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.

 

December Critical Mass

Five bicycles, three skaters and my Brox Compact was a rather small group for the last critical mass of the year. Let's hope we can build the ride back to the sort of numbers we had in the 1990s when we founded the ride in Bristol.

There was one loud trailer sound system playing punk versions of christmas songs and a variety of coloured lights. Unlike the traffic jam last month, the ride through Broadmead was unhindered by cars and was enjoyed by many of the shoppers.

 

After a diversion through Castle Park and across the bridge to the Left Handed Giant we pedaled back over Bristol Bridge,

 

and finished in Queens Square with mince pies and mulled wine.

 

So, I'm aiming to rebuild the Brox sound system in the new year and increase the numbers on critical mass and other rides through my Bristol Cycle Diary project. 

I hope to see you on the rides in 2026. 

 

Delivery trikes in Bristol

 Following on from Delivery quad bikes in Bristol, I've been looking for cargo cycles with one fewer wheel. I've been somewhat surprised at the lack of cargo trikes in Bristol, but much of that is down to the collapse of Zedify which was operating with several trikes in the city. These machines were somewhat unwieldy with wide rear tires and a differential sharing drive between the two rear wheels. Unlike most of the quad cycles they had no suspension and could be quite unstable under braking as the rear wheels locked up. Some of the former Zedify employees have now set up their own cargo bike delivery company, Pedal Collective, a non-profit worker-owned cooperative.

The only other cargo trike I have managed to photograph in use in Bristol is the Urban Arrow Tender Pickup belonging to Emmaus Bristol. Like the Zedify trike this machine has two wide wheels to carry to load, but is more stable because the single wheel is at the back putting all the braking onto the pair of wheels at the front that steer independently from the load platform which is fixed to the rear frame. These machines are far too wide for many cycle tracks and so can often get held up in traffic.

 One trike I was expecting to see in Bristol is the Christiania. A much lighter trike with a front load box with two fixed wheels. The steering is achieved by rotating the whole of the front of the trike. However, these machines are often used for static display, rather than as delivery cycles.

 

Perhaps the most famous Christiania to be seen on the streets of Bristol is Dom Whiting's trike which he uses for the Drum and Base on a Bike events. Read more about it at Love That Bass.

 

Photo by Love That Bass

Delivery quad bikes in Bristol

I have seen quite a number of 4-wheeled cargo cycles in Bristol and managed to photograph a few of them as they are ridden around the city. The most recent addition is the VOK U four-wheeled electric cargo bike operated by Priority Express which was reviewed by Global Cycling Network. The interesting thing about it is that there is no chain connecting the pedals to the drive wheels. All the rider has to do is rotate the pedals and the electric motor drives it forwards. I chatted to this rider who said it was very easy to ride compared to the others, especially when climbing Park Street.

By contrast the EAV has a chain and the rider has to contribute to the effort to move the machine forwards. There are many of these being used around the city. 

 

 

 Used by a variety of companies, from coffee suppliers,

 to other delivery firms,

 and Travel West has this one for free trial.

All these vehicles feature electric motors to assist the rider. By contrast my Brox Compact comes from an earlier generation of work cycles which are entirely leg powered. This machine is around 20 years old and has been used for various events like Critical Mass and carnival parades. I have yet to attempt to ride up Park Street on it...

 

 

The Evolution of Bristol Drum & Bass On The Bike

I joined November's Critical Mass bike ride and was disappointed that there were only seven of us. Bristol's first Critical Mass, back in February 1994, had around fifty people on the ride, and other rides have many more, most notably Dom Whiting's Drum & Bass On The Bike events which have attracted thousands of people.

However, D&B On The Bike didn't start out like that. I recently came across the video of the first Bristol ride in 2021 and that had fewer than twenty riders. It is interesting to see how much of the route was on cycle tracks and pavements rather than roads.

 

Only a year later in 2022 the ride had grown to several hundred people, almost all on bikes and the riders were able to dominate the road space quite comfortably. 

By 2023 the smoke canisters had appeared and people were starting to join on scooters and even on foot. By now the ride is well over a thousand strong, as can be seen from the drone footage at 58:40, and moves far more slowly through the city.

The 2004 ride is much more like an organised music event with many more people on foot and several sound systems throughout the ride relaying the music via a Facebook Live feed.

The most recent ride in 2005 was of a similar scale, but opting for wider roads and a more level route, rather than blocking Park Street.

Drum & Bass On The Bike will probably be back in Bristol in the spring of 2026, so watch out for news of the date and route.

Meantime, the scale of the D&B rides shows that there is the potential grow the monthly Critical Mass rides and perhaps even put on regular music rides.

Given the popularity of Drum and Bass in the city I was wondering if anyone knows whether Roni Size rides a bike?

Kidical Mass: a few photos