[hawkinspeter]

(Work by Lonac at the Old Book Shop in North Street, Bedminster, Bristol)

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/what-can-new-green-administration-do-improve-cycling-bristol/

[quote]For cycling expert Laura Laker, the author of new book Potholes and Pavements, “people need to be given options in terms of how they travel”.

Some oft-quoted facts are that Bristol is the second most congested city in the UK after London, that most car journeys are under five miles and that most of those cars only have one person in them.

“That’s no good,” Laker told Bristol24/7. “It’s just going to result in congestion, which is what’s happening in Bristol and cities around the UK. So it’s a case of prioritising the alternatives.”

This could involve giving buses more priority across the city, with Laker stressing that bus travel is “really important for people on low incomes, who often can’t afford to own a car and run a car”.

Most journeys we make are less than five miles, but in England we currently use cars for 67% of those short trips. What if we could choose to cycle sometimes, instead?[/quote]

Topic

[brooksby]

Laura Laker is in Bristol

Laura Laker is in Bristol today – she’s doing a meet’n’greet/talk about her book at Stanfords (the travel bookshop in the Old City) tonight.

[hawkinspeter]

I’m fairly often cycling

I’m fairly often cycling around the Temple Meads area and the infrastructure is bad enough that I prefer using the roads as it’s so much quicker and more convenient.

As an example, there’s the separated infrastructure along Clarence Rd (A370): https://maps.app.goo.gl/s8FYV6nXbRGBVmXD7

It’s only on one side of the road (the wrong side for most of my journeys) and it stops before reaching the Temple Meads roundabout – just presumably dumping people out into the busy traffic along there. Of course, people will just ignore that the infrastructure is insufficient and then cycle/scoot along the pavement to reach the roundabout. It’s so not joined up that it’s a joke.

[Dnnnnnn]

Some decent quality, joined

Some decent quality, joined-up, segregated routes around and to/from the centre and Temple Meads. The Bristol-Bath route is good until it gets close to the city centre but then it sort of dissolves. There are bits here and there but they don’t obviously form much of a network and often seem to be blocked by stalled construction or demolition. They also switch from shared use to segregated to on-road quite a lot, which doesn’t inspire confidence or clarity.

[Author]

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