COMMENT: Why make life harder for Bristol drivers?
Bristol City Council members and officers will tell you they do not have an anti-car policy.
They say this repeatedly and yet this same collection of people are going to close half of Prince Street bridge to traffic.
This single stretch of road will then be controlled by traffic lights and the other side of the bridge will be given over to cyclists.
In case the city council had not noticed, Prince Street bridge is one of only five road bridges crossing the floating harbour in the south of Bristol.
In closing half of it they are inevitably going to make life much harder for every driver trying to get into the centre.
And to what end? So the minority of people who cycle into the city can use the other side of Prince Street bridge unhindered.
If that isn't a blatant example of an anti-car policy then what is?
This is the action of a council which is hell bent on making life as difficult for drivers as it can.
Rather than understand that people drive in and out of Bristol because the public transport on offer is neither cheap nor reliable.
Rather than appreciate that the people who do drive in each day are vital to the city's economy.
Rather than work with motorists they work against them.
And all they do is promise jam tomorrow.
A rapid bus service but not yet.
Another park and ride site, but not yet.
And the completion of the south Bristol ring road, but not yet.
Meanwhile tens of thousands of people travel in and out of the city each day. Yet little if anything is done to make their lives easier.
The changes to Prince Street bridge will inevitably cause more delays, longer traffic queues and more frustration.
It will do nothing to ease the congestion on our roads and nothing to improve the environment.
It is spiteful, short-sighted and wholly without merit and it should be abandoned.
And, by the way, this bridge was built for traffic – not bikes.
13 Comments
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by Alex, Bristol
Saturday, October 25 2008, 6:28PM
“Also, Ron they seemed to be told to ignore the safe passage and adequate provisions for cyclists.
As Bristol is the City of Cycling, it is criminal that there are no proper cycle lanes around this area and a very small handful of bike racks.
There should be legislation in place that any new build (be it housing estate, shopping centre, road layout) or re-build should have proper provisions for cyclists, just like it does for disabled people.,”
by Ron, Bristol
Friday, October 24 2008, 3:25PM
“As i have mentioned many times when the planners were given their brief for the road lay-out for Cabot Circus all they were told was NOT to help the flow of the traffic. Sounds rather anti-car to me.
I wouldn't mind the council being anti-car if we had a first class public transport system, sadly we don't and until we do you won't get people out of their cars.”
by Mike B, Bristol
Friday, October 24 2008, 3:18PM
“Much cheaper and more effective to build a nice light-aluminium bridge alongside, either connected to it, so it swings for the boats, or higher so people can walk over it when boats pass beneath (except for very tall-masted boats) . . . They used to have a "Bailey Bridge" similarly constructed for years over the New Cut by Temple Meads before the 'proper' bridge was built . . . . . Pedestrians and bikes to use the 'New' bit, and the vehicles the 'old' bit . . .. Job done and dusted, saving ratepayers a whole wedge of cash :D”
by Steve, Southville
Friday, October 24 2008, 11:05AM
“The Council isn't anti-car, it's anti-Bristolian.
I do think that the proposals are a good idea - the bridge just isn't practical for two-way motorised traffic and pedestrians are put at great risk by being so close to vehicles.
However, I do agree with the general thrust of the editorial. The Council is doing nothing to provide a decent alternative to the car and nothing to stop First Group's rapacious ripping-off of Bristolians.
It's all stick and no carrot. Their Local Transport Plan is a complete joke and relies on First buses to get people around the city. And for God's sake I wish Bradshaw and BCC would stop babbling on about "Rapid Transit" - it's not Rapid and it's not Mass Transit, it's simply more ruddy First buses.
Please be brave and intelligent enough to give us a decent alternative to the car like Sheffield, Nottingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester have.”
by GingerRog, Bristol
Friday, October 24 2008, 9:55AM
“The whole of Stapleton Road is lethal too with cyclists on the pavement.”