The alleged lack of infrastructure for cycling and pedestrians in Bristol has led one presumably fed up cyclist to set up a Twitter account highlighting the issue.
Like oil and water, cyclists and pedestrians shouldn’t mix, both punished to favour car centric culture. Bristol’s cycling infrastructure is the result of bad planning, illogically disjointed schemes designed purely for show rather than practicality. #bristol #shitfrastructure
— Bristol Shit Cycling Infrastructure (@shitfrastructur) April 17, 2018
Bristol Shit Cycling Infrastructure, with the Twitter handle @shitfrastructure, has been posting frequent photos and retweeting others to show examples of badly planned cycle lanes and motorists blocking the paths. The account admin describes the page as “a showcase of terribly shit cycling & pedestrian infrastructure (abused by motorists) in the city of Bristol, once (allegedly) the UK cycling capital.”
New public realm in the centre next to the cenotaph. Pedestrians on the cycle path that is not clearly marked. Cyclist pushed onto pedestrian area. A complete failure. #bristol #shitfrastructure pic.twitter.com/uYghEhO09z
— Bristol Shit Cycling Infrastructure (@shitfrastructur) April 19, 2018
Another day another lorry parked in the cycle lanes on Baldwin Street. 8.45 this morning. pic.twitter.com/sB6bx6tkR5
— Chris Percival (@sprintstar) April 24, 2018
Numerous posts show vehicles, often delivery vans, blocking access for cyclists and pedestrians, such as the example on Baldwin Street above. And another post (below) shows that the council’s solution was to place a concrete block on the Baldwin Street cycle path in question to deter lorries parking on it, leading to further Twitter derision.
Looks like a temporary solution has been put in place this morning. pic.twitter.com/uX0gDPVcht
— Matthew Pick (@MatthewPick1) April 26, 2018
The page didn’t go unnoticed on road.cc’s forum, and it’s just the latest in a line of numerous social media pages, blogs and even books dedicated to poor cycling infrastructure around the UK; one of the best examples being the long-running website Warrington Cycle Campaign, which has been posting monthly examples of bad bike lanes nationwide since 2001.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
10 thoughts on “Bristol’s poor cycling infrastructure now has its own Twitter account”
My current bug-bear is the
My current bug-bear is the new cycle lane alongside Cattle Market Road (by the side of Temple Meads, going under the bridge). The road has been converted to be one way, but has been blocked for living memory. The cycle path on the pavement is also blocked and I can see no reason why.
hawkinspeter wrote:
The most ridiculous thing about that piece of cycle path, is you can’t actually get on it once you are past the traffic lights (when heading from the station to where the arena may or may not go). To get on the path, you would have to do a tight turn onto the pavement around a blind corner into any oncoming cyclists/pedestrians.
The path itself is pretty good though! Sadly, any of the genuinely good bits of cycle path in Bristol are generally hard to access and start and finish in the middle of nowhere useful.
The tragedy of it is, it’s bad for everyone, motorists included. My mother lives and works in Bristol, she asked me how to cycle from her house to her place of work (outskirts to city centre), no possible route excluded busy roads, so she drives the 4 miles to work instead – this is typical of many commuters in Bristol (ah, Geography A level!).
Canyon48 wrote:
It’s not too difficult to get onto it from the pavement, but after going along it, you’re faced with a huge lump of concrete that blocks it so you have to go onto the road or pavement. The only reason that I can see for blocking it is to stop cars from using it.
hawkinspeter wrote:
*facepalm*
I didn’t realise there were concrete blocks there now! Unfortunately, so many times when I’ve seen decent infrastructure put in place in Bristol, barriers of some sort or another have been erected to prevent (I assume motorists) using it – in doing so, it makes it very hard for some bicycles (though I still see kids riding motorbikes on the paths).
The A-frame barriers are the absolute worst, most are so narrow that normal bikes can’t through. Not to mention the fact that on the shared use paths, they block less able pedestrians.
Shame we all have to lose out because of some idiots!
Mr Pick’s photo – the last
Mr Pick’s photo – the last one, showing a big f-ing block of concrete in the middle of the path… I’d wondered what they were for, had assumed they were some sort of antiterrorist thing: they have three of them where the new cycle lane meets Colston Street opposite the Colston Hall (right next to the new ‘bus gate / taxi lane’). Clearly they’re worried that lorries or cars might decide to just drive down to St Augustine’s Parade through crowds of people, if they aren’t physically barred from doing so…
All of the cycle paths marked out in the shiny new development of the Centre in Bristol look like the picture of the one next to the Cenotaph: no signs, just little embossed bicycle images every ten-fifteen feet, slightly different paving… Nobody notices that they are there, complete waste of time.
And I desperately want someone from Bristol City Council to explain how putting a big main road* across the Centre and removing two pedestrian crossings to get you from the Centre promenade across St Augustine’s Parade to the side by the Hippodrome is “making a safer and more pleasant environment for pedestrians and cyclists” (which is how all that work was originally touted, lest we forget…).
*Just to remind everyone that on the orginal artists impressions, that road was more like Exhibition Road in London: shared space, with flagstones. Not a two lane main road, tarmacced and with one crossing that takes forever…
Grr.
brooksby wrote:
I commute through the city centre everyday (by bike 3 days a week and by car 2 days) and have done for a couple years, I didn’t know there was a cycle path/lane there until I saw the tweet earlier this week!
The re-designed road is vastly better than the old one and it’s made my commute easier (both by bike and car), however, it’s not a pleasant place to be and it’s certainly not good for the vast majority of cyclists.
What’s worst is to think about how much was spent designing and building that “infrastructure” :/
Round the Cenotaph, the
Round the Cenotaph, the expensive blocks with indentations of a bike symbol can hardly be seen now the white paint outlining the bike symbol is washing off. Another example of incompetence at Bristol City Council.
Round the Cenotaph, the
Round the Cenotaph, the expensive blocks with indentations of a bike symbol can hardly be seen now the white paint outlining the bike symbol is washing off. Another example of incompetence at Bristol City Council.
You lot don’t know you’re
You lot don’t know you’re born.
I spent last weekend in Bristol, staying at the Premier Inn near Temple Meads. Went for a ride over the Severn Bridge on the Friday afternoon. A spin to the south early on Saturday AM. And a longer ride to Wells and Cheddar on Sunday.
OK, so it’s not The Netherlands or Belguim, but you want to spend a weekend in Bedford. It’s petty much got zero cycle infrastructure. Bedford Borough Council’s idea of doing this is to just put those little blue shared path signs up on lamposts, without doing much else.
monkeytrousers wrote:
Ark at ‘ee