Features / Transport
Bus gate battles and signage shenanigans
Matt Sanders is exactly the man you want on your side if you are one of the thousands of drivers this year who has received a fine, or even multiple fines, for driving through the bus gate on Cumberland Road on Spike Island.
Matt blames Bristol24/7 for the beginning of his campaign, after we reported in March that more than half a million pounds had been raked in since enforcement began on January 2.
Since then, Matt has helped a number of people win appeals against their penalty notices, which has led the council to erect new signs which Matt says are still not correct and has led him to make his own larger versions.
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Matt admits that his campaigning has became a bit of a hobby. Over the course of this year, he has spent weeks writing a dossier that has since been updated as well as using his design know-how to make signs the exact size and colour stipulated in government regulations.
So why is he continuing his campaign? “Well, I wasn’t expecting it to go on this long! I honestly naively thought that if I just pointed out the problems, the council would sort it out. Well of course not! Because if they correct stuff, then that means admitting it was wrong.”
Is campaigning something he enjoys? “To some extent,” he answered. “I do need to renovate my bathroom and I could have been doing that all year instead of doing this!”
Matt Sanders next to the bus gate on Cumberland Road which had red asphalt added to it to make it more visible – photo: Martin Booth
Matt, 54, who lives in Victoria Park, is a freelance set designer for TV and film and has previously worked for Aardman, whose headquarters on Gas Ferry Road are only a catalytic converter’s toss from the bus gate that is now as notorious as Feathers McGraw.
Prior to the pandemic, he campaigned for the Bottle Yard Studios car park in Hengrove to be cleared of old nails and screws that had been causing punctures, taking around 400 photos of bits and metal and putting posters up in the hope that something would be done.
Injustice and being palmed off are the driving forces behind Matt’s campaigning, with his knowledge of bus gates beginning in 2022 when he was fined on a visit to Brighton for unknowingly driving through one while leaving the city.
He tried to appeal the penalty charge but it was rejected, so he sent a number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to Brighton & Hove City Council “and found all sorts of murky things going on”.
Matt clearly relishes detail and facts. Although he has not been officially diagnosed as being autistic, he believes he could well have Asperger’s Syndrome having read an article about it a few years ago and thinking many of the symptoms feel familiar.
It was while Matt was working on the new Wallace & Gromit animation at Aardman’s studios in Aztec West that he read in Bristol24/7 about the bus gate. “And then I realised it was literally around the corner from Aardman’s other office.”
Because of his experiences in Brighton, Matt had read up in the official traffic signs manual what bus gate signage is supposed to look like.
“Most of the relevant stuff is in chapter three.” “What sub-section?” I jokingly asked Matt. “Section nine of chapter three. That’s bus lanes and bus gates.”
He added: “So because of that, when I first saw the photos of this one, I could tell what was wrong straight away. And also I messaged around Aardman to see if anyone had been caught out by this and around 20 people got in touch.”
Matt wrote up some details as to where the existing signage deviated from the official regulations and started helping some drivers to appeal their fines.
Around the same time in around April, he went to Athens with a group of friends. “They knew I was looking into this bus gate and they were all taking the piss basically. I was getting emails from various Freedom of Information requests while we were in Greece.”
When he got home from Athens, three of his friends on that one trip had penalty notices sitting on their doormats. “They had all driven through the bus gate and didn’t realise.” One of them paid their fine straight away but two appealed and one of those was the first case that Matt helped to win at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
A number of signs which Bristol City Council say exceed national standards warn drivers of the bus gate – photo: Martin Booth
Before this article was published, I contacted the press office at Bristol City Council who reiterated that all of the signage meets national regulations.
But Matt is not convinced: “The designers at the council have messed it up. I’m a designer. That’s why I spotted the issues. If I say the signage is wrong, that’s not my opinion; I’m pointing out the specific and exact regulations from the Department of Transport.”
In March, the council originally said they had more signage than was legally necessary but over the course of this year have added a few new signs and some red asphalt on the bus gate.
Matt said that although the council have used the correct signs, they are too small for a 30mph road. He also believes that according to the national guidance, there should be more signage on all of the approach roads to warn people that there is a bus gate, but these continue to be lacking.
The signs at Cumberland Basin warning drivers of the bus gate half a mile down Cumberland Road are, according to Matt, “are all the wrong size, the wrong colour, the wrong type of sign and also all in stupid positions where you can’t see them properly in time to react”.
So is this council ineptitude or something more sinister?
“When they did all the ones at Bristol Bridge they made lots of mistakes and they have since changed the signs several times,” Matt said.
“They have made a lot of the same mistakes here. So you think, is it carelessness? Or is it deliberate? There have been so many stupid careless things that have gone wrong that it could all be just lack of knowledge, lack of care and attention.
“But then some things, you think, but you did exactly the same things wrong two years before and then corrected it so why have you done it wrong again here?”
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In May, Matt pointed out dozens of what he says are mistakes in signage around Cumberland Basin, down Cumberland Road and on the side roads: Gas Ferry Road, Hanover Place and Mardyke Ferry Road.
Every appeal Matt has helped with relating to Gas Ferry Road so far has been successful.
One of Matt’s FOI requests revealed that in February, a project manager on the bus gate scheme wrote in an email to a colleague that “people don’t appear to understand the signs very well”, specifically at the end of Gas Ferry Road which was catching out lots of people who had parked at the SS Great Britain car park.
Since then, a new yellow sign (in the wrong shade of yellow according to Matt) has been added underneath the original sign.
This says: ‘Turn right except exempt vehicles’
“But it’s just jargon!” Matt said. “Who is exempt from turning right? Anyone can turn right. It’s turning left that’s the problem.
“If you have to add a sign with text to explain your original sign, the original sign doesn’t work does it! And if it says anything, it should say, ‘Turn right except permitted vehicles’… So it actually says the direct opposite of what it’s meaning to say!”
“I just think, who are these fuckwits?”
Matt Sanders with his suggested new signage next to the original sign that has had an extra yellow sign added underneath it (in the wrong shade of yellow according to Matt) – photo: Matt Sanders
One of the key pieces of evidence at the Traffic Penalty Tribunals has been that the sign on Gas Ferry Road was partly hidden behind a column as the road slightly bends to the left, so it cannot be seen until quite late and by the time you do see it, drivers need to look to the right to check for vehicles on Cumberland Road.
“The actual design is correct but then if you put it in a place where people can’t see it, then it fails and that’s what the tribunal latched onto,” Matt explained.
Night time and daytime appeals with drivers coming to the bus gate from Gas Ferry Road have both been successful. After these appeals were won, new signage was put in but – you guessed it – Matt says these are also insufficient. They may be more visible but they are now too high and too small.
Official guidance says that on a 20mph road, “advance direction signs” like this should have text of 75mm high and a blue ‘bus route’ symbol 450mm in diameter. After Matt got his ruler out and measured the new sign, he found the text is 50mm high and the blue symbol is only 300mm. So Matt made his own version of the signs at the size he says they should be.
But in the grand scheme of things, do these discrepancies actually matter?
Referring to the correctly-sized sign that he had made, Matt said: “It’s 50 per cent wider and 50 per cent taller, so the overall size is more than double. And if that sign was standing there, more people would see it. Some people would see this one (the current sign), it’ll alert some people, and the one at the junction.
“It’s not like it’s a complete failure. Some people will notice. But it doesn’t notify people well enough and the adjudicators have said that.”
In October, the council added another new sign on the right of Gas Ferry Road as you approach Cumberland Road. And yes, this one is also too small according to Matt.
Over the course of 2024, Matt has made numerous signs in his tit-for-tat battle with the council, as well as creating a missing poster for a sign that had been knocked down.
These posters ask anyone who received penalty notices while the sign had yet to be replaced to get in touch with him. And if there is anyone you want fighting your case, it’s Matt.
Matt Sanders says Bristol City Council should not have issued any penalty charge notices while a sign was not in place having been knocked down – photo: Martin Booth
In a statement sent to Bristol24/7, Ed Plowden, chair of the transport & connectivity committee at Bristol City Council, said: “The bus gate on Cumberland Road has been installed to help reduce air pollution and increase the number of bus travel options for residents.
“The signage installed surrounding the bus gate is compliant with the latest guidance and legislation from the Department for Transport, with the number of signs exceeding the requirements set out by the Traffic Signs Manual.
“The Cumberland Road bus gate is one of a number of measures in place across the city which have contributed to a fall in nitrogen dioxide levels by an average of 13 percent in 2023 compared with 2022, thus improving the city’s air quality and bringing about improvements to public and sustainable travel in Bristol.
“Since the introduction of the bus gate, penalty charge notices have consistently reduced, and this trend is continuing.
“We understand the frustration of drivers who have received a penalty charge notice by driving through the bus gate, and if someone feels the penalty is undeserved, they should appeal by visiting our website.
“It is the responsibility of all drivers to plan their journey appropriately and avoid bus gates. Drivers can find details of bus gates in Bristol on the council’s website.
“A temporary electronic sign was in place for a month after the installation, and since then we have introduced red surfacing and additional signage on Gas Ferry Road as part of respecting and responding to the feedback of drivers.
“Recent Tribunal decisions that have not fallen in favour of the council have not undermined the wider operation of the bus gate.
“However, officers have adjusted our existing signage and, if appropriate, will consider installing further additional signage.”
Matt has been in a tit-for-tat battle with Bristol City Council, attempting to prove their signage is inadequate by making his own correct versions – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo: Martin Booth
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