North Bristol to the city centre race - bus vs train vs car vs bike

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

Bristol Post ran a Top Gear-style race this morning, with four journalists setting off from Stoke Gifford to Cabot Circus by bicycle, car, train and bus (see article).

Up to a point this was quite an interesting exercise, though I found it hard to follow the 'live feed' format.

As far as I can tell, they all set off from Nuffield Health Gym in Stoke Gifford at around 08.00:

The cyclist won, arriving at Cabot Circus some time before 08.34;
Emma Flanagan came second on the MetroBus m1, arriving at 08.34;
Kate Wilson was third having caught the 08.12 train from Parkway;
The motorist came in last, possibly at 08.54

The article also contained a poll:

62% of people correctly guessed that the bicycle would win;
21% thought the train would win;
10% thought the the car would come first;
7% backed the bus.

Obviously this kind of 'race' is very dependent on times and end points - both of which were directly served by the m1 route! It's almost as if they wanted to prove that MetroBus is better than the public think...
Given the 15-minute walk from the stations at either end of the course, the train did pretty well.

[rogerw]

Did the cyclists stop at all the red traffic lights?

[Red Squirrel]

Did the cyclists stop at all the red traffic lights?

He won't have come across many on Concorde Way!

[Bmblbzzz]

Link to the write up: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/live-north-bristol-city-centre-2632382

[Bmblbzzz]

The surprise to me was that the bus was so quick. Did it take a different route to the car? Did it really get 20 minutes worth of assistance from the bus lanes? And how much difference would it have made if it had stopped at Begbrook?