Plans to funnel pedestrians onto narrow crossing will “make conflict with cyclists worse” on new bike path – but council says it’s reluctant to clamp down on drivers “abusing” yellow boxes and blocking cycle lane

Proposed changes to a busy junction in Bristol city centre, which involve installing planters on the pavement to restrict crossing points near a cycle path, will “worsen” the conflict between cyclists and pedestrians at a spot where people on bikes already “get annoyed”, a councillor has claimed.

However, the local authority has said that, by funnelling people into a narrower space, it will prevent them from crossing at a “more dangerous and hazardous position”.

The council also admitted that it is reluctant to start clamping down on motorists encroaching on a nearby yellow box, labelled one of the “most abused in the city”, and blocking the cycle lane – because it means they will have to start properly enforcing others, some of which they claim are not “ideally designed”.

Bristol City Council are planning to spend £1 million to overhaul the layout of the junction at College Green, Anchor Road, and St Augustine’s Parade.

According to B24/7, at some parts of the junction the pavement will be made much wider, reducing the width of the road in the process. However, in others, new planters will be installed on the pavement and road, to funnel pedestrians onto a narrow crossing.

The council says this is necessary because the small pedestrian crossing that leads from the fountains to St Augustine’s Parade near Denmark Street is often overcrowded, prompting people to walk on the road instead to cross.

The changes to the junction form part of wider plans for Park Street, which include implementing a bus gate that would prevent through-traffic from accessing the shopping street and a banned left turn coming off Anchor Road onto College Green, while also upgrading the traffic lights.

But while Bristol City Council says the planned vegetation at the junction will prevent pedestrians from “dangerously” walking on the road, one councillor told a recent meeting of the local authority’s transport committee that the plans would only increase conflict with people on bikes crossing over to the cycle path next to the pavement.

“The pedestrian crossing over St Augustine’s Parade is still in its existing place, and vegetation is being put into the east of it,” Liberal Democrat councillor Nicholas Coombes said this week.

“But that constricted crossing that conflicts with the fairly newish cycle path is still as is, which I think is a missed opportunity to fix some of the problems of the earlier scheme.

“I mostly use this during peak time, and there’s a lot of conflict at that particular crossing. There are lots of pedestrians, lots of cyclists get annoyed with them because they want to be moving quickly, and there are people trying to be on both sides of the cycle path and both sides of the road. The introduction of vegetation to the east makes the conflict worse.”

Coombes also pointed out that moving the stop line for cars further back could create more space for pedestrians – a suggestion kiboshed by the city’s head of transport, Adam Crowther, who argued this would reduce the junction’s capacity and add to safety issues.

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However, Crowther did note that the recently installed bike path could be painted a different colour to “better indicate its purpose”, while admitting that he doesn’t believe there’s a “perfect solution” in that location.

“It has been looked at in detail and we’ve gone round lots of different options for how that could work to get to the concluded design,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s a perfect solution in that location, due to the space available and all of the movements happening through there.

“The vegetation is to discourage people from crossing in advance of the traffic stop line. We’re asking people to cross across the cycle route and use the pedestrian crossing, but obviously a lot of people won’t do that, they’ll cross across the advance cycle stop line.

“That bulge is to stop people from crossing in front of the traffic stop line, a more dangerous and hazardous position.”

Crowther was also asked about the junction’s yellow box, which is designed to stop motorists from entering part of the road unless they can exit to prevent congestion, but which councillors says is one of the “most abused in the city”, with drivers often ignoring the rules, clogging up both the road and the cycle lane.

“Enforcing yellow boxes is quite challenging, because if you start enforcing one then the implication is that you’re enforcing lots,” Crowther said.

“Some of the older yellow boxes may not be ideally designed. One of the issues with yellow boxes is that people drive into them thinking that there’s a space to get out, and then there isn’t. You can be caught unawares.

“There’s a risk that if you start enforcing them, without properly reassessing all the yellow boxes, then you can have negative impacts.

“People would go ‘well I’m never going to go anywhere near a yellow box’. When you look at some yellow boxes on roundabouts, for example, it’s quite difficult for a driver to know if there’s going to be a gap at the end of the yellow box.”