GCN "War of the Road Blocks"

This month has seen the Labour Party blocking the traffic restrictions on Park Street in a move which seemed to be entirely a case of petty party politics, not least because the plan was originally created by the previous Labour administration.

For those of us who have been campaigning for over 30 years for the traffic to be removed from Park Street this was a bitter disappointment. Park Street was the focus of the first Bristol Reclaim the Streets demo in October 1995. 

 

The event was instigated by members of Bristol Cycling Campaign and attracted around 300 people. Park Street was chosen because of the way this beautiful thoroughfare is entirely ruined by motor vehicles, both aesthetically and environmentally. 

The media and politicians have branded the closure of Park Street to through traffic "controversial" and have turned the scheme into a political point-scoring contest. It seems that the WECA Mayor and Bristol Labour Councillors are under instructions to oppose anything that might prove popular in Bristol because the Green Party are now the largest party.

At the centre of this and other transport schemes is Councillor Ed Plowden, Chair of Bristol City Council's Transport Committee and he is featured in an excellent new video by GCN which looks at the way people perceive measures to improve our city streets. It shows how people will campaign against change, even though they are happy with the result of previous schemes of a similar nature in their area.

It is a really good video and well worth watching all the way to the end for the somewhat surprising conclusions. 

It is such a shame that the mainstream media does not give these schemes such intelligent and in-depth coverage. As the title of the video notes:

This Is The Real Reason We Can't Have The Cities We Dream Of

January Critical Mass

January's ride was very different in nature as it became a solidarity ride for Alan Hydes, who died after being hit by a car as he was cycling along North Street earlier in the month.

It was also the day when the M5 was closed because of a "Police Incident"  resulted in traffic chaos, not helped by a home match at Ashton Gate between Bristol City and Derby County.

The beginning of the ride was visited by a local ITV news crew, 

resulting in live coverage in the 6pm West Country News programme.

 

 There were 13 on the ride which somehow seemed fitting.

The ride started out towards the library,

then back round onto The Centre and onto Baldwin Street where the motorbikes started weaving round us.

Then round The Horsefair on Broadmead which was very quiet and the Xmas lights were a distant memory. 

After returning to The Centre via Castle Park, 

the ride ventured out along Anchor Road. 

Here we met the residue of the traffic congestion, sailing past the cars along the bus lane.

Turning left towards Merchants Road we held formation against some aggressive driving 

and weaved our way round the cycle track and crossed the river on the old Ashton railway bridge where the crowds heading to Ashton Court became evident.

It was then out onto North Street.

The ride stopped at the location of the crash and held the traffic for a couple of minutes to pay respects to a fellow cyclist.

The ride then continued along East Street

crossing the river and left onto Commercial Road 

before finishing at The Ostrich in Bathurst Basin.

Despite the rain and the poor road conditions it was a good ride and there was general agreement that now is the time to grow the numbers taking part. So join the Facebook Group and come along to Critical Mass on the last Friday of every month.