Your say / Transport
‘It is cars parking on pavements that we should worry about, not e-scooters’
Cars parking on pavements and on bike lanes with impunity is a problem that Bristol seems to mostly, begrudgingly, put up with.
It’s because nothing is done that drivers can get away with it.
I present to you exhibits A and B, taken recently on Bridgwater Road and Gloucester Road:
is needed now More than ever
These are meant to be bike lanes but the lack of segregation seems to give car drivers carte blanche to block them.
When e-scooters appear on pavements, however, it becomes an issue as it’s one that we have not seen before.
Of course, the proliferation of Voi hire scooters should not cause a problem to anyone with mobility and sight issues or with a pushchair.
But these same problems occur on a daily basis around Bristol due to cars parking on pavements. It is cars parking on pavements that we should worry about, not e-scooters.
In one short stretch of Gloucester Road and its side streets last week, I counted numerous cars parked on the pavements.
They are not meant to be there. So why are they allowed to park like this? And why do we put up with this being normal?
Pavement parking on Pitt Road – photo: Martin Booth
There is clearly an issue with appropriate parking spaces in this current trial of hire scooters, with scooters already removed from a parking spot close to the Suspension Bridge.
The photo at the top of this page was taken on Friday night on Elm Lane in Redland, with the pavement completely blocked.
But this scene below on Wine Street close to Castle Park shows that when the pavement is wide enough, parked e-scooters and pedestrians can safely co-exist.
More than 40 scooters on Wine Street next to Castle Park recently – photo: Joanna Booth
Rather than pointing the finger of blame at Voi, let’s help support the scheme by creating safe places for the scooters to be parked.
Let’s encourage the city council to remove some car parking spaces and designate them for scooters.
Taking away space for one vehicle on the road in appropriate areas would enable around a dozen scooters to be parked off the pavement.
Meanwhile, pavement parking should be seen as completely unacceptable and drivers should not be able to get away with it any longer with much tighter regulation needed.
Main photo: Tom Archer
Read more:
- Rogue yellow lines painted by residents fed up with inconsiderate parking
- Police praise e-scooter trial after fearing ‘twisted metal and bodies scattered all over the highway’
- ‘Walking and cycling improvements have again been ignored in favour of cars’
- ‘Space for cycling couldn’t come at the cost of space for living’
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