerset police to be supportive of cyclists in the past, what we shall wait to see is if the CPS and judiciary are also supportive. Certainly we don't think that any crime that results in death -even if is "just" a car accident - should be handled by a magistrate alone.

Let's wait and see.

In the meantime, we extend our condolences to those who knew the deceased.

Kate Alison Wrigley - Killed Sept 21, Ashley Road

When these photos were taken in October, flags and flowers marked where another Bristolian was killed walking across a road  - Ashley Hill -on the border between St Werburgh's and Montpelier. She was killed by someone driving a silver BMW -no further details are public at this point.


There is not even a traffic island on this stretch of road. There's one further up, but not a zebra crossing, even though a lot of schoolkids use it.

Here, although it says "20 mph", is a busy and often fast road. Cars heading up the hill are acellerating up something which, by virtue of the walls on either side "feels fast". Certain if you are on a bike, it feels safer to go on the old ashley road, parallel to this.

Kate lived on Milverton Gardens -you can see how pedestrian friendly that is.
If you live here, there is nowhere you can get to without crossing this road or walking all the way down the hill. 


On our last visit, the same cars were parked in the same places. They must be "their" bits of pavement.

Because this is just within the 20mph zone, the anti-20mph people will cite this as an example of how 20 mph zones don't work. Sadly, in this instance -it wasn't enough.

A darkness over clifton

Aberdeen Road, Cotham. A one way street with the main entrance on Hampton Road, just past the car parked by the dropped-kerb build out with its hazard lights on. A bicycle locked to the road sign. We've covered this road before, mainly on the topic of school runs and parking.

Never looked at the houses much. Student houses. You can tell. The driveway converted into bicycle parking.

But this day: different. A police car with the engine on sits outside one of the houses.

This is where the current suspect in the murder of Joanna Yeates was apparently arrested.

We have nothing to add on this topic; Bristol Culture has done a better local analysis than the rest of the country's press. What we can do is show people what Canynge Road, where Joanna lived, is like. It's never had a mention here before for one simple reason: it's not interesting enough. It's a quiet road between Clifton and the Downs, most notable for providing parking for zoo visitors in summer. Otherwise, sleepy. Or it was.

Now the police stand outside one of the houses; a camera man stands across the road. One person is believed to have been murdered in the house just before Christmas, two other residents have (separately) been arrested and questioned -one of them charged. Whatever the outcome, Canynge Road will be tainted for a long time -like Cut-Throat Lane in St Werburgh's. It has gone from what was a quiet route for cyclists (it's faster to drive on the parallel road as this one is too narrow at the Clifton end), and somewhere for people to live, to a road with a dark history.

In Clifton and nearby, there's now a clear feeling of relief whenever someone who is potentially the murder is being detained by the police: that it is suddenly safer. Because Clifton is a safe part of town, and such things don't happen there, the way they do in Patchway, or down in Somerset, in Cheddar. Things that happen there don't merit national news coverage, despite the grief and suffering the relatives of those people will be going through.

We mourn them all.

Welcome to Bristol, Kayla Maratty!

We are pleased to welcome Bristol 24-7's correspondent, Kayla Maratty, who provides a well argued explanation of why cyclists deserve to be run over in her article "My homicidal tendencies towards cyclists".

Kayla manages to completely summarise how it is bicycles on Whiteladies Road and Blackboy hill that bring the city to a halt, as we have discussed previously. She says

"Part of me would take great pleasure in mowing them down when they choose to cycle in the middle of the road or are determined to peddle all the wayup Black Boy Hill. But obviously I would never do that; I can get by just on the thought of it to restrain my road rage."

We find driving really close behind them intimidating enough. Sadly, it is actually legal for them to cycle down the middle of a single lane road, which Whiteladies is. And when they are going over the Downs, they do need to pull to the right of the left turn only lane, so sounding your horn doesn't help.

Still, we are glad to see your fight against university tuition fees continue. Obviously this isn't an issue for you, as not only will the fee rise kick in after you have finished your course, if you can afford to drive and  park anywhere near the university, then you are clearly part of that set of students known as "well-funded", and we expect your parents to pay for all your living expenses. We look forward to your complaints about how the rollout of the RPZ is forcing you park and walk further. If you do not write such an article, we shall assume that the fact that Woodland Road and St Michael's Park now offer more short stay paid parking than ever before actually benefits you, as it makes it easier for you drive down to the university for a lecture and latte before heading home again, albeit held up by all the cyclists.

Can we take this opportunity to remind our readers that Bristol Traffic is not some satire or spoof. If it were, you'd have to conclude that the whole of the UK printed and online press is also some kind of spoof. The Daily Mail has been going on for over a hundred years now, so its time to own up to being a wind-up, if it really is.


Update 24-Jan: the original article has been pulled, the editor apologises and denounces the bullying by cyclists.

2011: For Auld Lang Syne

A new year has arrived; time to sing the songs and remember those who won't be able to celebrate it. The classic is Burn's poem, which people sing without knowing the words or the meanings.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my jo,

for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp !
and surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Chris Hutt's death is was sad for all of us, here we see him talking to the recumbent riders at the CTC stall in the car-free Corn Street day on Sept 2009. That should have been a warning sign there and then.

At his funeral, he was pulled by family and friends, while others cycled behind him.

We've covered this already [1, 2, 3] -it was a fitting memorial to the man.

However, it's been quieter since then. Less stroppy emails. Less troublemakers upsetting the establishment. Something needs to be done.

Which is why we suspect that Chris would have been delighted by the new Cycling Embassy of Great Britain, created to bring mainstream european cycling infrastructure to the country. Accordingly, we in the Bristol Traffic Project have contacted the embassy to denounce them, and given them our hotline contact details so if they need to be denounced again, or have their invalid assumptions corrected, we can do it more rapidly and directly.

But Chris was not the only death this year, and one of the saddening things in our server logs is people searching for details abou t the sixteen-year-old Junaid Nazir's death on Fishponds Road; searching for answers. There's no answers we can give them, which saddens us all.

Crap Cycling in Waltham Forest, our London correspondents, celebrated the new year with a posting that includes the Sid Vicious version of My Way -lovely! We're going to mourn the past year with a video tribute to Junaid Nazir. Bleak, but his family and friends will never forget him, neither should the rest of the city.

For auld lang syne, my jo,

for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

What cost for others paying the ultimate price?

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.

Death on Fishponds Road

Bristol lost a teenager on Monday: Junaid Nazir age 16, killed on Fishponds Road -in front of his own house. A taxi driver was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, then released on bail. We don't know any other details.

One of our contributors went past the site on Tuesday evening -here are their comments:

This was an awful thing to happen, an awful thing to see. Junaid's friends and family were there -all of them utterly devastated. He left to go to school at Filton College, and instead of coming home after another day at school, he never came back. All his dreams are gone, all that is left are memories.

Every time his family leave the house, they are going to pass the place where this child -their son, their brother, their cousin - died.

It was really heartbreaking to be here, I tried really hard to get a photo of the flower and not all the friends and family, -as that wasn't right. They were very welcoming, but it's hard to cover this. No schoolkids should be placing flowers to mourn the needless death of one of their friends.

Afterwards, I went down Fishponds Road -never fun- then turned into Roygate Lane, then onto the railway path. Suddenly I'd gone from the friends and family mourning the death of a sixteen year old to the late summer peace and pleasantness of an almost Dutch walking and cycling route into the city. Yet what point is it in having such a lovely facility if you can't even get across a road 300 metres away alive?

The whole Bristol Traffic team extends our condolences to the family and friends -it will take a long time for everyone to come to terms with this, and -based on personal experience- nobody will ever really get over it. You can never forget.

We'd also like to hint to Evening Post that when they put up articles on tragic events such as Junaid's death, that either they disable comments or they monitor them so all four regular mad commenters don't just repeat their own prejudices -again, and again, and again. This is not the place for them.

Our normal service will be resumed in a few days. In the meantime, there is a growing monument in Fishponds to a failure of the entire "road safety" industry. Consider visiting it.

Chris Hutt Funeral

Chris Hutt's funeral details have been announced. Cremation, wake, followed by a bike ride

Dear All

Chris Hutt's funeral will be at Canford Crematorium, 1pm on Friday 30 April.

This will be followed at 2pm by a wake at 35 King Street (ground floor) for tea/coffee, etc.

Catering numbers are limited at the wake, but nonetheless please let Chris's son (Chris Jnr) know by email (bathroombuild at yahoo dot co dot uk) or text (07894 164038) in good time if you wish to attend either or both.

Bristol Cycling Campaign are planning a memorial bike ride after the wake to celebrate Chris's life and achievements, taking in the Bristol-Bath railway path.

The date also coincides with the monthly Critical Mass ride so we could look to join forces on this one.

Please send me any suggestions you may have for a route, timing and suitable venue to end up at where we can raise a glass to Chris.

Martin Tweddell

Chair, Bristol Cycling Campaign

Until then, here are a couple of shots of Chris at last year's council elections; he was one of the reporters for The Bristol Blogger, and a fun evening was had by all. We turned up, said "we are press, where do we sit" and got a table to plug the laptop in, free wifi, and enough legitimacy that all expenditure on Bristol Traffic activities (computers, cameras, amsterdam sex tour weekends) could be declared tax deductible. The best bit: getting news out to the BB from the room where the results were announced by laptop, and hearing the twitter fans' phones go off -Chris's included- as the the BB's news feed confirmed what they were hearing in the same room

Below we see Chris with Charlie Bolton, grabbing some food. Professional political parties bring their own edibles and alcohol to these events. Only the Green party would share theirs: even the LibDems told us it was our own fault for not planning ahead. There's probably a message there.

Because Chris knew many of the councillor and politicians at the event, we ended up providing a bit of background info to the Guardian reporter who didn't know the city. If there is one regret here: failing to describe Clifton East as an edgy inner city estate where people were scared to walk the streets at night. Sometimes the truth is best kept secret.

Bristol 24-7, who published a lovely obituary, would love people to take on this part of Chris's work this coming May: a couple of people in every counting station, with camera and laptop, would give the city the best election coverage it's ever had. Get in touch with them if you can help -it would be a great way of remembering Chris through deeds.
 

BristleKRS has listed the local press and blog coverage. Chris also got a mention on Crap Cycling and Walking in Waltham Forest, which would have pleased him no-end, as the identity of the elusive Freewheeler was of great interest.

Finally, for anyone wondering why Chris would have anything to do with a blatantly anti-cyclist organisation like Bristol Traffic, here is a secret. In exchange for technical support related to web browsers (details some other time) -he was our Clifton correspondent! You wouldn't expect us to go there ourselves -there's nowhere to park!

Chris Hutt: died, march 2010

Down at Zetland Road Last Month, we were comparing illnesses. Jon Rogers, has to nip down to the BRI with chest pains, one of our B.T reporters awakes to discover a paramedic in the room on account of an "incident" in their sleep, and Chris Hutt was considering an electric bicycle because of his newly developed Angina.

Sadly, it turns out that Chris's problem wasn't going to cause that much inconvenience. Jon Rogers sent an email out this morning breaking the news that Chris was found dead:

Terrible news

Chris Hutt was found dead yesterday.

Friday 26th February was the last time I saw him, when we were all together at Zetland Road.

John Grimshaw sent me this,

"Cycling has lost a doughty champion. He was also the best plumber in the west!

"I have lost a colleague of so many years, the best of route devisers and cycling companion, and a friend indeed.

"I know he was seen as a thorn in your side, but without his support I doubt that key cycle routes we now take for granted would have been built so well, or even at all.

"His last two messages concerned the ongoing threat to the railway path and the beautiful River Avon route to Hanham. Might you consider as a fitting tribute to this so dedicated Bristol Citizen, declaring the railway path inviolate and rebuilding the riverside path to a standard he would have enjoyed?"

As John says, there is already so much around Bristol that is the better for Chris's work and energy, and those two suggestions would add to his legacy. As far as I am concerned, the railway path is already inviolate, and the riverside path would be brilliant.

My last email to him said, "Aware that not heard from you for a week or so. Trust you are well and taking a well earned break!"

We will miss him.

Jon

Here are some of our photos from the Zetland Road visit; Chris is pointedly refusing to wear hi-viz or a helmet; his bike is the pink tourer chained to the railings.

Chris was not only prepared to argue the technical details of bike/pedestrian paths and crossings, he understood that a junction or stretch of bike lane is meaningless on his own -and that for Bristol to be a city you could live in without needing to drive, everything needed to join up, so you could walk or pedal around the city.

He helped found the Bristol Traffic site, as discussed in an email in May 2008:

I carry around a cheapo digital camera and use it to similar effect, although sometimes you've got to be quick. I've posted a few on my blog , but it would be good to have a site where we could all post such pics, something like "Bad driving in Bristol". It would be a public record which could be referred to the police and authorities

Obviously Chris missed the point, our site exists to praise our fellow drivers rather than criticise them, but we happily accepted his photos, and even have a couple in the pipeline. Chris did eventually come to see things our way, and so embrace our anti-cycling award process which he was unable to give to Jon Rogers:

While most known in recent years for his Green Bristol Blog and regular appearances on the Evening Post, where his role as Agent Provocateur to the E.P.'s usual stance was there to upset the readers, his key contribution to the city was -and will continue to be- the Bristol-Bath Railway Path. With John Grimshaw and others in the Cyclebag group, they built the Railway Path while nobody was looking. It was the West of England Partnership's plans to run BRT down this route that brought him back into the cycling activists world again, and ensured that the current generation of traffic planners came to fear his name. The R.P. not only gave East Bristol a better pedestrian/cyclist route than any other part of the city, it showed the country what a city could become.

He also organised some other rides, last year his Discover Bristol route took in the M32 underpasses, the Frome Valley and led to a lovely showdown between John Grimshaw and Chris regarding routing options.

We shall miss Chris, but we shall also remember him. Everyone who walks or cycles the Railway Path is benefiting from the work he and others put in to building that path, and it exists as a wonderful memorial to everyone who wanted to change our city, to make it a better place.

The Bristol Traffic Team.

Lives and Cost/benefit analysis

Bristol lost three schoolkids last year in crashes. The anniversaries of the deaths of two will be next month, deaths that should not have happened.

The one we haven't covered yet was an 11 year old, Alexander Bjoroy, flying to Clifton College from Brazil. Here's the school with a US flag at half mast. Why the US flag? At half mast? The Omaha Beach landings of D-Day were planned here by the US army. Decisions were made there that impacted the lives of people all round the world. After the war, the US army presented their flag -this one is apparently a replacement which formerly flew above the US Congress.




In 2009, Alexander Bjoroy died because of other decisions made. Der Spiegel has put up a fairly bleak an analysis of what happened on AF-447.

1. With the passenger and freight loads of the flight from Rio to Paris, the only way the Airbus 330  had the fuel capacity for flight + minimum emergency fuel was by pretending the destination was Bordeaux, and then, if when they get close to there and they "happen" to have enough fuel, continuing to Paris. Yet the landing costs and delays aren't included in the schedule, so it's not something the pilots are actually encouraged to do.
2. There was a storm, and without the surplus fuel, the pilots chose to fly through it, rather than round.
3. All three pitot tubes, which measure airspeed, froze. The online computer didn't know what to do.
4. The airplane stalled and fell out the sky. Attempts to restart the flight computer were recorded by messages sent from the airplane's computer to Air France, but they clearly had no effect.
5. The plane crashed into the sea with a force of 36G; so hard the tailfin sheared off. The oxygen marks didn't deploy, nobody had life jackets out and the stewardesses weren't in their emergency seats.
6. Everybody died. 

The coverate of the airspeed sensors, the pitot tubes is poignant. 

• Military airplanes heat their pitot tubes to prevent freezing
• The civilian FAA test requirements predate jet planes and only test for temperatures expected at or below 9km, yet this plane (and all other planes for which pitot tube freezes have been recorde) was at 10km.
• Air France has opted not to spend the €300K per plane needed to add some software that Airbus sells to help pilots angle the plane correctly after airspeed indicator failure.

Given the size of the AF fleet,  €300K per plane probably adds up. But for anyone who lost a friend or relative on the flight, the money would have been justifed. Some questions may need to be asked of Airbus itself, however, and this brings us back to Bristol, where parts of the planes come from. If the pitot tubes are known to fail, and are used at heights/temperatures outside their test space, why doesn't Airbus provide this software for free. Surely it exists to correct a design defect in the plane itself?

[some coverage in the software engineering community. The A320 was the first civilian fly-by-wire plane, and there's still debate about whether it was a wise decision for it, its successors, and recent Boeing planes.

Death on Dove Street

Chris Hutt, that known subversive, sends news of a death last Monday.

Police are appealing for witnesses and information after a fatal road traffic collision in Kingsdown, Bristol. The incident occurred on Monday 4th January 2010 at around 10.56am in Dove Street. A Honda Jazz was in collision with a low wall. The 82 year old driver died later in hospital.

This is sad, and it is something that seemed to miss getting coverage in the other local media outlets.

Dove Street is the semicircular road that goes round the 1970s housing block in Kingsdown. We've sent bicycles along here, we've also seen how cars pulling on to Ninetree hill correctly assume they don't need to look for traffic coming down the hill.

During the snows, ninetree became a sledge and snowboard route, not a driving option. Here is the view uphill, Dove Street is just visible to the left. This picture was taken five days before monday's death; things got icier.

The pavement was unusuable, pedestrians were in the road. No cyclists to worry about, just snowboarders and sledgers. Someone had wisely scraped all the snow off a bit of the road at the base, to stop such snow-users ending up on Stokes Croft.

Off to one side, no obvious cues as to whether Y64PNV had chosen to end up here or been forced that way by gravity. The tyre treads implied that the wheels had been rotating, so perhaps this was a parking action.

Visiting Dove Street a couple of days after the fatal incident, police signs are up and some tape is across the road; now broken. There was more tape on the lampposts at the bottom of nine-tree hill.

Otherwise, no details of what happened. Presumably the car started off on Dove street and then ended up on Ninetree hill, which turned out to be non-survivable. Either the driver deliberately went onto that road, or it was trying to park on Dove Street the way the cars above have, and somehow ended up on ninetree hill, at which point there weren't many options left.

It is a tragedy, and we extend our condolencies to friends and family.

Troy Atkinson update

We've recently seen some more comments on our page covering the death of Troy Atkinson by a hit and run driver in April.

It turns out there was progress in the driver's prosecution: Mohammed Ahmed, 19, of Eastville, plead guilty on Friday to :

• taking a vehicle without consent
• causing death by dangerous driving
• failing to stop at the scene of an accident
• driving without insurance

He took a car that wasn't his, ran over Troy Atkinson at Cabot Circus, then drove off. The court case is covered in the BBC and Evening Post. There's not much to add on the case except that one teenager is dead, another teenager's future not going to be what they dreamed of.

What we can do is get a quick video of what it is like to travel down Cabot Circus from one of our instrumented cyclists,. We believe this is the route that Ahmed took.

The BMW the bicycle is tracking is driving fairly sedately down the road, looking for somewhere to pull in. You can see pedestrians running across the way of this car, including at 0:19 a small child calling back to a parent on the other side of the road -if this journey had a risk of a pedestrian running out, this would have been it.

At 0:55 there's a wave of pedestrians heading out of Cabot Circus towards Quaker's Friars; they've had to wait for a bus and a car, and are now sprinting across the gap between those vehicles and the bike. There may be a build out, but there is no zebra crossing and shoppers are expected to wait patiently. Note how the pedestrians wave a little thank you to the cyclist for stopping, they are clearly grateful.

The junction which Troy was crossing when he was hit is at 1:17-1:20.

This video was taken on a weekday morning, admittedly during half-term. It's a mixture of shops, buses, pedestrians and cars, and you have to look at it and think "is this a good mix?", and "if so, why don't pedestrians have right of way at any of the crossings?" Yes, there are bits of a speed bump there, but why no zebra crossings? Why on a weekend do crowds have to queue up waiting for a moment to sprint across the gap? The only possible explanations are (a) to remind pedestrians of their place in society and (b) FirstBus resisted the idea of zebra crossings.

As well as mourning and remembering Troy, then, consider this: what if this road was made bus, bike, taxi only? And pedestrians get zebra crossings on all of the build outs?

Cabot Circus is One!

We do not denounce Cabot Circus. Yes, it may contain the same featureless chainstores as broadmead used to have, but it keeps the rain out, and doesn't have the traffic jams to fear near Cribb's Causeway. Last week it celebrated it's first birthday. Despite some shops "going away" it has survived.

Time to get down there and celebrate. Except by the Harvey Nichol's Junction, where the memorial to Troy Atkinson reminds us that a road design that allows anyone to drive through the shopping area has cost the city one teenager already.

Further in to the area, you can see how the slightly narrowed pedestrian crossings provide somewhere for pedestrians and vans

There are designated parking areas for disabled drivers, taxi drivers and buses, as well as bike parking for tax-dodgers, but there is nowhere apart from these build-outs for vans. Further down. Direct to You Cleaning Services are taking advantage of this implicit facility.

Interesting. VA06DDN is a vehicle we've seen before. The longer Bristol Traffic stays up, the more data we have on who in our city is doing their best to challenge the greens-and-council anti-car conspiracy.

Remembering Troy Atkinson

It's just over three months since Troy Atkinson got killed by a car while crossing the road by Cabot Circus. Today, pedestrians still cross the junction.

Behind them, there is a plaque, showing that his friends and family remember and miss him.

T.W.A.
Troy William Atkinson
4th April 1994-28th April 2009

Round the area, though, there doesn't seem any attempt to remember Troy by making the junction safer

There is still a road through the middle of the shopping area, one that has "shared use" pedestrian areas which offers traffic the right of way, one that has taxi and disabled parking, through car drivers and various people doing short-stay pickup in the taxi and disabled areas, and the bus lane.

Troy's friends and families may remember and mourn him, but the city, the infrastructure, it does not.

Death by Motorway

Lovely sign up on the pavement under the M32, near Tescos

"DO NOT CROSS M32
3 pedestrians killed
here in the last
12 months
please use
formal
crossing point"

We could be pedants and point out that it really means "Do not cross M32 approach road"

and just like most other signs in the city "no parking", "school keep clear" "speed limit 30", it is completely ignored

As a few shoppers bravely sprint back from the shops to their houses, in between the cars

The interesting question to consider is why are cars driving at 60-70 mph along here?

The roads are set up for it, barriers and signage are optimised for speed, you don't feel welcome on a bike, and pedestrians are simply forbidden. Except they keep coming, and death follows.

There is an alternate option to consider. You could drop the speed on the M32, and then cars wouldn't be pushing to get up to motorway-merge speeds (60mph in theory here), on that road. Instead the cars would only be doing 20-30. Instead of it being a high-speed route in and out the city, you try and make it a low-turbulence, high-throughput route, with safe pedestrian access here and on the St Pauls/M32 roundabout.

Just a thought. Until then, easily updated signs that get ignored.

Pete Taylor

Continuing a week of bleak news, we are saddened to forward the announcement of the death of Pete Taylor.

Here he is, presenting a petition against building houses on Railway Path parkland to one of the local councillors, Faruk Choudhury, who is wearing a genuine Bristol Traffic approved high-viz top to walk down a footpath safely.



Josh Hart says

I'm afraid I have some very sad news for those of you who knew Pete Taylor, the Easton activist responsible for the 'thank you for not driving' signs around Bristol. Pete died yesterday at home- it appears that his bad and worsening asthma finally got the better of him. I didn't know him that well- I moved in down the street 6 months ago, but I do know that he had a really good heart and I always looked forward to seeing him chopping wood outside for his stove. He could be brash, condemning our car culture and lashing out against pavement parkers, but his activism sprung from love- mostly a love of our planet I think (he was the one behind the 'i love my planet' bike stickers).

Pete would literally spend all day writing letters to MP's and councillors on issues of traffic and quality of life and this persistence paid off with the city council's adoption of the thank you for not driving signs and stickers. He told me proudly the other day that he had successfully got the diesel generators banned from Broadmead after a long campaign. Undoubtedly Bristol is a greener, more livable place because of his quiet, diligent efforts.

On a more practical note, if anyone knows his next of kin or any close friends and family, please contact the Bristol coroner. If anyone knows anything about a funeral or wake, please post it here so people can pay their respects. Really we should all get together and have a big street party in Pete's honour. He was a really good guy.

I went to lay some flowers in front of his house earlier and his whole end of the street was clear of cars- no doubt that would have brought a smile to his face....

Rest in peace old friend.

Josh

Pete Fryer, of CREATE, has this to say

I was very sorry to hear the sad news that Pete Taylor had passed away over the weekend

I worked with Pete Taylor over the last ten years on campaigns to promote responsible motoring such as the 'Switch off' and 'thank you for not driving' campaigns. Pete was very active as a deep green in earlier years until asthma got the better of him. He was responsible for introducing recycling at the Glastonbury Festival and planted many thousands of native trees during the 90's. He was awarded the Lord Mayors Medal for his environmental activism in these fields and that of promoting cycling.

Peter didn't just talk green he lived green. It would be hard to find anyone in Bristol with a smaller carbon footprint (and lower energy bills) than Pete and many of us will miss his generosity of spirit and generosity of produce from his allotment - a real love of his life.

Pete made sure that bureaucrats such as myself kept our promises and kept moving in the right direction even if we couldnt move with quite the urgency or speed Pete felt was necessary to save the planet. He produced many ideas and challenged both officers and councillors on a regular basis.

I will miss him as an activist and as a friend.

Pete Fryer

Peter Robert Fryer
Environment Manager
CREATE

I met Pete in the railway path and greenbank campaigns, where his willingness to get out on the path and corner people to get them to sign petitions and come round to our way of thinking was invaluable. In this time of networking, facebook groups, twitter and the like, there is still no substitute for people who will go out there and argue their cause in the street, who will put in the hours needed to get things done. Pete was such a person, and without him. the city is poorer.

Like Josh says, time for a party.

Troy Atkinson memorial walk, 7pm May 5

At 7pm tonight (May 5), there's a memorial walk from where Troy Atkinson was killed last tuesday, at exactly the same time.

The friends and family are walking down to Hartcliffe, and everyone is donating £5 to help cover funeral costs.

At the Lower Castle Street memorial, there's more flowers, more graffiti remembering him, more photographs from family and friends.

There's also a set of markings showing that the car driver came from Penn street. Which raises the question: why are vehicles allowed down here, and why do they have the right of way over all the pedestrian crossings? If the route was made bus-taxi-bike only, except for a delivery period in the mornings -and every crossing was uprated to a zebra "vehicles come second" crossing, there'd be no need to sprint across all these crossings as cars try to force their way through. There's also a lot of disabled parking along Penn Street, but we could retain access there, or improve/expand the disabled parking in the Cabot Circus car park, making it the location of choice for disabled shoppers to stop. That disabled parking provides a lot of temptation to everyone else -especially taxis- to come down here.


7pm, tonight, Cabot Circus to Hartcliffe. That's the "Troy Atkinson" junction, Cabot Circus, to give it its new name -one by which he can be remembered.

Eastfield Road: view from the hill

Eastfield road isn't much fun by bike; there's a steep hill by Westbury that is the most hazardous: narrow pavement, downhill cars and bikes at speed, uphill cars trying to accelerate out of the Westbury congestion. This would seem the obvious place for a crash.
When we heard about the tragedy in Westbury, we assumed that is where it was. But it isn't, it's further back, towards the Southmead/Henleaze mini roundabout. This isn't a fun stretch to ride down, as cars are often impatient, it's hazardous (bends and side roads), yet sufficiently wide that can't easily control the cars behind you by occupying the lane. Even if you are in the middle of the lane they will go past you, upset, causing problems for you on the downhill when you need to get past them.

Here's the view from the pavement looking towards Henleaze and Horfield -where the car came from. Despite stories in the press saying the car "lost control", it looks from this angle that the car driver failed to turn the car into the bend, but instead skidded in a straight line onto the pavement and the adults and children on it.


Google streetview gives you shows what it is like to approach from from the Horfield/Henleaze mini roundabout.

View Larger Map

There's a a traffic light protected pedestrian crossing (sign of problems in the past?) and then a straight stretch with a bit of a rise.

If you follow the road along, you come over the hill, and reach a bend. That is where the crash happened.

While not a police "traffic forensics" expert, they have marked the road up with the same awful painted annotations that Cabot Circus now has -a history of someone's death, painted on the road and pavement. Those markings seem to indicate that the car didn't try turning either before or after it was skidding -it just went straight onto the pavement, going fast enough that the brakes couldn't stop them in time.

If the driver hadn't put the brakes on and skidded, if they had instead followed the turn of the road, then Sam Riddalls's parents, friends and family wouldn't be mourning his loss. So what happened, where did things go wrong?

We aren't skilled to judge, but it certainly appears that speed was be a significant factor in the incident. The skid marks are long, and you wouldn't end up having to hit the brakes and go up on the pavement unless you were going so fast down that road that the bend came up unexpectedly, you couldn't steer the car round it, and using the brakes was the only option that sprung to mind.

As we said at the beginning this doesn't look like a car "lost control", as the local paper is describing it, any more than it would have picked up excessive speed by "accident". This is a car whose driver chose to drive too fast for a city, way too fast, and as a consequence, killed a child.