[hawkinspeter]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/through-traffic-banned-parts-bristol-8295492

This should be introduced towards the end of this year as an experimental trial – I wish it could happen sooner as it covers where I live. We had questionnaires about it during lockdown, though I think that was just about making Beaufort Rd (by the cemetery) one way to motorised traffic.

Topic

[slc]

I have seen long queues on
I have seen long queues on Blackswarth Rd, but they seemed to be dying down towards the end of the last week. I wondered if the queues were essentially due to drivers that that previously turned right onto Beaufort Rd now choosing to turn right at the lights onto Church Rd. Given the volume of traffic coming the other way and the narrow junction, you can imagine the junction capacity dropping from >10 vehicles per green light to 2 or 3.

[hawkinspeter]

slc wrote:

[quote=slc]Some locals (apart from road.cc regulars) like the scheme. Admittedly in the Beaufort Rd section where the carrot (end of what was pretty unpleasant rat running) is large and the stick (drivers required to take different but ultimately similar route home) is small. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/meet-residents-who-celebrating-east-9730539%5B/quote%5D

I think it’s fair to say that there’s more congestion along Blackswarth Rd and Church Rd now, but it’s early on and people are still adapting.

Beaufort Rd seems transformed now from being a major rat-running route to a quiet road running alongside the cemetery that is ideal for walking along rather than breathing in all the fumes from Church Rd.

If Marsh Lane gets converted (I haven’t seen if they’ve managed to do it yet), I bet that will completely change the nature of that road too.

[slc]

Some locals (apart from road
Some locals (apart from road.cc regulars) like the scheme. Admittedly in the Beaufort Rd section where the carrot (end of what was pretty unpleasant rat running) is large and the stick (drivers required to take different but ultimately similar route home) is small.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/meet-residents-who-celebrating-east-9730539

[slc]

brooksby wrote:

brooksby wrote:

… too many people would still rather do the 45 minute drive and complain about it than do the 25 minute walk…

No rounding – it was 26 minutes. Looks as though someone has walked it many times and found the mean to obtain such precision. Not just looked on google maps and decided that was simply unacceptable.

I have some sympathy for the ‘not yet sufficient infrastructure’ comment. The LTN will probably improve active travel within its bounds, but at the west end you are still faced with Queen Ann Rd Tunnel and Silverthorne Lane (quiet, hidden, heavy construction for the last year and the next year), Feeder Rd (heavy traffic, murder lane), or Church Rd to Old Market (heavy traffic on a multi lane roundabout or flooded subways, then heavy traffic).

[brooksby]

And finally: I wonder how

And finally: I wonder how many of the “more than 3,000” signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just people who drive through, or Conservative councillors in Sunderland or something…).

[brooksby]

Also from that article:

Also from that article:

Melissa Topping said “there’s a lot of people round here on low incomes who need their cars for school runs and work”

[levestane]

brooksby wrote:

 

  Problem is, too many people would still rather do the 45 minute drive and complain about it than do the 25 minute walk…

Same for rats (apologies for repeated link)!

“Surprisingly, two of the three rats chose to take the less efficient path of turning away from the reward and running to the car to drive to their Froot Loop destination. This response suggests that the rats enjoy both the journey and the rewarding destination.”

[levestane]

Quote:

… a notorious rat run.

Talking of rat runs.

[chrisonabike]

Neighbourhood: you can’t

Neighbourhood: you can’t change anything because we have a disabled resident!  Also driving children to schools!  People power!

Also neighbourhood: continue driving and parking everywhere making it a PITA (or sometimes more) for the disabled resident, and not safe enough for children to walk or cycle to school.  “Lots of people” power (occasionally sympathetic, well meaning but generally I have to drive / park right here now so it’s someone else’s problem).

[wtjs]

YOU’VE RUINED MY LIFE!  WHAT

YOU’VE RUINED MY LIFE!  WHAT FOR?!

So, like the Brexit vote, the dimwits hit out at some group they have no intention of ever joining- it’s those cyclists and all those expensive empty cycle lanes

[chrisonabike]

But but but it used to be a

But but but it used to be a ten minute drive?!

YOU’VE RUINED MY LIFE!  WHAT FOR?!

And lots of people will be able to say “yes – this thing here is worse for me now than it was before”.  And because human loss aversion and the fact that people make far more noise when unhappy than they do when happy, this will become a “big issue”.

To be fair to them the UK is at such a point of motor dependence / “cultural capture” by the motor and associated industries * that it almost certainly will get quite a bit worse for many people – for a long time – before there is a lot of better.

First – we will need quite a lot of push (negative measures – making driving more expensive, less convenient) as well as cosy pull (nice positive things like cycle paths which are good enough for children to use).

Then – we currently just discount many of the benefits of less driving e.g. less pollution, low level incidental exercise, quieter streets, nicer places, being able to walk easily, more efficient public transport (not held up by cars) etc. Because we don’t notice or don’t do those things, because our current system!

* Even without getting all conspiracy-theorist we are trying to work against the natural direction of some of the most well-resourced, best connected organisations with lots of very smart employees – who probably don’t want a sudden career change.  Although the motor and fuel industries have provided us with several completely real, malicious conspiracies!  However if you want more of that see notjustbikes’ video on SUVs or the dystopian vision of the robotaxi future.

[brooksby]

hawkinspeter wrote:

Also in that article there’s this bit:

One local mum who works in Barton Hill and drives from there to Whitehall everyday to pick up her children from school said she found herself 15 minutes late due to an increase in traffic. She left her work at Barton Hill Trading Estate at 2.45pm but claimed what would usually be a ten-minute car journey or 26 minutes by foot, took her over 45 minutes as a result of an increase in traffic congestion.

So, it looks like she can choose a 45 minute drive or a 26 minute walk. It’s almost as if the scheme is encouraging people to walk short distances instead of driving.

  Problem is, too many people would still rather do the 45 minute drive and complain about it than do the 25 minute walk…

[hawkinspeter]

brooksby wrote:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/liveable-neighbourhood-opponents-continue-protests-9732264

Stephanie, …, said that although she doesn’t disagree with active travel she doesn’t think there is the local ‘infrastructure to support it.’ Like others against the scheme, she has raised concerns about its roll out increasing traffic and air pollution and said she has witnessed an increase in dangerous driving in the last few weeks, including ‘horrific queuing’ outside St Patrick’s Primary School on Blackswarth Road.

“When people are forced to drive where they don’t want to go, they drive more recklessly. With car doors opening and kids running out, it’s extremely dangerous,” added Stephanie.

Photos have been shared on social media of cars driving over green patches on Netham Road to get around queued traffic. But those in favour of the scheme point out that these drivers should be reported to the police before they end up hitting children making their way to and from school and demonstrate the dominance that cars have in our city.

Also in that article there’s this bit:

One local mum who works in Barton Hill and drives from there to Whitehall everyday to pick up her children from school said she found herself 15 minutes late due to an increase in traffic. She left her work at Barton Hill Trading Estate at 2.45pm but claimed what would usually be a ten-minute car journey or 26 minutes by foot, took her over 45 minutes as a result of an increase in traffic congestion.

So, it looks like she can choose a 45 minute drive or a 26 minute walk. It’s almost as if the scheme is encouraging people to walk short distances instead of driving.

[hawkinspeter]

Article on the BBC –

Article on the BBC – “thousands” demand halt:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6296300l05o

Whilst many of the measures were yet to be completed, those that were elsewhere had been welcomed. In St George, through traffic was now blocked from accessing Beaufort Road, a notorious rat run.

Sabrina Fairchild, who lived nearby said: “It was never this quiet before, it was constant traffic. It has created more of a community feel and made it a nicer place to live.”

[brooksby]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/liveable-neighbourhood-opponents-continue-protests-9732264

Stephanie, …, said that although she doesn’t disagree with active travel she doesn’t think there is the local ‘infrastructure to support it.’ Like others against the scheme, she has raised concerns about its roll out increasing traffic and air pollution and said she has witnessed an increase in dangerous driving in the last few weeks, including ‘horrific queuing’ outside St Patrick’s Primary School on Blackswarth Road.

“When people are forced to drive where they don’t want to go, they drive more recklessly. With car doors opening and kids running out, it’s extremely dangerous,” added Stephanie.

Photos have been shared on social media of cars driving over green patches on Netham Road to get around queued traffic. But those in favour of the scheme point out that these drivers should be reported to the police before they end up hitting children making their way to and from school and demonstrate the dominance that cars have in our city.

[Author]

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