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news
DIY bike parking space in Bristol (credit: Anna Cordle)“The road is yours only if you own a car?”: Cyclist couple challenge council after being asked to remove DIY bike parking space from outside home
A couple who decided to make a small DIY parking space for their cargo bike outside their home in Bristol have been asked by the council to either remove it themselves or have it removed by the council. The couple have lodged a complaint against Bristol City Council, pointing out that other residents parks their cars in front of homes too.
Anna and Mark Cordle recently gave up their car and switched to riding a cargo bike. Since they couldn’t store it inside their home, they said that they had no option but to store it where they used to park their car — on the road outside their home.
So, they placed two large green containers filled with soil and plants, which was heavy enough to be able to secure their bike to, and sturdy enough to withstand any bumps from nearby parked cars.
Before doing this, they had asked people in their street and two neighbouring streets to see if anyone minded. They said said there was unanimous backing, and they had even consulted with one of their local councillors.
However, Bristol Live reports that the council has sent the couple a letter informing them that enforcement action would be taken against them if they don’t remove the heavy planters from their road in Redfield.
The letter read: “Your placing of the planters on the highway is in breach of Section 149 of the Highways Act. Please remove the planters urgently and ensure that they are not replaced on the highway at any time. You may also wish to consider that if any person has an accident has a result of your planters being on the highway, it will be you who will be liable for meeting any compensation claim.”
The letter then added that the council had the power to remove the planters if the Cordles didn’t.
However, the couple have said that they are not going to remove the planters, and in return have lodged a formal complaint against the council.
Anna Cordle said: “We explored all the options for how we could store it securely - but we live in a terrace, with no front garden to speak of. The only option for us was to park the bike - our car replacement - where we used to park the car, on the road.
“For security and insurance, we needed to get something heavy and secure to lock it to, so we placed bike planters in the road to lock the bike to.”
She added: “We sought out ways we could seek permission for what we were doing - but there were none. We consulted with our neighbours, those who would have most claim to be affected, and received a positive response, so went ahead. It has been transformative to our ability to get around without adding to Bristol’s poor air quality and carbon emissions.”
“After more than a year of them being in the road with nothing but positive responses, the council are now siding with anonymous complaints that the planters are an obstruction/danger on the highway and have sent us a letter telling us to remove them and threatening further enforcement action.
“Without them, we would have no way of storing our cargo bike without causing far greater obstruction to the pavement (locking it to lampposts or in front of our house). We would probably need to get a car,” she added.
The Cordles mentioned that their situation highlights how the law, and the council’s interpretation of it, favours car ownership over people who cycle.
Mark Cordle said: “We are saying no, we will not remove them. They do not obstruct free passage on the highway, and we deny that they are any more a danger than other street infrastructure. We want them to stay.
“Our street wants them to stay. It’s better for all of the council’s objectives, for all of Bristol's residents, for the climate and for air quality, that it stays.”
> Bike sheds are detrimental to Victorian homes, but guess what's not?
The couple have submitted a formal complaint against the council in a bid to try to get the issue looked at in more detail, and they acknowledge that they do not own that space and can’t commandeer it for their sole use.
“We don’t like the disparity of it, and wish our neighbours could also reliably park near their homes,” said Anna Cordle. “But it is the council’s role, not ours, to facilitate that.”
She continued: “We of course don’t claim to own the road, and would be very content with council-provided infrastructure on the street - but that is not coming any time soon. It wouldn’t have to be outside our house, but it wouldn’t have made sense for us to put it in front of somebody else’s house on the street.
“Nobody owns the road, but also everybody does - not just car users. Saying cargo bike parking infrastructure needs to be dismantled to provide another space for a car to park would be telling us we can’t share this public asset if we don’t own a car.”
The reaction on social media has been divided, with cyclists questioning the legality of such an action, but some also wondering if this calls for a change in the outlook of how we perceive and use roads.
Tricky - Applaud them for travelling sustainably but ‘bagsying’ a permanent space outside their house is going ti annoy people. If you get a disabled space you have to apply and be throughly vetted - it’s not a good comparison . A fresh look at Highways legislation prob needed
— Karen White (@karenwhite03) July 12, 2023
Of course they should remove them. Surely this is no different to a car owner blocking a space outside their home with cones or bollards? They can park their BIKE legally on the public highway but can’t create a space just for them any more than anyone else can for any vehicle.
— Ross Henderson-McKillop (@rsmck) July 12, 2023
The issue is that the council doesn't have the will, foresight or man power to support people who want to make a change. Be it secure bike storage for cargo bikes, road side car charging, bike hangers, safe infrastructure for kids to cycle.
— Gavin Wells (@xjib) July 12, 2023
Meanwhile, Bristol Cycling wrote: “The failure to provide any infrastructure for storing bikes in this city should be a cause of major embarrassment - why emphasise it? This council has decided not to develop any processes for storing anything other than a car.”
There has been no progress on any of the following despite public pressure:
1) Process for adding yourself to a hangar waiting list
2) Process for allocation of hangars
3) New hangars
4) Cargo bike storage - like in the article
5) Secure storage in Broadmead/Centre— Bristol 🧡 Cycling (@BristolCycling) July 12, 2023
What do you think? Are DIY cargo bike parking spaces safe and if yes, should they be legal? If not, what are the alternatives?
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after graduating with a masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Wales, and also likes to writes about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.
Latest Comments
- slc 2 sec ago
It sounds like a question from Ian Walker's motornormativity paper. Is it OK to dismember a (car|bike) when it is left in an inconvenient location?
- chrisonabike 6 hours 55 min ago
I have a visual memory from childhood of one of this species of bricks popping loose from a bracket on a downhill section and flying away to smash ...
- wtjs 7 hours 45 min ago
There is an increasing 'disconnect' between comments in this topic and reality. Cords are either all cotton or mostly cotton and are going to last...
- ktache 8 hours 16 min ago
There are people out there who will make you the belt out of your old tyre.
- chrisonabike 8 hours 17 min ago
Furry dice and an air freshener for your helmet.
- Simon E 9 hours 5 min ago
Ah yes, those are hopefully not the 'master craftsmen' that has constructed a wide range of shoddy Italian cars and motorbikes over the years with...
- Simon E 9 hours 27 min ago
A SuperSix is definitely not an all-rounder....
- chrisonabike 10 hours 19 min ago
Just get them to walk a treadmill - or better, ride exercise bikes to power path lighting.
- AidanR 10 hours 55 min ago
So his advisers were trying to move funds around to cover losses, but in a way that needlessly created additional liabilities? It would have been...
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81 comments
It's a remix! No longer Penny Lane, it's 9 pound streets!
https://www.bristol.gov.uk/residents/streets-travel/bristols-caz/charges...
One of the people at the meeting was panicking that the LTN would mean that fire engines couldn't get through and she lived in a block of flats and she could die if the fire engines couldn't get through! <clutches pearls>
It's funny, I'm certain that we've heard that argument about LTNs before and it was thoroughly debunked...
Oddest thing is the presence of this group, Together Declaration, handing out anti ULEZ flyers even though Bristol council wasn't introducing a ULEZ in East Bristol
Clicks through to https://togetherdeclaration.org/about/
Oh good grief... They're one of those groups, and being anti ULEZ/LTN is just one of the strings to their bow.
Has someone told them those horses have bolted? Nothing to do with the lockdown - the first under this last government (see Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act). The second by popular - if not informed - choice when we all signed up to Facebook and equipped ourselves with mobiles etc...
I'd be happy for ULEZ to be extended to East Bristol.
I don't see how emergency vehicles are going to be blocked as the changes are typically to stop through traffic and doesn't prevent access.
I'm puzzled as to how they intend to progress as a society if they don't want a minimum standard of healthcare (which would presumably be mandated). On the one hand, I'm fine with people having the right to choose about what goes into their bodies, but similarly, I don't want to catch preventable, transmissable diseases getting into my body (from people that don't want to get vaccinated).
Where do we draw the line between my rights and their rights?
I'd consider that taking part in a society is going to inhibit individual rights to a certain extent, but it's a balancing act so that the benefit is maximised for the majority of people without being too intrusive. Unfortunately, living in cities means that diseases are very quickly spread, so it is reasonable to mandate vaccination in certain cases. On the flip side though, some people are not able to be vaccinated (e.g. immuno-compromised people), so there's never going to be 100% take-up.
Well there's the problem - it's the military-healthcare-industrial complex forcing free-thinking types into the pen with the other sheep. If we didn't have a free universal healthcare provider people would have more motivation to stay healthy. Plus they'd have more choice so more independent agency etc. No doubt without a NHS monopoly the market would step in to provide a service with efficiencies driven by competition.
Well exactly. We can't be having healthy poor people can we?
I would wager that this is one of the same groups of people who think that a fifteen minute city is exactly the same thing as a ghetto (in the 1930s European sense, not the 1970s American sense).
I really hope this is sarcasm, because I think we can all see in the USA without an NHS there is definitely not a "service with efficiencies driven by competition."
If you really believe there will be a more effiicent service in the private sector, let me tell you about the £350m a week we can plough into the NHS if only we leave the EU.
Don't worry - I'm sure it is.
US healthcare is terrifying: I read an interview with a couple whose child was born a couple of weeks prem and had to stay in hospital for several weeks, and they are now facing a $1M bill
There's all these scary stories of U.S. citizens going bankrupt for visiting a hospital, but I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding of how it's supposed to work.
What happens is that people pay monthly premiums to healthcare insurers and receive nothing in return. However, when they get sick, they can then pay some more and if they're lucky the healthcare insurer won't spend too long arguing about whether they cover the procedure. Of course, most healthcare insurance is provided by employers, so you just have to ensure that you remain employed if you want the luxury of being ill.
Also, the healthcare insurers will usually terminate the insurance after a period of time (a year?) if someone has a long-term illness, so there's a built-in incentive to get well quickly.
Well they nearly have it right. If only (like so many other things) they imported the process from China, where the tale is that traditionally you only pay the doctor when you're well.
Of course that probably only works if the doctor doesn't get too rich.
I've heard that before, but don't know if that's actually how healthcare works in China. That seems a good idea as then Doctors are incentivised to use preventative medicine and to keep their patients well, but there'd be problems if Doctors get to choose which patients to treat. Also, doctors might just stop treating patients if it's a terminal disease and they don't expect them to ever recover.
It's a story. Obviously for the truth you could ask someone who knows about these things - that Roulero seems to have plenty to say on that topic.
but don't be ill too long or your emplyer will just fire you, losing your insurance coverage
Yes, because I like to be ill, so it's nice that there's an incentive to stop my lingering in that stage.
Well, something has to be done to stop all these sick people from eating into companies' profits.
Since they clearly don't seem to be apprised of their intelligence level, surely it's a kindness to let them know?
I bet if they had a small car trailer, they could leave that on the road and park their cargo bike on that.
Yes, they'd have to find a good way to secure it, but that's probably easier than fighting the council.
Not sure of the legality of having an unregistered trailer left on a public road in the UK; it's certainly illegal in countries like Australia, however, there's..
Rule 250 .. parked trailers must have lights at night.
Cars, goods vehicles not exceeding 2500 kg laden weight, invalid carriages, motorcycles and pedal cycles may be parked without lights on a road (or lay-by) with a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) or less if they are:
at least 10 metres (32 feet) away from any junction, close to the kerb and facing in the direction of the traffic flow
in a recognised parking place or lay-by.
Other vehicles and trailers, and all vehicles with projecting loads, MUST NOT be left on a road at night without lights.
Laws RVLR reg 24 & CUR reg 82(7)
Many of those front yards are tiled over anyway. Could they apply (if necessary?) to take down their front garden wall and then fit some heavy duty locking anchors in the front yard? Wouldn't even need a dropped kerb.
A moped can be stolen as easily as this cargo e-bike (or maybe even more easily, as it can be loaded within seconds on a passenger car) yet no motorcyclist demands to have his own private public space, so I don't think they will get what they want.
To be honest though, with Duch level cycling infrastructure a cargo e-bike could be a family car killer, so cities will have to start thinking how to accomodate them.
Cars are the ultimate in private public space... I don't see many mopeds full-stop but where I've noticed people tend to store them on their own property for security.
Solutions? If you don't have stairs to overcome / you have a bit of physical strength then something like the Tern cargo bike family which are about "normal bike sized" and can stand upright. (Still may not help much if you want to carry bulky / heavy things to your front door e.g. in flats though e.g. if you need to stand the bike upright to go through doors / in a lift).
As others say, possibly a bike hangar / ark. (I like the suggestion to lock one to an EV charging point although most people won't be amused).
After that the generational process of getting building regulations changed to mandate bike storage. Note if there is ever sufficient demand there are other, quicker ways this can be done.
Agree about the potential of the cargo bike. Sadly most UK places are a very long way from the coverage - never mind quality - of infra which would persuade most people this was viable. And the culture is still firmly "how much? On a toy?".
Ask the council to install a kerbside EV charging post - chain the bike to the post. This would point up the hypocrisy and asymmetry of current provision (no pun intended).
Edit - actually that's a half-serious solution, and much harder to argue against. The charge point should, of course, cater equally to all EVs, including e-bikes and e-cargotrikes etc, and include as standard a robust anchor point (and maybe cctv?)
Ask the council to install an anchor. Similar to those used for motorbikes. This would require making part of the road 'exclusive' but if there were several anchors they could be used by other residents. Honestly though, I'm surprised the bike hasn't been half inched yet. Though I'm not sure three wheelers are top of a thief's list.
If the anchors are installed deep enough, it could double as motorbike bay too.
Surely this is no different than using cones or similar in an attempt to reserve "your parking space" outside your house, which isn't actually your owned property or officially reserved space.
By all means, petition the council for secure cycle parking facilities but you cannot just lay claim to a bit of the public highway for your exclusive use, regardless of how environmentally righteous your cause is.
Looks like the equivalent of territorial motorists leaving cones / wheelie bins on the public street for 'their' parking spot.
Or locking their car when they leave it on the public highway to prevent anyone obstructed by it from rolling it out of their way! We do give motorists (including myself) preferential access at some considerable collective cost.
Ban all parking on the road then?
banning parking on the road would be difficult, and probably not practicable
BUT how about restricting car ownership to those who have a suitable place to store it when not in use. The obvious being a driveway or garage, but a roadside permit for the street you live in (restricted to the number that the street can safely accomodate) or a rented lockup garage, or for those in cities, a year round permit for suitable carpark or the likes. but each address should be limited to the number of cars that they can store.
Streets like theirs were Victorian/Edwardian, built when nobody owned a car and the streets/roads were purely for getting from A to B (I know! Just imagine...). If you restricted car ownership to suitable space then you couldn't have more than one car per household (might focus people's minds a bit more?).
I can see a huge market for those 'parking garages' like they have in New York - you have to get a taxi or walk or something to go and get your car from a big private multi-storey storage facility.
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