Our response to plans for the Knowledge Quarter

Filed under: Consultation

We have submitted this in reply to the Birmingham Knowledge Quarter Accessibility Consultation, which closes on 1 March 2026.

We would like to have our response considered to be in favour of this scheme, though we have significant reservations about aspects of the proposed design that we would like to have serious consideration given to changing them.

James Watt Queensway Super Crossing

We would go further, and make general traffic in the one lane give way to bus lane traffic. We also question the need for three lanes in the Jennens Road direction after the crossing.

We would also like to see a continuous footway crossing on that junction, making it clear that pedestrians and cyclists have priority over buses using that route.

We would like to point out that Aston University appears to have a cycling ban, will they reconsider how cycling traffic moves through their campus given the proposed improvements to cycling infrastructure in the area?

Jennens Road

Whilst the continuous crossings are very welcome, we would prefer to also see the junctions squared off, to make it practically impossible for vehicles to turn into the junctions at any kind of dangerous speed.

We are keen to see a primary cycle route along Jennens Road, given we were promised that this would be looked at following the removal of the pop-up lane several years ago. We look forward to a wider remodelling with lane reduction, trees and cycle lanes. In the interim, the bus lanes should be looked at to see whether they can be extended to improve cyclist safety – for example turning out of Cardigan Street and Woodcock Street in the carriageway.

We would also like to see the proposed two-stage direct crossing be a single stage crossing, as we would prefer to prioritise pedestrians over vehicles.

We would like to see the secondary entrance to Millennium Point car park on Howe Street closed, making that junction even safer for pedestrians.

We find it unclear if the new crossings are supposed to be the way to cross Jennens Road from Cardigan Street into Woodcock Street. Is it fair to ask cyclists to get off the carriageway and cross three or four times to get over to the other side?

Holt Street and Lister Street

We welcome the proposal to make the temporary modal filter on Holt Street permanent.

Rather than a traffic calming chicane and a new signalised crossing with a raised table, we suggest either installing a bus gate at the Lister Road junction with Dartmouth Middleway, or looking to re-route the 66 bus service to perform a loop around Woodcock Street and Holt Street and put a modal filter there instead. This would make Lister Street significantly more pleasant and safer for active travel modes of transport at a fraction of the cost.

This could form part of a low-traffic advisory route to get to the proposed Vauxhall & Duddeston low-traffic neighbourhood.

Woodcock Street

We approve of the raised zebra crossings, the continuous footway crossings, and the junction narrowing, all design principles that we would like to see replicated city-wide.

We do not understand why the designs appear to force cyclists to weave between the carriageway and shared footway at junctions. Is this the designer’s intention as surely the best route would be to remain in the carriageway if the road is deemed low-traffic enough for it to be an advisory route? Is it only to access cycle parking? Should that be clearer?

We would prefer to see all standard parking bays removed from the road, in line with the council’s policy to reduce parking capacity across the city centre.

Cardigan Street

We strongly object to the proposals for Cardigan Street.

We are baffled by the inclusion of single direction cycle lanes that just stop on the approach to bus stops. It seems particularly egregious to do this on the approach to a roundabout for the Millenium Point car park. Having a coloured protected cycle lane would surely make it much more obvious to oncoming traffic that there is an oncoming cycle lane, increasing cyclist safety.

As there will be a bus gate on this road, we suggest narrowing the road down to one lane on the bus gate section, freeing up space for a protected cycle lane with a bus stop bypass to be installed. For the bus stop on the Curzon Street facing lane, there appears to be plenty of room available to move the bus stop into the road and have a bus stop bypass behind it.

We also don’t understand why the cycle lanes don’t go right up to Curzon Street, instead of stopping 50m from the junction. The cycle infrastructure here needs proper linking – with demarcated separated routes – into routes through the Curzon Street and Eastside City Park site as set out in the current HS2 public realm planning proposal, and advisory links to Vauxhall & Duddeston LTN in the other, so would be worthy of consideration as a future scheme.

Conclusion

Whilst we are in favour of the aims of this scheme, we feel that there are elements that must be revised in order to make it usable, safe and convenient for pedestrians and cyclists. We hope to see this feedback incorporated as the scheme progresses.