Tuesday Morning commuters
Today, Rachel and I set up on Gloucester Road, at the junction with Station Road, North Road and Cotham Brow. I was on the west side of the street and Rachel was on the east (- she actually set up her bike with camera attached on the traffic island and it fortunately didn’t fall over). From 07.15 to 08.15 we observed and documented hundreds of cyclists, and like yesterday we came close to freezing by the time we left. We chose the location as we have been told that Gloucester Road is a popular cyclists route into the city and this junction presented a busy thoroughfare of cars, trucks, buses and cyclists. There were a few pedestrians but it is not an easy area to traverse on foot (limited crossings/ lights). Despite the early start, there was a steady stream of traffic. Hundreds of cyclists passed by, the vast majority following the road rules. I noticed only a few rolled ahead of the lights and this was often for clear reasons; the road narrowed on the east side and cyclists had to get ahead of traffic to avoid the risk of being pushed into the gutter. There was a handful of pavement cyclists on both sides, but they mostly re-joined the road after the junction. Most wore helmets and like yesterday there was a high incidence of fluorescent clothing. Rucksacks were prevalent, although I spotted a few panniers and one trailer. Bikes were diverse; road, hybrid, fixed, step-through city bikes, foldups, mountain. There were several with childseats attached (but only one child was spotted – possibly a bit early?). I noted the use of only one car horn in the hour and this was directed at another car. There was little, as far as I could tell, interaction between drivers and cyclists.
Tags: commuters
April 13th, 2011 at 5:37 am
You’ll see child seats on roads that go to primary schools, and Gloucester road is a commute route. Better to look at nugent hill, cotham road, cotham hill, or the junction of Marlborough st and the hospital car park.
Also look at: Southwell street (A complete mess that is popular with bikes and pedestrians), the junction of woodland road and Tyndall’s park avenue (no safe crossing), and the underpass by st pauls roundabout.
Your coverage of bicycle clothing appears not yet to have realised why so many locals where cycle specific clothing: its for the rain.
April 13th, 2011 at 6:34 am
Hi Steve, thanks for the suggestions. We’ll definitely check out those areas you mentioned and also a range of different hours (slightly later as well as the afternoon/eve). From research in other locations we found that what people wear to commute is definitely influenced by the weather and seasonality but also by the nature and length of their ride (on/off road route/hilly/flat/windy), the kind of job they have and workplace facilities, experience of cycling, type of bike, local media articles/representation as well as what others tend to wear and what is on sale at local bike shops. We’ve only just started research in Bristol but we’re interested to see which of these factors emerge in interviews.
Rain? It doesn’t rain in Bristol does it? We’ve only had amazingly sunny weather and a few chilly mornings so far.
April 13th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
A38 Bristol traffic is very different in school term time than school holidays.
There are noticeably more cars and more queues in term time.
Apparently day-care for younger children takes the same breaks, so that may be the reason for the unoccupied child seats? (or parents take backstreets when carrying children and main routes on the return or commute journey).
Both states are ‘normal’, but most of the schools are on a break at the moment, so do come back after Easter!
April 13th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Thanks Jay. That’s really interesting and helpful. We’ll be back for the month of June, which will no doubt present changes to commuting patterns.