Features / walking
Bristol’s good and bad walking infrastructure
As a small group of people examined the new crossing from Baldwin Street to Castle Park on a walk looking at some of our city’s pedestrian infrastructure, a car driver gave an extraordinary example of why pedestrians need to be protected from motorists.
Whether it was on purpose or by accident, the driver drove their Ford Galaxy down a segregated cycle lane, turned right over another parallel pedestrian and cyclist crossing, and continued their journey up High Street.
The group looked at each other in bewilderment, wondering whether this was an intentional or accidental manoeuvre, before walk leader Alan Morris from Bristol Walking Alliance snapped us out of our incredulity in order to lead the group to our next destination on Victoria Street.
This car was definitely not meant to be here – photo: Martin Booth
At the start of the walk at the bottom of Park Street, one participant described himself as “a long-suffering pedestrian” and there were nods of agreement.
Alan directed our attention towards the Wills Memorial Building and showed us a visual representation of how Park Street might have looked if plans had not been blocked to ban through-traffic which would have also seen wider pavements created.
“It’s really sad,” said Alan, looking at the artist’s impression of what might have been. “There were going to be some great improvements.”
As we stood and looked up Park Street, some half a dozen cars were outnumbered by around 50 pedestrians.
But not all of the group shared Alan’s point of view. “It’s important not to be brainwashed by the rhetoric,” one man said.
Cars would still have been able to park on Park Street under the plans that were blocked by three Labour and one Conservative councillor – image: Bristol City Council
Bristol Walking Alliance is a consortium of organisations and individuals who campaign to improve our city’s walking environment; aiming “to create an environment for pedestrians that is welcoming, safe, convenient and inclusive”.
This walk was part of Bristol Walk Fest and looked at recent street changes that have already been made or planned across the city centre.
From City Hall, we headed down Unity Street towards Denmark Street where plans were approved in February to prevent motor vehicles from being driven along it in order to create a more pedestrian-friendly space.
“A small scheme like this is really valuable,” said Alan. “It seems to me that this area is crying out for a pedestrianised area.”
Part of Denmark Street will soon be shut to cars with more space for pedestrians to walk – photo: Martin Booth
We continued on towards the Hatchet – the oldest pub in Bristol now marooned on a traffic island and coach park – and then along Trenchard Street behind Bristol Beacon until we reached Colston Street.
Some major work has taken place here to reconfigure the road layout but there remains some baffling inconsistencies if you look closely. Walk for example along the pavement on the left of the road towards Upper Maudlin Street and it becomes extremely narrow.
“It’s great work done so far but it still needs to be made accessible to everyone,” said Bristol Walking Alliance’s Zoe Banks Gross, thinking specifically about wheelchair users.
One of the pavements on Colston Street is extremely narrow – photo: Martin Booth
Onwards towards the BRI and there were mixed thoughts about the floating bus stop outside the hospital.
Statutory guidance from the Department of Transport and Active Travel England describes floating bus stops “as an umbrella term to include all design types where a cycle track and bus stop intersect and where bus passengers, pedestrians and cyclists may interact”.
Bristol’s first of these floating bus stops was installed on Prince Street, with much more space here meaning less risk of conflict between pedestrians and cyclists. And we will soon be getting more, with another floating bus stop currently under construction on Victoria Street.
The views of people on the walk were mixed. “It seems that this one is okay,” said Alan, with not a huge amount of enthusiasm. “But I think in Bristol if they (transport planners) can avoid them, they will.”
Two ‘floating bus stops’ are now located on either side of Upper Maudlin Street – photo: Martin Booth
A shortcut along Johnny Ball Lane took us to Nelson Street – a pedestrian ‘desire line’ between the Centre and Broadmead – and then Broad Street, where Alan paused just so we could all listen to the sound of no motor vehicles.
After the encounter with the car driver in the bike lane on Baldwin Street, we crossed Bristol Bridge and navigated the roadworks on Victoria Street which when complete will hopefully make life a lot easier for pedestrians.
Public realm improvements around the King’s Head are already almost finished but Zoe still has visions of better pedestrian links to nearby Temple Gardens.
Continuous footways like this one between Victoria Street and Mitchell Lane have numerous benefits including providing a clear visual and tactile indication that pedestrians have priority – photo: Martin Booth
Another element on Victoria Street that excited both Zoe and Alan on Victoria Street were continuous footways, also known as Copenhagen crossings.
In the words of Active Travel England, this is where the street is raised to footway level across the mouths of side roads to allow people to cross on one level.
“Continuous footways are saying to pedestrians, ‘Yes, we do value you. You have priority,'” said Alan. “It’s a relatively small thing but it’s recognising the pedestrian.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
