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