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news
Bristol & Bath Railway Path, near Whitehall Primary School, Bristol (Google Maps)“I feel safer between buses and cars”: Violent bikejackings force cyclists to avoid popular cycling path which has turned into “Wild West” with an “epidemic of joyriding”
UPDATE: After multiple calls from cyclists for CCTV cameras to be installed to deter the rising number of violent bikejackings on the popular walking and cycling route between Bristol and Bath, South Gloucestershire Council has told road.cc that action has finally been taken to do so.
A spokesperson for South Gloucestershire Council, said: “Due to recent incidents reported on the Bristol to Bath Railway Path, our Community Safety Team in partnership with the Police have installed targeted CCTV which will help to deter crime along our section and assist the Police with CCTV evidence in relation to any incidents. The CCTV will remain in place for as long as necessary.”
Original article from Wednesday, 13 November 2024 follows:
Despite all common logic indicating that a flat, traffic-free cycling path dotted with greenery would serve as a beloved and frequent haven for cyclists of all sorts, many are now saying that they feel “safer between buses and cars” and have been forced to avoid the route, after repeated incidents of violent bike robberies.
The Bristol & Bath Railway Path is a 13-mile long stretch of walking and cycling route, part of the National Cycling Network connecting Lawrence Hill station in Bristol to Locksbrook in Bath. It was the first major project undertaken by active travel charity Sustrans, who described it as “tranquil” and “ideal for a leisurely day out with friends or family”.
However, the recent spate of bikejackings, reported by cyclists on the Bristol Cyclists Facebook group, has turned it into anything but, with cyclists suggesting that they have been forced to avoid the route for the “foreseeable future”, amidst concerns that an “epidemic of joyriding” has turned the beloved cycling path into the “wild west”, with one even claiming that they feel “safer between buses and cars”.
Last week, Vivienne Rose wrote about an incident in which a Deliveroo rider on his e-bike was ambushed by three men, two of them on “very fast e-bikes” at the entrance onto the path by Whitehall Primary School. Upon reaching the Chocolate Factory housing development area a few hundred metres ahead, they allegedly pushed the cyclist off his bike and threatened him saying they had knives, eventually setting off towards Fishponds with his e-bike.
“I saw them going down and then up the path and witnessed the assault from the distance. I couldn’t see their faces as it was too dark, but heard them (young-ish aggressive male voices).”
“He [cyclist] said he’d only just bought it two weeks ago, poor guy, gutted for him, he’s now lost his income as a Deliveroo cyclist,” Rose added. “Victim was shaken, very very upset and had a few scrapes but otherwise okay. Thank you to the passers-by who also stopped and offered assistance. Be careful after dark out there! It was busy with people walking and cycling and such a shock to see how quickly they were able to assault someone and make off with their bike!”
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said: “We were called at 6.35pm on Wednesday 6 November to a report of a robbery on the Bristol and Bath Cycle Path in Greenbank. A man was assaulted and his e-bike stolen by three men described as being aged in their 20s and wearing all black clothing with black balaclavas.”
A couple of days later, Rowan Brunswick posted on the group that he was robbed of his bike around the same area. “My beloved Jamis road bike was stolen from me at knifepoint on the Bristol to Bath Railway Path near Lawrence Hill station last night,” he said.
“The lads who took it were riding around on it and I assume it’s been dumped somewhere in that area. Please reach out if you’ve seen it, it’s my pride and joy and my only way of getting around.”
Bikejacking victim with his cycle (Rowan Brunswick on Bristol Cyclists Facebook group)
Alex du Pre commented saying: “Really sorry to hear this and I sincerely encourage you to report this to the police. Being mugged at knifepoint anywhere is absolutely outrageous and completely intolerable. We should be able to cycle the path at any time without fear. I cycled up this stretch myself yesterday evening without incident although there were a few dodgy-looking types hanging around. I do hope your bike is found.”
Brunswick replied: “Those were probably the same dodgy types that I encountered, apart from they singled me out for special treatment. I'll definitely report it to the police when I’m feeling strong enough. I absolutely agree we should be able to cycle the path safely, I’ll be avoiding it for the foreseeable future though unfortunately. There are other ways to get home which don’t feel so much like the Wild West.”
“This is just getting ridiculous now. Imagine if this was car drivers getting carjacked? It would be stopped immediately.”
Other commentators also replied sharing similar sentiments. Nigel Shoosmith wrote: “Bristol & Bath Railway Path seems to be a place to avoid, especially the Bristol end, by all accounts. Probably safer on the road.
“In fact, if it’s a nice relaxing bike ride that you’re after, none of the local railway paths are for you right now. The coefficient of friction of slimy, soggy leaf mulch which covers much of the remaining routes that are actually still open ain’t up to much. Roads are, ironically, the safer bet.”
Mangotsfield Old Railway Station on Bristol and Bath Railway Path - via Matt Buck on Flickr Creative Commons
Alex du Pre posted: “Noticing a worrying number of posts on this group about criminal incidents along the Bristol Bath Railway Path, and hopefully those directly involved are reporting to the police (which you can do via the Avon and Somerset Police website).
“I’ve also found there is a police reporting tool called Street Safe, where you can anonymously report areas where you feel unsafe without having been directly involved as a victim or witness to an incident. If you Google Street Safe it should be the top hit. Members may wish to consider logging a report to hopefully raise the police awareness of issues on the cycle path.”
Rob Harris wrote: “I’m sorry to hear of this, it's a sad state of affairs… The B2B [Bristol to Bath] is just not a safe place to cycle anymore in the evenings in general whether it be theft or ignorant users with crazy strobe lights or no lights, high-speed e-bikes etc. As mentioned before, I use the roads most of the time now. It’s a shame the path is seen as a lawless place for the masked Sur-Ron tribe who take what they want.”
Marcus Campbell said: “This is just getting ridiculous now. Imagine if this was car drivers getting carjacked? It would be stopped immediately.”
> Concerns mount after latest wave of attacks on Bristol and Bath Railway Path
Besides calling on others to report to the police, one member suggested organising a “buddy stop” for lone cyclists to travel together after dark, while another even asked if they could start a campaign to install CCTV cameras along the path.
Meanwhile, the group is also rife with several posts about abandoned bikes, with cyclists sharing images hoping to find their owners via social media. One person wrote: “There seems to be an epidemic of joyriding thefts in Bristol now. What is going on?”
Speaking about the recent incidents, Chair of Bristol Cycling Campaign, Ian Pond said: “We are very concerned that there has been a spike in the amount of theft and criminal incidents on the Bristol Bath Railway Path based on the number of reports from path users on social media.
“This is something that seems to increase at this time of year after the clocks go back and so could be anticipated and pre-empted. We will be using our contacts at Bristol and South Gloucestershire councils and at Avon & Somerset Police to highlight the concerns of path users and ask for more action to be taken to reassure people who need to use the path.”
Just two months ago, Bristol & Bath Railway Path users reported “speeding” youths on “illegal e-scooters” intimidating cyclists and pedestrians, with one local suggesting someone may soon be “gravely injured” unless action is taken against the “group of two or three young guys” travelling “as fast as 50mph”.
Avon and Somerset Police responded saying that they had been undertaking patrols “with the intention to disrupt crime and antisocial behaviour and develop intelligence” and hoped that CCTV would soon be installed, but it was far from the first time that force had been made aware of safety issues, with numerous numerous reports of assaults and muggings on the path over the years.
road.cc has contacted Avon and Somerset Police for comment.
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after completing his 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 Cymru, and also likes to write 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.
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Thank you for the update, Adwitiya.
Interesting that the CCTV is installed on the South Gloucestershire section. The South Gloucestershire western border crosses the path at Staple Hill station, so presumably the CCTV is east from that point. As others have noted, most of the robberies have taken place on the Bristol third, to the west.
47 years ago, as a founder of Cyclebag (7.7.77) and Sustrans I am disappointed by all of this. Our original hopes were to "make Bristol safer for cyclists". I have cycled on the Gloucester Road for over 40 years and I feel that the increasing number of cyclists on that road over the years have made other road users more vigilant. Being based in Fishponds for a couple of years recently, I had a very different experience and felt quite unsafe when riding from Fishponds directly to Horfield. Cycling from Fishponds downtown, I find the Bristol and Bath Cyclepath (that I helped to build) slippery and bumpy, especially the tree roots.
There are still way too many cars and way too much unneccesary car use in Bristol. The whole city needs to be made safe for cyclists and pedestrians. Post-1973, Denmark did it overnight by prioritising cycling and walking. We should all be comfortable and safe to cycle on every road in Bristol, including, but not exclusively, on dedicated cycle paths.
PS Many years ago an excellent leaflet was produced in Oxford. On one side, for cyclists, "how to understand the needs of bus drivers". The other side, for bus drivers "how to understand the needs of cyclists".
As part of learning to drive (and after any motoring conviction / fine) every person should be 'sentenced' to ride a bicycle around Bristol with a friendly experienced Bike Buddy. [ Briefly there was a Bike Buddy project for children wanting to cycle to school in Bristol in the 1980's. ]
George Platts (Cyclebag // Sustrans) 16 11 2024
.
Interesting to hear from someone who was involved in the Bristol-Bath path. I think it's largely a victim of its own success, most notably during commuting times when the Bristol end gets very busy. I don't use it very often myself (I prefer tangling with Bristol traffic on the roads instead) but I don't think the surface is too bad, though there are some bumpy sections.
We definitely need far better cycling infrastructure in Bristol - I can't think of any that is actually fit for purpose.
Personally, whilst I appreciate the importance of separated infrastructure to get people used to cycling, I prefer to use the roads. It's important that the right of cyclists to use roads isn't reduced due to having the odd bits of cycle infrastructure dotted here and there - the roads are the joined up infrastructure that our taxes have paid for and it's shocking how many roads are just left to crumble due to lack of investment in repairs.
On the last that's also a problem of success in many ways and I don't think is fixable by "more of the same". Roads attract motoring - better quality roads arguably more so. More drivers = faster wear (yes - predominantly heavier vehicles do the damage but once the surface is broken it's water damage and probably "light" cars chew it up effectively also).
Where roads are heavily used it's literally pouring money into holes in the ground *.
If we can either have zero vehicles (separate cycle infra) or at least share where motor traffic levels are very low then there is far less damage - which is the most dangerous to cyclists anyway.
Having been reading Laura Laker's book on the NCN and some of the history - while some Sustrans paths have not aged brilliantly that may be due to constraints of creating them eg. doing this as a charity with volunteer labour, sometimes time pressures and in places with trees which haven't been planted / managed like eg. they do in NL. Imagine how long the road network would have lasted if built that way...
* There's also how we manage utilities work which has a large effect also...
I totally agree. I used to commute through Long Ashton and only started getting agro from motorists when the pavement was made to be a shared path. the road is often the better surface and the more direct route.
I regularly go through Long Ashton and didn't know there are shared paths
Doesn't Festival Way go through LA, and is flagged as 'shared-use'?
You're right. I just use the main Long Ashton Rd to get between the A370 and Ashton Court/B3128. Looking at a map, Festival Way doesn't go far enough for it to be worthwhile using for me and I suspect it would be slower.
I followed Festival Way through Long Ashton as an experiment once, having noticed a sign. It's not terrible but it is bitty, switching between shared use and residential streets. Many turns. I haven't felt the urge to use it since.
Chrisonabike and others often make a good point - infra is not really for those of us already confident (falsely?) on roads, it is for those who currently don't cycle. I often wonder if this type of afterthought infrastructure really helps, because it is so often out of sight, with hidden bends for muggers and worse. Long Ashton is probably not muggerton but there are many similar facilities in parts of the city that definitely are.
Well my guilty secret (not really) is that my most used and favourite routes in Edinburgh are ... shared use paths! Stuff I often suggest is doing less than half a job. But in the specific cases here the parts I use are still better for the "cyclists of today" *also* than the local roads. Primarily for *speed*!
Main reason - going to the shops I avoid at least 4 traffic lights - plus some junctions without signals. Going to town that almost doubles. Even if a bit slower on the path that makes all the difference by itself.
The surface is a lot better - yes, occasional broken glass but the roads here mean pot hole craters but also lots of rough surface which saps energy.
These paths are former railways so have other benefits (mild gradients, quiet and green). I've come to realise that even just "not riding amongst the cars" eg. beside them but separate (even if not in a glade, like on the paths) is a much more relaxed experience.
Of course, the paths lack "social safety" - I'm just lucky there hasn't been a crime wave here (there have been some isolated bad events here - if like Bristol or London I'd have to reconsider use).
Again this is an accident of history (and where I could choose to live...) As you say the usual UK experience of bits of shared use, "quiet streets" etc lacks almost all the "minimum requirements" - isn't direct, isn't simple for wayfinding, makes you stop and start *more* than using roads, isn't continuous anyway, still makes you cycle in traffic at points *and* puts you into conflict with pedestrians, may lack "social safety"...
AND it is (presumably - if not just cynically getting grants and ticking boxes) supposed to be *more* attractive than driving that journey!
(If anyone thought of that, perhaps they didn't / couldn't...)
Feels a bit unfair to refer to the entire B2B cycle path when this only affects the 1/3 of the route closest to Bristol (bandit country); only feeds the (boring) non-cyclists impression that "it's dangerous on there!". I'm on the other 2/3 (mainly) and have done 100s of journeys (mainly commuting) over the last 15 years; the only 'yoof' aggro (rarely) I see is mainly in the summer and based around illegal e bikes being ridden erratically. The only thing to watch out for at the moment are kamikaze squirrels and cyclists on chipped e-bikes (+30 mph is way to fast to weave around pedestrians and other cyclists). I'll be on 'the path' later....
How about a Charles Bronson cyclist, going up and down the path looking for these guys ?
Some kind of cycling vigilante you mean ?
I'd mostly choose the road over the path at night-time . There's a few blind corners and there's plenty of places that bad'uns can run away to.
Again, the issue is sufficient policing. I reckon a video drone would be perfect for identifying suspects along there.
Part of the problem is that the Path takes people away from well-lit and/or accessible/visible spaces.
I agree that a regular drone patrol (c'mon! PC Tech-Support could run that from a cafe) or permanent mounted cameras would be good, if Avon & Somerset can't put actual boots on the ground there.
I think drones would be good as they could fly regular patrols and most people would go "what's that?" and look straight up at them. Then, if a mugging is reported, they've got a nice selection of faces to use as suspects.
Not sure about the drone for face collection. All the bad 'uns I have seen lately wear masks (while riding their illegal electric or ice motorcycles). On the other hand, if the drone was Flere-Imsaho...
If it was one of these, it could just grab the mask and remove it. And if the miscreant resists, it can just self-destruct. That'll learn 'em.
To combat that, the drone needs to be identifying groups before or after the crime when they might not be wearing masks. I do see a lot of delivery riders (on illegal e-motorbikes) with their faces covered, so I wonder why that doesn't give police a probable cause to stop and search them.
I kind of assumed they always wore masks, even at home. Sitting on the sofa with their stolen games console, mumbling 'so unfair' when their mother says 'masks off now for your tea'.
I do see a lot of delivery riders (on illegal e-motorbikes) with their faces covered
There are groups of them around Preston and along the A6- obviously illegal ebikes, all wearing masks, one following another. Total inaction from the police, as usual
I really wish they would!! It's everywhere and it makes Bristol feel so sketchy. My sister came over from Plymouth and she was really shocked (I'd assumed it was like that everywhere!!)
No doubt it will catch on in Plymouth, but it is Devon, where everything happens 10 years later. Not least the buses.
I am allowed to be rude about Devon because I went to school in Torquay.
I don't know how many people in this thread know Bristol, but young men on bikes wearing ski masks and balaclavas are depressingly ubiquitous (even most Deliveroo and Just Eat couriers seem to wear them, including during the warm months of the year)
And they all seem to hang around outside that shop that sells electric scooters and motorbikes, just off the Centre (near where Roll for the Soul used to be, on Quay Street).
Video drone? Perhaps there would be some rather recent migrants with just those skills in the UK? (Probably have to disable the button saying "drop shell" in Russian/Ukranian though).
May I suggest not disabling the drop shell button. One less "Loon" 😆
So .... the problem of car loon is now manifest as the same problem in different costume, in the form of bike and scooter loonery. Surprise! The wunnerful cycling infrastructure turns out not to be the solution to the car loon dangers that such infrastructure is supposed to reduce or eliminate. One merely meets a different variety of loon intent on doing other harms of various kinds, physicial and psychological.
No rozzers policing the roads for loon .... or the cycle paths either, then.
May I just repeat, for the 319th time - the solution to loonery is loon-catching and prevention of looning, not some new stretches of tarmac supposedly reserved for the looned-upon. Loons will get everywhere if let to roam free of constraints.
**************
How long before the less-wise looned-upon go true vigilante? One feels an impending doom generally, with a descent into a lawless free-for-all now visible on the various social horizons. Who will be skewered first - a loon or a loon-hunter? The new-old mantra is now, once more, might is right. The rule of law is for pilgrims!
I blame The Thatcher Thing and her decree that there should be no society. Millions have been stupid enough to believe her then vote for the various society-deconstructors.
I still find it wild that a government got elected on a platform of "just not gonna do my job really."
Presumably it's in the long tradition of "Authority is oppression. Even for the milder kleptocracies the bigger the state the more of our cash they'll steal (tax). Ergo vote for those who say 'smaller government, less regulation' or 'my job is to sack bureaucrats and cut waste / red tape' ". As has clearly become the dominant thing in the US again and a popular thread across Europe and indeed a couple of parties in the UK.
Or perhaps they were reading the Tao Te Ching: "I take no action and people are reformed. I enjoy peace and people become honest. I do nothing and people become rich."
Of course what happens is that once in power those leaders espousing this philosophy don't "work every day" to abolish themselves. Or their mates.
And even if they did, it seems human society abhors a (power) vacuum and someone else (if not politicians / the military then businesses and criminals) will be right along to fill the gap and "organise" people and services, for cash. Plenty of examples throughout history and indeed current in the world.