[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]

Credit to the author for
Credit to the author for attending the opposition meetings and trying to understand their concerns, but I agree with hp. There has been significant consultation, far more than I remember for any previous local decision, and council elections where the winning councillors supported the scheme.

The scheme also made it to the Mail Online. No link for the usual reasons. The article is a essentially lifted from the Bristol Post with more lurid language (‘human shields’). Comments were 95% opposed to LTNs and 5% probably opposed too but unable to resist racist sneering about the protesters.

[hawkinspeter]

Opinion piece on B24/7. I

Opinion piece on B24/7. I found it a bit placatory towards the people against LTNs, but then I’m just sick of motornormativity driving city and neighbourhood designs. Nobody cared about people not wanting cars polluting our air, blocking pavements, maiming and killing people when building new roads. It’s time for change.

https://www.bristol247.com/opinion/your-say/shouldnt-stop-east-bristol-liveable-neighbourhood-but-have-listen-detractors/

[brooksby]

Evening Post wrote:

“We didn’t know they were coming, but somebody dropped a message on our WhatsApp and people just came out of their homes to stop this,” said Melissa Topping, who is in a wheelchair and lives at Victoria Avenue. She said the Liveable Neighbourhood would cause her huge issues with driving her large adapted car back home on the only route left to reach her house – down a narrow side road into her ‘LTN zone’.

“A couple of the workers completely understood where we were coming from when we explained that this would make things so much harder for the residents to get about,” she said. “We just told them that we weren’t going to be moving, so they would have to go away again, and they did. We were peaceful and they were very nice, and we do feel sorry for them, because they are only trying to do their job, but we can’t let this happen here,” she added.

“There are people who have to take their children to two or three different schools and then get to work. It’s simply not practical for people who need to drive and live around here, and the traffic is much much worse on the roads that everyone is now being funnelled down,” she added.

Ms Topping said she fully expected the council and its contractors to come back at some stage. “People power does work, but they are going to come back and we can’t be everywhere to stop this from happening,” she said. “We know they are going to come back, probably in the middle of the night, or something.”

[slc]

TBH the west (Barton Hill)
TBH the west (Barton Hill) part of the scheme looks like a much larger change than the east (Beaufort Rd) part. Some drivers living in the west will add a couple of kilometres to their journeys including some very congested sections, unless they switch modes. The planners have tried to accommodate this by allowing e.g care workers’ cars through the bus gates, maybe that will prove the right balance in the long term.

When I first saw the scheme plans I did honestly wonder if it would be better to designate Avonvale Rd and Marsh Lane as boundary roads and furnish them appropriately. But of course that would mean taking away much of the car parking, so also controversial.

[hawkinspeter]

Looks like some Barton Hill

Looks like some Barton Hill residents don’t want the Liverpool Neighbourhood or at least not Marsh Lane to be a no-through-road:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/residents-take-streets-stop-liveable-9716152

I’m somewhat torn as I’m all for closing off roads to rat-running, but I also like that style of protesting – reminds me of Arthur Dent lying down in front of the bulldozer coming for his house.

[hawkinspeter]

slc wrote:

slc wrote:

I have sympathy for the sign installation guy. The vegetation is overhang from a private garden, so the sign guy may well be instructed to report only. Incidentally, the bus gate enforcement will not begin right away. Apparently there will be some variable signs notifying that.

I’ve just been up Pilemarsh and there were quite a few cars using it too – I imagine quite a few drivers will get caught out when they start enforcement.

[slc]

brooksby wrote:

brooksby wrote:

mdavidford wrote:

Are you quite mad? They’re the sign installation department – not the hedge clipping department. Where would we be if every Tom, Dick, and Harry took it on themselves to go around clipping hedges? It would be chaos!

<sucks teeth>  “Ah, well, you ‘ave a point but it’d be moranmejobswurf”

I have sympathy for the sign installation guy. The vegetation is overhang from a private garden, so the sign guy may well be instructed to report only.

Incidentally, the bus gate enforcement will not begin right away. Apparently there will be some variable signs notifying that.

[brooksby]

mdavidford wrote:

Are you quite mad? They’re the sign installation department – not the hedge clipping department. Where would we be if every Tom, Dick, and Harry took it on themselves to go around clipping hedges? It would be chaos!

<sucks teeth>  “Ah, well, you ‘ave a point but it’d be moranmejobswurf”

[mdavidford]

hawkinspeter wrote:

slc wrote:

More stuff: now we have some bus gates on Avonvale Rd and Pilemarsh. I have been looking at fixmystreet to see if anyone complains (or applauds) the LTN features, and this amused me

https://www.fixmystreet.com/report/6729314

It shows a brand new ‘no motor vehicles sign’ hidden behind vegetation. 

Why didn’t they clip the vegetation back? It can easily be challenged if the sign is obscured.

Are you quite mad? They’re the sign installation department – not the hedge clipping department. Where would we be if every Tom, Dick, and Harry took it on themselves to go around clipping hedges? It would be chaos!

[hawkinspeter]

slc wrote:

More stuff: now we have some bus gates on Avonvale Rd and Pilemarsh. I have been looking at fixmystreet to see if anyone complains (or applauds) the LTN features, and this amused me

https://www.fixmystreet.com/report/6729314

It shows a brand new ‘no motor vehicles sign’ hidden behind vegetation. 

Why didn’t they clip the vegetation back? It can easily be challenged if the sign is obscured.

[slc]

More stuff: now we have some

More stuff: now we have some bus gates on Avonvale Rd and Pilemarsh. I have been looking at fixmystreet to see if anyone complains (or applauds) the LTN features, and this amused me

https://www.fixmystreet.com/report/6729314

It shows a brand new ‘no motor vehicles sign’ hidden behind vegetation. 

[hawkinspeter]

brooksby wrote:

I saw that article – people saying ‘can we have those planters everywhere to stop pavement parking’ – but I suspect that the writers meant ‘can we have those planters everywhere to stop other people pavement parking’

I thought they were wanting them to stop large vehicles parking – most notably caravans that people live in. As the planters are on the road, they dont necessarily stop pavement parking, but would make it more awkward as the driver would have to turn in to the gap.

Previously, that particular corner of St George’s Park had caravans/lorries all along the park and visibility was very much reduced, but it’s not as though drivers can reach any speed along there anyway as the road is narrow and has a blind corner due to the houses anyway.

 

[slc]

brooksby wrote:

brooksby wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

slc wrote:

It didn’t take long! My second time through and came across a delivery van driver mounting the pavement to get around the modal filter at the bottom of Beaufort Rd. He was quite apologetic but also seemed to think he had no option, even though the delivery address was right next to the filter.

Just the other day, Mrs HawkinsPeter remarked that our road seemed a lot quieter without all the rat-running and there’s notably more traffic queues along Blackswarth Road (possibly also Church Road though I think that may already be saturated).

Meanwhile, here’s a positive reaction to the planters that I saw being deployed next to St George’s Park:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/news-opinion/can-streets-anti-van-dweller-9696482

(I’ve got mixed feelings about moving on van dwellers, but they were taking over that section of the park which isn’t really fair on other residents around there)

I saw that article – people saying ‘can we have those planters everywhere to stop pavement parking’ – but I suspect that the writers meant ‘can we have those planters everywhere to stop other people pavement parking’

It looks to me as though pavement parking on Beaufort Road has increased since the filters arrived. Perhaps drivers think that it is OK now that the through traffic is gone.

[chrisonabike]

brooksby wrote:

I saw that article – people saying ‘can we have those planters everywhere to stop pavement parking’ – but I suspect that the writers meant ‘can we have those planters everywhere to stop other people pavement parking’

Driving is the best thing in the world, if it weren’t for all those other drivers parking antisocially, parking in “our” spot, pulling in and out when we want to get through, driving poorly, making unnecessary journeys and causing congestion … not to mention all the pollution they generate, the damage they do crashing into things AND the potholes they cause.

If only they’d just stop and let us get on with it… (also see the cycle-centric version of “if only we removed all the dangerous / bad drivers we’d have no problems on the roads / people would be happy to cycle there (instead)“).

[brooksby]

hawkinspeter wrote:

slc wrote:

It didn’t take long! My second time through and came across a delivery van driver mounting the pavement to get around the modal filter at the bottom of Beaufort Rd. He was quite apologetic but also seemed to think he had no option, even though the delivery address was right next to the filter.

Just the other day, Mrs HawkinsPeter remarked that our road seemed a lot quieter without all the rat-running and there’s notably more traffic queues along Blackswarth Road (possibly also Church Road though I think that may already be saturated).

Meanwhile, here’s a positive reaction to the planters that I saw being deployed next to St George’s Park:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/news-opinion/can-streets-anti-van-dweller-9696482

(I’ve got mixed feelings about moving on van dwellers, but they were taking over that section of the park which isn’t really fair on other residents around there)

I saw that article – people saying ‘can we have those planters everywhere to stop pavement parking’ – but I suspect that the writers meant ‘can we have those planters everywhere to stop other people pavement parking’

[Author]

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