Ismail Mohammad pushes a buggy down the centre of a narrow road in east Bristol. His two sons stay close as vehicles could come from either direction at any moment. “There are cars [parked] on the pavement. We have to go on the road,” says Mohammad as he hurries to the boys’ primary school in Easton. “It’s dangerous because cars sometimes come fast through here.”
What in tarnation ? What a sorry state of affairs. Good luck to the council !
Bryher has little sympathy for drivers who claim they must park on pavements on narrow roads. “You need to park somewhere else instead … there are enough [spaces] for everyone to park in the city,” he says. “It’s just that you might have to park further away and you might have to consider whether you need a car.
Indeed
Nice to see my home city here! As a resident for almost forty years I can give some context.
Sadly, cars are necessary in Bristol. Public transport has been a monopoly for far too long, and getting anywhere is both expensive and unreliable. On no less than two occasions I’ve watched as someone breaks down into tears on the bus because they’re late to work for the last time, because a 25 min car journey and a 45 minutes bike ride has taken 90 mins+. We are big on cycling, but when you bear in mind that parking is nonexistent and Bristol is very hilly, it paints a picture where cycling is basically the only cheap way to get around.
We have a lot of gammons here, but Bristol is mostly a progressive city, and as someone with a young child it isn’t uncommon for cars to be on pavements. It’s absolutely the right step, but with ULEZ, residents parking charges, 20 mph lanes, traffic slowdown measures, and simple roadworks that can often take 18-24 months, motorists also have every reason to be pissed too. I appreciate where I’m posting this, but ultimately Bristol just likes to ignore the impact of cars instead of leaning one way or another - and it ultimately just pisses off motorists to make everything a vendetta.
What Bristol needs is another form of public transport that isn’t buses. I hate to say it because he was a corrupt cunt, but Marvin Rees’ subway idea was IMO the only way to solve this. Add it to the current train lines, add stations to the centre, and pay it off over 50-60 years with the construction company footing the bill and getting the proceeds + interest if they can build lines asap. I’d go as far as to way to also build underground cycle lanes too, so that cyclists can cycle without fear of shitty roads and dangerous cars.
The statements about how much people just have to have their cars parked everywhere because there’s not enough space for their cars so they need to take over everything for the cars is scary. Didn’t the city exist before cars were invented? Maybe there’s ways to live without the car at all times?
