Cycle Path Robberies Reduced

[madhattie]

From the Bristol Evening Post

Bristol to Bath cycle path robberies reduced

Police have reported a marked reduction in the number of robberies on the Bristol to Bath cycle path after five arrests and measures to make the route safer.

Patrols were increased along the Easton stretch of the path with officers on foot and using bikes and motorbikes to cover the route which saw 14 attacks in a week in May.

The city council's parks department has cut back shrubs so there are fewer places where muggers can hide and it has meant the lights along the path have a further range.

The council also plans to improve lighting under a bridge.

Five people were arrested and four have been charged with robbery.
Click here!

Beat manager for the Easton area PC Terry Preece said: "As a result of the above initiatives, the number of robberies in June and July has significantly reduced.

"One of the problems has been identifying exactly where on the track an incident has occurred when a call is received. "This has delayed the police response times.

"The longer term plan in conjunction with Sustrans will be a system where there will be numbered markers all along the cycle track.

"When someone calls in, if they quote this marker number the police will be able to pinpoint the exact location and be on the scene much quicker.

"This will also have benefits for the other emergency services if for example some is taken ill on the cycle track.

"Although there has been this reduction we would still recommend that people who use the cycle track take basic personal safety precautions when using it."

A masked gang armed with baseball bats carried out 14 attacks along the cycle track.

One victim had his jaw smashed and another his head split open by the youths carrying out the attacks.

In some of the incidents, victims were robbed of their bikes, mobile phones and wallets, but in others nothing was taken.

In one attack marine biologist Nicky Simpson, 31, and her boyfriend Matt Stokes, 32, a solicitor, were beaten with baseball bats as they rode on the cycle path between Easton Community Centre and Devon Road.

A gang of eight youngsters, their faces masked with bandanas, jumped out of bushes and stole their bikes after smashing Mr Stokes across the back of the head.

[horace]

"The longer term plan in conjunction with Sustrans will be a system where there will be numbered markers all along the cycle track.

My goodness why did they take out the 1/4 mile posts, just what is needed.


"Although there has been this reduction we would still recommend that people who use the cycle track take basic personal safety precautions when using it."


Please tell me what safety precautions plod would recommend i take against somebody with a baseball bat that remains legal. I do think there is a certain amount of slopping shoulders by plod in this statement.

[Donkey]

What a wonderful world we live in! Well, in some places anyhow.
But I have to agree on what precautions to take against baseball bat wielding folk.

[nickt]

"The longer term plan in conjunction with Sustrans will be a system where there will be numbered markers all along the cycle track.

Hmm, not sure what purpose these markers will serve. you are dazed and bewildered after a tap on the head, and worse still the little darlings have relieved you of your phone.
I have cycled bath to bristol and beyond a couple of times, but the bit I felt most uncomfortable was in the cutting, no exit routs and graffiti marking gang areas.

[horace]

Now to me the best option would be to put your bicycle in the guards van of the 11 coach 8:45 to Birmingham and plough the little darlings down with a black 5 pounding up the bank.

[tonyperks]

Horace you Naughty boy, Your suposed to call them ethnic 5's in that area!

Or better still use the TPO that way you get 2 runs at em after turning on the triangle at mangotsfield!!

[jules]

Well, I feel another Bristol Railway Archive Great Debate coming on here:

Now to me the best option would be to put your bicycle in the guards van of the 11 coach 8:45 to Birmingham and plough the little darlings down with a black 5 pounding up the bank.

You make a very serious point Horace. Indeed, would it not be better if the railway were re-instated, so we could all use it (including cyclists) rather than just cyclists and walkers as at present? Without the risk of getting mugged to boot?

Horror, I will hear the cycling fraternity scream!! They and Sustrans are completely against sustainable transport when it involves ripping up cycle tracks and relaying railways for all to use ...

Imagine that old line's value nowadays as an alternative route - how much quicker it would be to get up North rather than dog-legging through Parkway to Westerleigh.

Imagine local services from Fishponds, Staple Hill, park and ride at Mangotsfield ... to Temple Meads? Thousands would use them ....

OK, I acknowledge it'll never happen because this isn't Scotland or Wales, but just what a lot was lost when it was closed .... ?

I acknowledge Sustrans adopted an unused asset and made a great job of it, and cycling is fab (I have a bike myself) but progress is progress and should cyclists stand by and oppose the re-opening of railway lines?
Whilst congestion rages throughout our cities? When trains would provide infinately more capacity on the same route for all to use?

Rail is generally cycling friendly of course (even though it provides woeful bike space at the moment) so there is a conflict of interest within the green thinking here. So should a cycle route stand in the way of a line re-opening? Theoretical question of course .....

As to busways, well look at the furore that went up when that conversion was proposed One in the eye for the local politicians and consultants. Nobody wants a stinky cheap bus and we certainly told 'em so. But would it be different if the proposal were to put the railway back in?

Having lit the blue touch paper, I'll now stand back and see what happens ...

J.

[horace]

Jules what i never understood was why it was destroyed rather than left disused. Its use at the time it was taken up in the early 70's could of been seen after all Yate was well developed by that time, Oldland Common was on the cards. Cadbury Heath had started, it was all there, but it was decided to turn Bristol into Los Angeles with huge dual carriageways sweeping around the town, the car was the thing. The crazy thing was it was obvious to the average citizen of Bristol that it would not work, even at that time there was not enough parking in the city, it would take an hour to get from Kingswood to Brislington in the morning rush hour. To me it was the usual local authority dream machine at work, the dreams that never come true because in the end you wake up to reality. Problem is after years and years of past failures they are still at it.

What gets me is that the whole thing was destroyed using a rather small landslip at fishponds as an excuse, it was an excuse.

[tonyperks]

They didn't need excuses just look what they did to the S&D, divert all the expresses then say it didnt pay!!

[Donkey]

it was obvious to the average citizen of Bristol

But isn't that what Councils/Government are for to ignore the "average citizen"?

Unfortunately for many years now the car is king and we have to do whatever we can to make to easier to drive your own car. In the main this seems to me to be what happens in this country, it may be slowly changing in places to try to encourage people to use public transport but I don't think that those in authority are really interested in doing that, just look at the Portishead line as a prime example. I can't see a reason why this has not been started, the place is crying out for it, just how much more time do people have to waste sat in their cars going nowhere fast and chucking out all that pollution that is deemed to be so damaging to the environment? Not to mention the buzzword of the moment "carbon footprint"

They and Sustrans are completely against sustainable transport when it involves ripping up cycle tracks and relaying railways for all to use ...

For my money, if it was more viable to change back to rail and better for the community I see it as a no-brainer to relay and on most occasions I would think a cycle path could still be in place if (and this is a REALLY BIG "if") there was some proper planning involved.

[jules]

Here is a prime example of just what I was talking of .... and a suitably robust response from John Hall of FOSBR (I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him here). Cyclists in Montpelier Tunnel (a major diversionary route for the National Network)? I think not!

Just where would a cycle path go where the track crosses from the Down to the Up formation, such as between Montpelier and Redland? And Ashley Hill to Lockleaze? Totally impractical without major re-engineering ...

Anyhow, this is why we need to protect our railways (current and potential) from the cycling fraternity .... (bearing in mind I am a cycling supporter and use a bike myself).

Besides, why would you want to cycle up the railway to Filton Abbey Wood, when there is a perfectly good train service .... and no, as any railwayman knows, it's not "flat" at all!!

Come and speak up loudly and clearly for a high quality cycle
> expressway network in Bristol! Not just bits and pieces of cycleway
> that disappear when the planning gets difficult! Ask for a
> feasibility study on the shared use of the Severn Beach line, and
> improved public consultation for expenditure of public funds.
>
> I've written an article for the upcoming Cycle Campaign newsletter,
> and is posted here on my blog:
>
> http://onthelevelbl og.wordpress. com/2008/ 09/02/the- bristol-cycle-
> expressway-network- initiative/
>
> Many of us believe that the cycle city project is a unique
> opportunity to focus Bristol's energy on achieving a model bicycle
> network that will inspire thousands of Bristolians to start
> cycling- but there is the very real danger that the money gets
> frittered away according to inside political connections in the
> City Council that will do little to change Bristol from what it is
> now- very much and increasingly a car city.
>
> The truth is that there exists great potential to develop a
> continuous, level, traffic free cycle network using vacant land
> along the city's urban railway network. It may not be easy, there
> may be technical and political challenges. Possible conflicts
> with rail plans need to be investigated. But the fact that there
> exists a continuous strip of land between Lawrence Hill station,
> connecting with the Bristol Bath Path and crossing the M32 and
> Glenfrome Rd, and up to Filton Abbey Wood and directly to UWE
> Frenchay Campus (this last section is under consideration by the
> committee) needs to be investigated for feasibility at the very
> least. With a bridge over the rail junction (the footings are
> already there), it could connect directly to St. Werburgh's and
> given enough right of way through the tunnel, to Montpelier and
> Gloucester Rd.
>
> Many of us are also growing increasingly uneasy about the process
> of allocating the Cycle City funding- suspicious that Bristol City
> Council will take the credit for being a cycle city while not
> really making much of a difference: assigning the ú11.4 million
> from Cycling England to a number of politically 'easy' projects-
> some of which have only a tangential connection with cycling, while
> the city's match of ú11 million goes to projects which may have
> been done anyway, including sections of the bus rapid transit
> network. The danger is that the money may be spent without making
> much of an obvious difference to the cycling experience- cyclists
> will still be routinely intimidated, killed, and injured while City
> leaders proudly proclaim Cycling City status from behind their
> windscreens. Are we really going to idly stand by while they
> squander this opportunity?
>
> The process as I understand it is for the spending plan to be
> presented this Wednesday with public comment received, and then
> finalised within a week. This is a very short timeframe indeed to
> have the plan take into account public comment, and it is crucial
> that we make our voices heard loud and clear that WE NEED A
> CONTINUOUS CYCLE NETWORK IN BRISTOL, and to achieve that, ALL
> available rights of way must be considered before proceeding.
>
> Hope to see as many of you out there on Wednesday as possible!
>
> Josh

And FOSBR member John Hall's very relevant response ....

Your proposal to take up railway wayleaves for cycle use is itself a
prime example of an 'easy' project, spending money without making any
real effort to tackle the problems of fitting cycle use into the
actual city, as a part of everyday life, and probably exactly the
sort of thing the council will go for. We do not need another mugger
prone pretend park - think how much better public transport in East
Bristol would be if the Yate - Mangotsfield - Temple Meads railway
still existed.

It also conflicts with likely and desirable developments in railway
reinstatement, particularly on the Narroways Junction - Temple Meads
section.

A cross city system of cycle routes is certainly desirable, but
requires careful study of how to integrate them into the city itself,
not how to isolate them in railway corridors, which in any rational
cycle city transport system will be needed for their designed purpose
- rapid transit aka railways.

John Hall

[jules]

What gets me is that the whole thing was destroyed using a rather small landslip at fishponds as an excuse, it was an excuse.

The truth is actually much worse. The closure was first announced in 1968, at the same time as the Bristol MAS resignalling scheme. On grounds of cost, the LMS line never featured in the plans and was therefore doomed to closure from that date on. All the stations and signalboxes (except Mangotsfield) had already been closed.

A strong campaign was mounted by railway staff, who formed a line retention committee to fight the closure. Appeals were made to Tony Benn, but all to no avail.

With BR having gone through all of the closure procedures already, the landslip in 1970 meant that they did not have to give any further notice. Despite the civil engineers at first attempting to stabilise the land slip, they were instructed to give up and the route was then effectively just abandoned by BR management.

[Donkey]

If it is planned properly, cycle paths can be used to good effect but not at the cost of the rail where rail should be in place. I too am a cyclist but as I have no experience of cycling in Bristol it's not really my place to say what the cycle network is like in the city but the last paragraph from John Hall seems to be pretty accurate.

[Agency_Scum]

As chief dis-organiser of our cycling club I've had close contact with the police on this and they and the council have been great.


The Scrotes: bailed and awaiting trial with enough brain cells to know if anyone even FARTS in the wrong direction on the Bike Path they'll be visited first by the police.





The Crime rate: down to ZERO thanks to...









The police: Avon and Somerset Constabulary did a gert lush job; dozens of Community Support Officer ( C.S.O. ) patrols, lots of horse patrols ( yes, that was police poo ) and now it's over I can untie my tongue and reveal there were many " bait " patrols ( " burly girl " WPCs riding up and down on bling mountain bikes backed up by large numbers of large officers ). Aided and abetted by...






The Council: on the sage advice of the Avon and Somerset Police they've cut right back the foliage around the prime mugging hot-spots where the little buggers were hiding...


Click on pics to make them huge.





















Go check for yourself, there's nowhere to hide in the bushes of the bottleneck anymore. Well done all round!!

[Donkey]

Scrotes - a very apt title for these low life bits of scum!

Good to read of the work done here. Hope it stays that way for good.