Contributor "A" pointed us at Southwell Street, said we should check it out to see what had changed since our last visit.
Oh yes. To reduce the risk of pedestrians being hit by cars pulling out of the hospital's underground car park, the pavement is now blocked off, with a sign:
CAUTION:
beware of
exiting traffic
from
car park
Ideally, that would be enough to discourage pedestrians from attempting to use this road, especially given the removal of the pavement on the other side and the placement of a large yellow barrier across the road. This pavement was the only place they could walk, so removing that option should stop pedestrians getting in the way.
For some reason -perhaps the fear that the Kingsdown Conservation Group includes lawyers, they haven't come out with some no entry to pedestrian signs -though we are pleased to soon have some footage of such signs nearby. Instead they have painted a path on the road, showing pedestrians where to walk.
One concern we had -would pedestrians have the right of way over cars, even though they were now walking on a road. Because on a pavement, after all, one of those pesky little laws says you aren't actually allowed to run over pedestrians -even if they are in the way.
Testing the system was fairly straightforward -wait 30s for a car to come out, see if it does anything resembling looking or giving way to pedestrians. No, it's a road, pedestrians should not be there, its OK for W99AER to cut them up.
Only one question remains: how to get access to the car park? If this area goes residents only, those spaces will become invaluable.
Incidentally, this marks our first nomination for the 2010 Bristol Traffic Anti-Pedestrian awards. More welcomed.
Incidentally, this marks our first nomination for the 2010 Bristol Traffic Anti-Pedestrian awards. More welcomed.