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UWE: Recognised Pedestrian Route

Right on the edge of the UWE campus, there's a "recognised pedestrian route to campus". It says so in big letters and a symbol of somebody walking.

That's a really strange concept. The city proper has these things called "pavements", and with the notable exception of Montpelier and Clifton Wood, they are generally considered "recognised pedestrian routes". Yet here, out in the car-centric city fringe, they have signs up telling you where you are expected to walk.

And where to walk from? Well, there is a zebra crossing, with another sign at the far end.

It says: "recognised pedestrian route to car park 20".

Ahh, now it becomes clear. For a moment there was the glimpse of hope, the idea that thousands of UWE students would walk in to campus from somewhere, maybe the train stations, maybe nearby housing, and go to lectures. But no, they are walking in from Car Park 20.

That tells us
  1. There isn't enough space on campus for all the staff and students to drive in, they have to have more parking across the road.
  2. There are at least 19 other car parks. They have not yet numbered up and opened the car parks on the former-HP land they recently bought, and B&Q Filton is not official parking, so those areas are not included in the total.
  3. There is no expectation that anyone will walk to UWE except from the car park.
UWE is probably the best, the greenest of the sites here -take a look at the queues of cars leaving the MOD at 1700h for a contrast, and the U1-U5 buses are the best road-based public transport options in the area. However, barring theLockleaze path, driving is probably one of the main access options to the city. At least compared to its neighbours, the students drive small cars and fill them with their flatmates, so the CO2/head and congestion impact per student is less than for the companies -but it does set them up for a lifestyle of sitting in traffic jams, one they can use for the rest of their life. Think about it: Oxford and Cambridge: cycling. London: tubes and buses. UWE: driving to lectures.