Bristol - Cycling City - progress?

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Bristol - Cycling City - progress?

12 posts & 9 voices | Started 1 year ago by agentdagnamit | Latest reply from Midnighthour

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agentdagnamit - Member

This post isnt necessarily a critisism, but what has so far been achieved with the huge grant the City received? I've heard that cycling rates are up, maybe initiatives wouldnt really be noticed by existing cyclists?

The city council websites mention new cycle lanes, including Hotwells to Ashton Court (???). there's not a lot esle of substance on there, but maybe that's just poor communication?

Personally, cycling on the Gloucester Road is the same experience as ever, with the exception of the new street signs warning me that I will be fined £30 if caught riding on the pavement. Ironically, one of these is situated at the end of a bike lane that is always unrideable due to parked cars (Venus Bar to Golden Lion for those that know it). Traffic wardens frequently patrol the area but rarely trouble the drivers as they all work in the shops near by.

Posted 1 year ago #
boxfish - Member

Save for the updated cycle path from Muller Road to St Werburghs, I have not seen any significant additions to the cycling infrastructure. Bristol City Council are looking to save millions this year. If they can't match the £11m of Cycling City funding provided, they will be asked to hand the money back. This would be a sad indictment (and a true reflection) of the powers that be in Bristol.

Posted 1 year ago #
agentdagnamit - Member

Maybe the lack of contributions to this thread says it all?

Maybe it was a lame thread....

Posted 1 year ago #
KINGTUT - Member

Not a lame thread, lame Council, useless ****.

Posted 1 year ago #
TooTall - Member

I really think they should have engaged with the employers of Bristol more than they did. It is all well and good to put cycle paths everywhere, but if none of the employers in the city have half-decent bike storage, lockers and showers you're literally on a road to nowhere.
My workplace has superb cycle path access from all directions, totally secure bike storage but the poor locker and shower situation is probably the biggest hurdle to increasing cyclists. That is changing - 2 years late but finally some improvements.
I think they focus on the big headline-grabbing events rather than something like subsidising changing facilities for willing employers.

Posted 1 year ago #
andy_hamgreen - Member

hold on a minute - there have been plenty of signs put up saying things like 'Cycle .....with lights' etc
also there is a jolly big sign down the bottom of Rownham Hill about a new cycle path ...but maybe that's Sustrans ?

anyway - plenty of progress - I mean it is Bristol....in the 25 years I've lived here BCC seem to have struggled to achieve anything.....so the above is real progress....

Posted 1 year ago #
Eccles - Member

New cyclepath along airport road and some improvements to the crossings linking to the malago greenway. South of the river, though, so none of you clifton ponces would notice

Posted 1 year ago #
buzz-lightyear - Member

cycling theft city

Posted 1 year ago #
Mr Agreeable - Member

Look here if you can be bothered (A chunky 3.7 mb pdf about the progress to date).

Posted 1 year ago #
Mr Agreeable - Member

Eccles, Mike isn't Clifton, he lives in Bradley Stoke IIRC?

Posted 1 year ago #
Midnighthour - Member

Local bike lane past the school has been 'improved' however only because it was installed so badly in the first place ie no dropped kerbs and a route that took it swerving back and forth from one side of a road to another with no crossing places.

Lots and lots of money wasted on big glossy metal signs saying 'consultation' followed by 'this will now be improved soon'. Most of these signs were not needed.

I attended a consultation - instead of looking for ideas they just showed maps of all the existing paths they were going to tart up a bit. The pedestrian / cyclist tunnel they said most people had asked for in the consultation instead of the tarting up 'will not be happening for years'.

Bristol bike rental scheme is bust, but little is being said about this. It was doomed to fail anyway as not only were most of the bike chains and handlebars rusty but there were only a few 'stations' and they were almost next to each other making it faster to walk between them than release a bike and re-lock it.

A lot of money seems to have been wasted on visiting and telling individual adults what route to cycle to work. Lets face it, if people cant be bothered to look for a route they are not very motivated.

Some kind of bike loan was set up so that adults could borrow a bike for a few weeks to see how they got on biking - A really good thing. Again, hardly any publicity that I have seen.

Group rides round the city were set up to help people practice cycling - Despite being an interested cyclist I only found this out after most of the events had taken place - no big signs advertising these!

The people promoting cycling visited the local Uni - on a day when huge numbers of students had an end of year work hand in, so were worn out and disinterested or they had already left to travel home for the break. Also none of the uni staff were told the project was visiting so they all missed it too.

On the whole it seems mostly a scheme that purchases excessive numbers of signs, large numbers of banners for the city centre that serve no practical purpose and self publicises how successful it is, rather than something actually useful to large numbers of the public.

Could have done a lot better if their heart had been actually in it.

Posted 1 year ago #
Midnighthour - Member

Oh and the really heavily used bike path near where I work - we keep getting emails saying not to use it as people are regularly assaulted on it. In the last 2 years this has still not been sorted out.

Posted 1 year ago #