Opinion: Our Bournville responds to Places for People Consultation

Filed under: Consultation / LTNs / Opinions

Community group Our Bournville responds to the Bournville and Cotteridge Places for People Consultation. If you agree with it and want to support it, include a link to this page in your response to the consultation on Birmingham Be Heard before 2 July 2023.

Summary

• The scheme is not a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN), which was promised. A coherent area wide LTN would return streets back to quiet and safe residential use for walking, wheeling and cycling and be very cost effective compared to the proposed Places for People plan. It would also benefit all residents equally. Please refer to this guide to LTNs: https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/media/3844/lcc021-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-detail-v9.pdf

• We are concerned this plan will not provide the quiet, safe streets we need for people to enjoy more active travel (walking, wheeling and cycling).

• Car use has been restricted on very few streets. Unless car use is restricted over a wider area, modal shift is unlikely to occur since research shows ‘sticks’ are more effective than ‘carrots’ (Xiao et al, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00220-0).

• One-way streets will make active travel more difficult, which is counter to the aims of the Places for People Scheme.

• The plan does not comply with LTN1/20 as the volumes and speeds of vehicles on most streets will still be unsuitable for on-carriageway cycling and shared use infrastructure is uncomfortable for pedestrians in urban environments.

One-ways

• One-way streets result in higher traffic speeds as drivers know there is no one coming in the opposite direction. This will put people walking (especially trying to cross the street) and cycling at greater risk.  The current one-way on Griffins Brook Road is uncomfortable to walk on with children to get to the bus stop on the Bristol Road. The current one-ways around Katie Road are hostile to cycle on with children.

• The one-way streets will also make it more difficult to cycle because contraflow cycling is not included in the plans. This contravenes a key aim of Places for People to make cycling easier.

Cycle infrastructure

• It is fantastic to see protected cycleways included in the plans as such high quality infrastructure has been shown to increase the diversity of people choosing to cycle.

• However, shared use infrastructure is uncomfortable for cyclists and pedestrians. Please consider making these protected wherever possible, road widths of 6m for bus routes are accepted by other Local Authorities. Narrower roads and removal of the white centre line should also be considered and would reduce traffic speeds.

• Please ensure infrastructure is continuous over side roads and protected across junctions to keep people safe whilst cycling and prevent them from having to stop unnecessarily (ensure compliance with LTN1/20).

• The on-road cycle route would appear to be suitable for the speeds and volumes of traffic on Oak Tree Lane due to the current and proposed modal filters. The current filter has dramatically reduced traffic speeds and volumes all the way up to the junction of Selly Oak Road/Bournville Lane, making it a lovely route for cycling with children. However, parking restrictions would be needed to ensure the lane isn’t covered by parked cars.

• Please provide reassurance that trees will not be removed to provide cycleways. Removal of our mature trees would be detrimental to walking and cycling as they provide shade, shelter and a pleasant public realm. Shade will become increasingly critical as heat waves are becoming more frequent due to the climate crisis. The Healthy Streets Design Check UK (https://www.healthystreets.com/resources) used extensively by Transport for London recommends that tree cover is provided for the entire street where possible. Instead of removing our trees, please consider reallocating more road space.

Modal Filters

• It’s very disappointing that there aren’t more modal filters as originally envisaged. Particularly at the Cotteridge end of the area. Residents suffer from high speeds and volumes of motor traffic here and traffic calming won’t make the transformational change we need to help people switch to active travel. Filters are needed on Northfield Road, Selly Oak Road and Mary Vale Road in particular. There are 3 schools on Northfield Road/Selly Oak Road (and these streets are also used to access more schools nearby) and a popular shopping area on Mary Vale Road. Consider bus gates or rerouting buses so filters can be put in near to Cotteridge.

• It is extremely pleasing to see a modal filter on Oak Tree Lane as this will make part of the route up to Selly Oak Triangle safe for children to walk and cycle on at rush hour (currently it’s too dangerous). However, for the many families living south of the Selly Oak Road/Heath Road/Mary Vale Road junction it will still be too dangerous due to the lack of modal filters here. The plan fails to provide a safe north-south cycle route on or parallel to Linden Road. In addition a filter on Langleys Road would provide a more useful cycle route than College walk as it allows access to the shops, leisure facilities and blue cycleway at Selly Oak Triangle.

• The two filters at Bournville Green are well placed to stop through traffic which we fully support. Particularly since the junction of Willow Road/Raddlebarn Road/Woodlands Drive is dangerous for people cycling. However, there will still be a lot of traffic here because it’s a destination (shops, cafe, school, church, garden centre, Selly Oak Manor). Pedestrianisation and removal of car parking at Bournville Green would help to bring about the shift towards active travel we need to see. This is also needed outside the shops on Mary Vale Road.

Traffic calming

• In the absence of modal filters, traffic calming is welcomed on Northfield Road, Selly Oak Road and Bournville Lane.

• The aims of Places for People are to ‘reduce through traffic’ to make it ‘safer for people to walk and cycle and nicer to be outside for children to play and neighbours to chat’ and to reduce speeds to 20mph. Modal filters are the tool needed to provide this. If these are not provided then traffic calming will need to be severe to make a meaningful impact, and will also need to be cyclist friendly.

• The speed cushions mentioned for Northfield Road at the online consultation on 14/06/23 are one of the lightest forms of traffic calming and not appropriate for the speeds experienced daily on this street of 50mph+. Speed cushions are also not recommended for cyclists (7.6.8 LTN1/20). Between the junction with Station Road and Watford Road it is wide, straight and 300m long, with no street parking. This encourages drivers to speed due mainly to the excessive forward visibility (Figure 7.16 Manual for Streets, also p7, 5.12.3, p79, 7.4.4, 7.8.2).

• In order to achieve the stated aim of 20mph for all of the traffic calmed streets we would like to see horizontal and vertical deflections and a reduction in visibility: chicanes designed to reduce speeds to 20mph (see Table 6.1 LTN01/07), sinusoidal speed humps, and (particularly on Northfield Road) street trees planted in these chicanes to reduce forward visibility (5.12.3 LTN1/20). In addition, cycle bypasses ≥1.5m for the chicanes need to be provided (7.6.4 LTN1/20).

Example of chicanes planted with trees and with bicycle bypass. Provisional F3 cycle highway route in Veltum, Belgium.

Crossings

• We welcome the signalised and raised zebra crossings, many of which are in useful locations such as on routes to schools and across the busy Linden/Watford Road. The crossing at the Hole Lane/Heath Road South junction is particularly welcome though we are concerned that the difference in levels will be difficult to overcome. We would be pleased to hear how this will be tackled in order to remove the steps and provide easy and safe access for people walking, wheeling and cycling.

• We would also like to see an improvement to the crossing on Middleton Hall Road near to Station Road. It is used by many people to access Kings Norton train station but most drivers don’t seem to notice it so don’t stop. It’s very dangerous at the moment.

• Also there is a useful traffic free route which would greatly benefit from some crossings, particularly since the proposed one-ways will make some roads more dangerous. The route follows the river from Woodlands Park, across Hole Lane and brings you out on St Laurence Road. So crossings would be helpful on Woodlands Park Road, Hole Lane (the most dangerous) and St Laurence Road.

Other Comments

• We welcome the tightening of junction radii to reduce traffic speeds and help people to cross streets, and the area-wide 20mph limit. Though this speed needs to be designed in, rather than just putting up signs.

• It would be very helpful if you could connect the cycle path to the Rea Valley Route.

• The cycleway in the proposed plans connects to the wrong entrance of Bournville Train Station for step free access to the platforms and the canal towpath. Please consider connecting to the Mary Vale Road entrance in addition. It is also easier to connect to the Rea Valley Route from Mary Vale Road.

• Please could you plant as many trees as possible where they are lacking (on Northfield Road at the Watford Road end, Station Road, etc) to give us shelter and shade particularly when walking? Also more benches to help people walk further area needed (ideally every 100m: (https://www.healthystreets.com/resources)

• Please could you put in cycle stands around the area? Even single ones dotted around would be helpful for people visiting friends and family, shopping etc.

• Please could you improve the area around the crossing between Bournville Park and the church on the Linden Road, near to Bournville Village Primary school? At the moment it feels very car dominated and hostile. The busy, fast road really severs the school and park from the church and Bournville Green. Wider pavements and a different surface treatment would be helpful.

• It is disappointing to read in the FAQs and to hear in the online consultation that you expect the one-way streets on Beaumont and Mary Vale to increase traffic on Selly Oak Road and Northfield Road. If the whole area was designed as an LTN (as promised) this would not happen, and everyone would benefit equally from the scheme.

• Consider allowing motor traffic to turn right from Bristol Road down the A4040 (Oak Tree Lane) at the Selly Oak Triangle to reduce the need for traffic to travel east through our residential roads from the Bristol Road.

• In the crises of climate, inactivity, air quality etc. that we all face, these schemes need to be going in much faster.

• The scheme proposed includes much expensive and aesthetically intrusive infrastructure. Modal filters are a cheaper and more effective solution and so could cover a wider area and/or be accompanied with some placemaking measures such as planting, high quality paving and street furniture, which many residents would really appreciate.