Birmingham announces a series of schemes intended to improve cycling along major city routes

Birmingham City Council is to spend almost £2.8m on a number of projects as part of the Birmingham Cycle Revolution (BCR). The three major routes set for improvements in this phase are the Bristol Road corridor, the Lichfield Road main corridor and the A47 Parkway main corridor. Changes to ten quieter ‘parallel’ routes have also been approved.

There is no mention of segregation for on-road routes, while shared footways and cycle lanes within bus lanes feature prominently. The work to develop all routes should be complete by spring 2016 with additional BCR phases to follow.

Councillor Tahir Ali, Cabinet Member for Development, Transport and the Economy, said:

“This work will provide a safer environment for all users of the public highway, but particularly cyclists. By doing this, we will help encourage more people to take their journeys by bike, enabling us to ease some of the congestion on our roads.

“This is an important piece of our wider ‘Birmingham Connected’ integrated transport strategy – and complements all of the other improvements we are delivering in the city.”

Councillor Lisa Trickett, Cabinet Member for Sustainability at Birmingham City Council, said that a great deal of work had already been completed on canal towpaths and green routes through parks and open spaces. She said this phase of work would build upon the progress made to date, linking up many of these sections.

“What we are doing is putting in place all of the infrastructure we need if we are to offer citizens, visitors and commuters in Birmingham a better experience when travelling around the city as part of our Birmingham Connected Strategy.”

BCR is a Birmingham City Council initiative, the objective of which is to make cycling an everyday way to travel in Birmingham over the next 20 years. The aim is for five per cent of all trips in the city to be made by bike by 2023 and for this to double by 2033.

In March we reported how the leader of the Conservative opposition on Birmingham City Council believes the BCR project will lead to greater congestion for motorists and says the council should focus on measures to keep cyclists away from main roads.

Councillor Robert Alden said that plans to put separated cycle lanes along streets such as Hagley Road in Edgbaston as part of the investment in cycling in the city would not encourage more people onto bikes. He believes the council would be better-off investing in upgrading routes in parks or on canal towpaths to keep bicycles off the road.