The frustrations of trying to get around
On a couple of previous, now deleted blogs, I wrote a fair number of pieces looking at so called Liveable Neighbourhoods, the concept of 15 minute cities and last but by no means least, the frustrations of trying to get around the Avon region. That’s getting around by driving, using public transport, cycling and walking. I include all modes of transport because I don’t want to pander to the divide and rule merchants who are doing their level best to pit users of different modes of transportation against each other. Which when you think about it is plain daft because regardless of whether we drive, use public transport or cycle, at some point we’ll all be walking along a pavement. In other words, being a pedestrian is a great leveller.
The aim of this piece is to revisit what I’ve written in the past and fuse them together to try and provide some kind of overview. Something that will hopefully form the basis for a rational discussion around the issues and problems relating to getting around the Avon region. This isn’t a comprehensive piece and there are issues raised that I’d like to examine in greater depth at some point in the future.
It’s disclosure time. The two of us behind this blog don’t drive. We use public transport, mainly rail, we occasionally use taxis and a lot of the time, we walk. Our experience of these modes of transport gives us some degree of authority when we talk about the parlous state of train travel in the region and also, the degraded state of the pedestrian infrastructure.
The discussion around the various modes of transport people choose to use to get around the Avon region all too often descends into what can best be described as a culture war. One that manifests itself in a variety of ways from the bitter rows between supporters and opponents of Liveable Neighbourhoods, through the tensions between cyclists and pedestrians and onto the element of die hard motorists who resent the subsidies given to public transportation, both rail and bus. That’s a lot of division that’s being fostered. Division that ignores the fact that we all have to be able to get around and that a holistic transport strategy that balances everyone’s needs fairly is what we really need. Well, we can all dream can’t we because with the calibre of politicians running the various authorities across the region we cover, we’re more likely to end up getting kidult style name calling and virtue signalling than anything coherent.
Liveable Neighbourhoods
On the surface, Liveable Neighbourhoods seem like a lovely idea - in theory that is. Imagine the bliss of living in an urban neighbourhood where measures have been put in to minimise the amount of traffic coming down your road, making it a much pleasanter place to live. Less, pollution, less noise and being outside on your street becomes a much pleasanter experience. Who could possibly object to streets in urban neighbourhoods having the amount of traffic using them substantially reduced? Let us try and explain why people do object...
Unless there are measures that actually reduce the overall volume of vehicles using the roads in a town or city, all Liveable Neighbourhoods achieve are shifting the traffic burden onto someone else. We're talking about measures such as vastly improved public transport networks that will persuade people to leave the car at home because the bus and/or train offering is a faster and more comfortable way to move around. We live in a region where bus services leave a lot to be desired and what remains of the local rail network after the Beeching cuts of the 1960s is widely seen as a joke. Also, it's a hilly region, so cycling is only a serious option for the younger, fitter and braver members of the populace. So sadly, many people are forced to rely on their cars to get around because there are no viable alternatives.
So what happens when there aren't anywhere near enough viable alternatives to having to use a car, yet Liveable Neighbourhoods are still being imposed? What happens is that the same volume of traffic is forced to use a smaller network of roads. The inevitable result is...more congestion! You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work that one out... As it tends to be the more affluent streets who can leverage the system to make sure they become a Liveable Neighbourhood, inevitably the displaced traffic is forced upon lower income areas. It could be argued that they’re a form of class war.
What they certainly are is a piecemeal, so called 'solution' to the problem of traffic. They're little more than a gesture that appeal to those with sharp elbows and a knowledge of how to work the system to get traffic in their neighbourhood reduced at the expense of others suffering more traffic. If they're not accompanied by sustainable, long term plans to offer a viable alternative to car use, they're essentially a waste of time at best and at worst, socially divisive.
15 minute neighbourhoods
‘15 minute neighbourhoods’ sound like a lovely idea – in theory. However, after decades of planning policy assuming near universal car ownership with our towns and cities developing accordingly, it's understandable that a fair few people will be bemused by the concept of a '15 minute neighbourhood'. Tract housing has been allowed to sprawl in such as way that when people need to do the weekly shop, all too often they have no alternative but to jump into the car to the nearest supermarket which may be miles away. We're talking about forty minute round trips just to pick up the groceries for the week. This is the reality of how our towns and cities have been allowed to sprawl for decades without any thought as to the long term when the resources needed to sustain a car based economy start to run out.
To ensure that as many of the amenities of life are within a fifteen minute walk would involve the reconfiguration of many suburbs and overspill towns that were built on the assumption of near universal car ownership. While it's perfectly possible for a lot of the amenities of life to be reasonably close to hand in the older suburbs such as Bedminster or Redland in Bristol, once you get out to places like Hartcliffe to the south or Bradley Stoke to the north, it's a very different story. Re-configuring the outer suburbs and the overspill towns to ensure that as many of life's amenities are within a fifteen minute walk is a gargantuan task because it involves correcting decades of flawed and ultimately, short sighted planning policies. That's before having the really serious conversation needed about how we adapt to a future when the resources needed to sustain a car based economy start to run out.
Liveable Neighbourhoods and so called '15 minute neighbourhoods' are essentially performative rather than achieving anything substantial in terms of reducing the overall volume of traffic on the roads. All each of these actually achieve is to add more to our lives in the way of digitised monitoring, tracking and sending out punitive fines in moves that suck us all further into what feels like a high tech, digital control matrix. You can forgive people for thinking that this may be the actual motivation for the imposition of these schemes rather than any substantial reduction in overall traffic volumes.
The rail ‘option’
What of the so called alternative modes of transport that would allegedly reduce the volume of traffic using the road network across the Avon region? There's the train 'service', most of which is still currently operated by Great Western Railway (GWR). The thing is, there's nothing 'Great' about it, nothing at all. That's unless you're a fan of buses on rails where the offering outside the mainline stations of Bristol and Bath is two or three coaches of these trundling through your station roughly once or twice an hour. That's until a creaking signalling system fails yet again, throwing what passes for a network into meltdown and you end up with, no trains and an expensive cab ride home, if you have the money that is. Whatever I may have said about the c2c rail service that operated in the south of Essex where I used to live, I wholeheartedly take it back!
When you look at the rail 'service' on offer in the Avon region, it offers little to no incentive for anyone to leave their car at home and take the train. An option that's denied to many people as a result of the Beeching cuts in the 1960s that left many areas of Bristol and Bath bereft of a train service. Also, should a significant number of those within easy reach of a train service actually decide to leave the car at home and take the train, the rail network as it currently stands doesn't have the capacity to accommodate a surge in passenger numbers.
As for the buses, we rarely use them so we aren’t really in a position to comment. Suffice to say that with what we’ve heard from various sources about the dire state of services across the Avon region, we have little incentive to use them.
Cycling and walking
The cycling infrastructure… At best, the cycling infrastructure across Bristol is patchy with a few scattered examples of how it can be done well standing in stark contrast to the shoddy state of much of what cyclists have to put up with. Bristol with its hills is not an obvious cycling city. Given the dire state of public transport across the city, cycling and walking are seen as more reliable options, despite the hazards faced by both cyclists and pedestrians. For many, it's a case of needs must rather than a positive lifestyle choice. Given the sclerotic pace that discussions about the future of public transport across Bristol are moving at, it's going to be a case of needs must for some time to come.
One thing we notice every time we go into Bristol is that the way the cycling infrastructure has been set up with poor delineation between cycle lanes and pedestrian footpaths, conflict between cyclists and pedestrians is inevitable. Cyclists and pedestrians should be natural allies, not at each others throats. Such is the lack of joined up thinking from the 'planners' that is responsible for this conflict.
As for Bath, while there’s some cycling along the Avon and also, the Kennet and Avon Canal, because of the hills, it’s not exactly a city for riding a bicycle around. Which makes walking around Bath as a pedestrian less stressful than walking around Bristol.
Then there’s the pedestrian infrastructure. The reality of being a pedestrian in both Bristol and Bath stands in stark contrast to the bullshit we're being fed about how wonderful it is to walk and how we should feel great about reducing our carbon emissions. The reality are pavements that are not fit for purpose. You should be able to walk around without having to constantly cast your eyes to the ground to avoid the numerous trip hazards caused by broken and uneven pavements. The reality is having to watch out for the selfish minority of cyclists who seem to think the rules don't apply to them and that they have no responsibility to look out for pedestrians while they're cycling around at speed. The reality is having to watch out for pillocks on e-bikes who, like the aforementioned cyclists, seem to think the rules don't apply to them. The reality is waiting ages at pedestrian crossings over busy roads before finally being able to cross.
Every time we're out and about walking where we live in Keynsham, it's a life lesson in how the needs of the motorist seem to take priority over those of us mere pedestrians. The main roads in and around Keynsham are busy and an absolute pain to cross in too many instances. Where the main roads go through the older residential areas of the town, the pavements are incredibly narrow making walking along them a pretty unpleasant experience. To get from where we live to the pub by the Avon that's our adopted local, even though it's only a ten minute walk away, because there isn't a continuous pavement along both sides of the main road that runs past it, we're obliged to cross the road three times!
The same applies to a fair few other towns in our region. Older town centres and residential areas that were not laid out with 21st century traffic levels in mind. One such town that sticks in my mind is Bradford-on-Avon, just over the border in Wiltshire. A lovely old town but blighted by a massive volume of through traffic which makes walking round the streets in the centre not just unpleasant but also, pretty risky.
A brief conclusion
On the one hand, people are being lectured on the need to leave the car at home and use 'alternative means' of travel. On the other hand, as outlined above, those 'alternative means' of travel simply don't hack it. We're being set up to fail aren't they? As for us non-drivers, we're being absolutely shafted. As already mentioned, the pedestrian and cycling infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired and as for public transport, it's dire. Look, I'm not asking for public transport to whisk me to every corner of the Avon region because I know that's impracticable. All I'm asking for is a reliable public transport system with solid plans for expansion that will help to reduce the volume of vehicles clogging up the roads. With my pedestrian hat on, all I'm asking for is for a safe walking environment. That's not much to ask for is it?
When we don't even get the basics we should expect in a so called civilised society, we can be forgiven for thinking that there is in fact, a silent war against non-drivers as well as drivers. In fact, it could be argued that there’s a war against movement regardless of the mode of transport that’s chosen. One that’s a significant part of the control matrix that will be a feature of the ‘great reset’ if we don’t start resisting it. Which is why the bastards who presume to rule over us will go to some lengths to pit the users of various modes of transport against each other. Anyone falling for these divide and rule tactics and engaging in the culture wars surrounding transport really needs to take a look at themselves in the mirror, because they are part of the problem.