Tuesday 30 December 2008

plenty of parking

Ha! That's what "off-road" means!


I used to know this artistic and creative bloke who once let it slip, when he was squiffy, that he was one of the ten best drivers in the country. I was seriously impressed by this, not least because I had actually been driven by him several times and had never guessed this. I guess it was his natural modesty. I used to wonder why he absent-mindedly and slowly pumped the accelerator as we bimbled along the motorway, so that I would find myself rocking gently forward and back as the car responded. Perhaps it was 'cadence'; he was a musician, after all. We used to refer to him as the Finest Swordsman In France, because it kind of fitted, and had he been a swordsman and in France, I'm sure that he'd have been the finest.

There are lots of arty and creative people in Bristol, and I have often been impressed by the way they apply that creativity to the art of driving and parking. Such people surely deserve a degree of latitude in their treatment of the city's roads; where they lead, we dull sublunary creatures can but dream of following. Here is a small selection of their comings and goings.

This chap has installed an 'en suite' in his Land Rover Discovery, and is able to complete his toilet while driving through the city centre, ensuring his completion of his journey in a minty fresh condition.


The owner of S100NDR is enabling a young girl to gain vital experience in negotiating the open road with her scooter. Pavements are not for scooters.

YY03VHK often parks here, just around the corner from the local primary school, so that cars have to slow right down to negotiate the corners. This is obviously a Good Thing.

WP07MVA has parked on the pavement so that it barely extends into the roadway beyond the the double yellow lines. This has allowed the Clifton Tractor to continue unimpeded on its school run. And we pedestrians managed to squeeze by in the bit of pavement left to us. This is a positive result.


CE54SXC has cleverly addressed the problem of reducing visibility at corners by acting as a separation zone, so that cyclists can easily pass on the inside.

The informally-accepted rule of the road in Bristol is that, if you park so far onto the pavement that the double yellow lines are clearly visible outboard of your car, then it doesn't count as an offence. So this chap who popped the wrong way down a one way street so that he could use the cashpoint machine sensibly used the pavement, to avoid giving a nasty surprise to traffic turning into the road in the officially-approved direction. This is on Lower Redland Road, just a few yards from the police station.

It was just opposite here, more recently (on Christmas Eve, in fact) that I watched a Range Rover mount the pavement so that the woman in the passenger seat could pop into the organic butcher's to collect her turkey. (This is a difficult time for the exemplary middle classes, who are 'time poor' at the best of times, and we must appreciate the difficulties they face in getting all the trappings of Christmas together at the last moment- it was hell at Waitrose, let me tell you....)

She hopped out of the car and saw me watching. She paused guiltily, then walked towards the butchers. I was pushing my bike along the pavement towards Whiteladies Road (it is, as I have said, a one way street), and there was only just enough room for her to pass, what with a Range Rover on the pavement and all. And as she went by she said, in self-righteous sort of way, "You shouldn't be on the pavement either, you know".

"I'm pushing it, you silly fool," I replied sharply.

And then felt bad about it because I should have handled the encounter more positively.

Oh well.

8 comments:

  1. Sounds much more positive than she deserved.

    Negative, now that could have been more fun - but probably illegal.

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  2. Here I wish the offenses were limited to only parking. It is nothing now to have your light turn green, look both directions and start to cross, only to have someone "blow through" their red light glaring at you the whole time like "how dare you"!

    The wife of someone I worked with had her car totalled and has spent the last 5 months on sick leave trying to recover from one of them...

    I can't blame you for not handling it better!

    alan

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  3. Wonderfully written post. I've highlighted it on Green Bristol Blog.

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  4. I've considered such a posting for ages - hurrah to you for doing it!

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  5. Our pavements are wide enough to park a car on and the roads are narrow. I don't think that the planners think about the humble pedestrian.

    Nice shots of the registration numbers!

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  6. Excellent use of web for non violent direct action against the machines that kill 3000 people every day in the UK! They make life hell for cyclists, motorcyclists and of course pedestrians!

    I think your reponse was perfect actually. Anything less direct would've made her forget!

    Charlie

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  7. Haha... Yes, what Anonymous said. I think she got something more polite from you that she would have got from me, I'd have given her the old 2-fingered Bristol Salute.. y

    Glad my fellow Bristolians are still behaving themselves, no change there then..

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  8. I've been away from the blog for a while, and I am very sorry that I haven't responded more fully and promptly to your comments. Thank you, everyone, and, if it's not far too late, happy new year to you!

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