Our response to the Moor Green Lane proposals

Filed under: Consultation / LTNs

This is our response to proposals to remove through-traffic from Moor Green Lane from Birmingham City Council. If you agree with our response, you can reply to say you agree with Better Streets for Birmingham’s response.

The Moor Green Lane proposals are a response to proven concerns from residents of a group of streets grouped as ‘West Moseley’ to curb the everyday occurrence of speeding on residential roads and reinforce the road hierarchy.

The measures would filter a popular shortcut but the impact on SEN children’s nearby school journeys is currently unclear.

Universal support must not be used as a threshold for traffic management interventions, which is why the use of experimental orders are sensible in these scenarios, however there are clear challenges with this particular proposal.

We are unable to endorse these proposals at this time.

However, doing nothing is not an option given we know that speeding through-traffic is a significant issue in this area, therefore we have put forward alternatives. The reality is that the council may not have enough funding or resources to pursue them.

The wider context

There are serious issues with our roads. Dangerous driving kills and maims innocent people, an average of 437 killed or seriously injured every year for the last decade. Horrendous congestion costs the city an estimated £400m a year in lost productivity. Hundreds of lives are lost to air pollution each year. Selfish pavement parking blights the entire city, creating hostile environments that create considerable challenges for disabled people, parents and children getting about. 

The problems cars cause significantly outweigh the benefits they provide as a whole.

Car ownership levels continue to rise while vehicles get larger and heavier. Even if overall car ownership did not increase, as more people change to newer cars, our road capacity and quality will continue to deteriorate.

The city has a hierarchy of classified roads to handle different amounts and types of traffic. Only 35% of the city’s residential roads are open to through-traffic, yet many drivers choose to use them as shortcuts through them to shave moments off their journey.

We have evidence from cities across the world that if you provide people with viable alternatives to driving for most trips, they will use them. Many people in these cities also drive when it’s the right tool for the job.

One of the biggest causes of delays to our buses is congestion, caused by so many cars making short trips. Improving bus services means changing the space on our roads and introducing bus lanes, bus gates and giving buses priority at traffic lights. Where this is not possible, for example on parts of Alcester Road, we need to reduce the number of cars on the road.

To reduce the number of cars on the road and make buses more reliable, as well as reopening the Camp Hill railway line, we need to help people to make more journeys by walking, wheeling and cycling.

We live in an especially car-centric city, in a car-centric country, where 80 years of urban design have made driving the only choice for many. Many people feel they have no choice but to own a car. And once someone owns a car, the natural inclination is to use it for every journey. Especially when the alternatives are unsafe or unreliable.

This is the cycle that the Birmingham Transport Plan and Draft Road Harm Reduction Strategy are looking to break, through:

• Making through-traffic use main roads instead of residential roads
• Slow traffic down: 30mph on main roads and 20mph on residential roads
• Ensure that buses do not get stuck in traffic
• Provide people who wheel and cycle with a network of safe and direct routes
• Prioritise people who walk, wheel and cycle at junctions

Implemented fully, these plans would transform the city, making it a significantly nicer place to work, live and play in. The plans would, importantly, save lives. They would save the city money. They would save the emergency services money. They would boost the productivity of businesses. They have the potential to save ordinary people money (insurance premiums in Wales are coming down because of the improvements to the safety of roads resulting from the 20mph default speed limit). They would improve health levels across the city.

We ultimately believe that providing the greatest amount of convenience to driving should not be prioritised over the lives of our citizens.

The local context

Councillor Izzy Knowles recently published a blog explaining the rationale for the scheme which is worth a read.

In West Moseley, the residents of Russell Road have been campaigning for over two decades for something to be done to improve the safety of their road. They have a volume of traffic that is not suitable for their relatively narrow road. Residents have captured significant data over the years of speed limit breaches, which has been confirmed through Council data collection. Through the volume and speed of traffic, Russell Road is unsafe to cycle on, and even walking along it is unpleasant due to the narrow pavements.

As a result of this campaign, the Council considered implementing a traditional traffic calming scheme in 2022. Last year, the Council dropped these plans because they were too expensive (£612,500) and did not feel they would improve overall road safety. Similarly, Russell Road is unlikely to get speed cameras and Council Officers have indicated a series of main roads (the Key Route Network) will be prioritised for new enforcement.

Following further engagement between the Council and residents, a possible closing of Russell Road to through-traffic was floated and the Council conducted a traffic survey of the wider area.

The data showed that as bad as the traffic is on Russell Road, more through-traffic uses Moor Green Lane, and that removing this as a shortcut would be more effective and protect a wider number of streets through a low-cost intervention like a modal filter. A modal filter is where general traffic cannot pass a certain point, usually because of bollards, but people walking, wheeling or cycling are still permitted to travel through.

This road is part of various shortcuts through the area:

• Avenue Road to Shutlock Lane to Moor Green Lane to Russell Road
• Dogpool Lane to Moor Green Lane to Reddings Road
• Pineapple Road to Shutlock Lane to Moor Green Lane to Reddings Road
• Pineapple Road to Shutlock Lane to Moor Green Lane to Russell Road

A modal filter on Moor Green Lane, north of the junction with Shutlock Lane, would remove four shortcuts from the area.

The Council has been right to design and consult on a scheme to solve the problems faced on these roads, and we thank them for their pace on these proposals. This has been quicker than the wider LTN due to not needing to go through regional governance processes.

Our response

Positives

We fully understand why the council would choose this bold option and support the principles of the proposal. The placement of the filter is clever in its objectives and it would be a gamechanger for Moor Green Primary School, removing significant amounts of through-traffic from the surrounding roads and making it easier to walk or cycle to from Moseley.

The reaction to this proposal, from a far-reaching area of South and East Birmingham, reflects the data that this is a popular shortcut through residential area. The proposed filter is in line with the Birmingham Transport Plan, which aims to reinforce the use of main roads over residential streets.

We are happy to see the scheme proposed using an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) as it is explicitly being installed with the possibility of reacting to feedback from the implementation. If this scheme is approved, signs would need to be installed as quickly as possible on all the roads leading to the filter warning of the impending road closure.

Potential issues

Local SEN schools and health facilities

A compelling case has been made by parents at the three SEN schools in the immediate area who have no choice but to drive. They are concerned about the ability of their disabled children to tolerate any increases to journey times, which may lead to additional distress.

While estimations of added journey minutes are as yet unproven and possibly exaggerated, this would need to be monitored with further traffic management interventions ready, for example, adjusting the green filter timing at Pershore Road – Edgbaston Road junction. Should the filter go ahead, more engagement is required with the schools and adjacent NHS facilities. More broadly, however, the delivery of the Birmingham Transport Plan and installation of modal filters should generally remove traffic making it easier for people who have no alternative but to drive to get around.

Any work that could be done with mainstream schools in the area to increase active travel to and from schools would also be welcome to reduce overall congestion and enable better traffic flow for the SEN families that do need to use cars to transport their children to and from school.

Due to the delayed implementation of Phase 2 of the Kings Heath and Moseley LTN, the Springfield Road to Valentine Road to Queensbridge Road to Russell Road shortcut will not be closed until the end of the year. The proposals along with Phase 2 should see a significant decrease in through-traffic using Russell Road.

The delayed delivery of nearby LTNs

If the proposals were installed before Phase 2 of the LTN, we would also expect to see the bollard on Station Road in Kings Heath regularly displaced, meaning that traffic could use this as a shortcut, creating congestion at both ends of the road.

The delayed delivery of the Camp Hill Line

The delayed opening of the Camp Hill Line stations and Alcester Road bus priority measures also mean that reliable, genuine alternatives to driving are within reach but not yet delivered.

Traffic management in the wider area

With Avenue Road to Dogpool Lane proposed as the main route from West Kings Heath to the city centre, there is a risk that the junction between Dogpool Lane and Pershore Road would become even more congested than it currently is. While the shortcut to Reddings Road will be closed, the traffic from Avenue Road to Russell Road will now have to take this route. This junction should have traffic lights installed to help better manage traffic levels. This would also help the buses on Pershore Road, as well as the number 76.

Of further concern is that this scheme will see an increase in traffic making illegal right turns into Cecil and Franklin Roads to cut-through to the city-bound Pershore Road. Whilst the residents successfully campaigned to have modal filters installed as part of the Cross-city Bus Scheme, the Pershore Road part of that has been parked, with no indication of when it might happen. We would suggest that this scheme be implemented by the council instead, and sooner rather than later.

Lack of improvements for cycling connections

Finally, the proposed filter would not improve cycling safety in the wider area. The steepness of both Moor Green Lane and Avenue Road makes it unlikely that many people would choose this route to travel between Kings Heath and the city centre. We suggest that ultimately, Russell Road needs a modal filter to reduce through-traffic as well as provide a safe cycling route between Kings Heath and the city centre. We can see no other viable alternative to provide a year-round solution to that.

Alternatives

There is clearly significant opposition to this scheme. However if nothing is done, the road safety issues that residents have been campaigning on for several decades will continue to exist, as they do in many areas across the city.

We would like to offer some alternative modal filter ideas. While they would not be as transformative to the traffic levels in the area, we feel they are worth considering.

Protect Moor Green Lane Primary School

Moor Green Lane Primary School suffers from drivers taking shortcuts past its entrance, as identified in the traffic survey, as well as congestion at peak school drop-off/pick-up times. A modal filter on the top of its section of Moor Green Lane, just before the junction with Shutlock Road, would remove all that traffic in one go, whilst still allowing people to get from Dogpool Lane to Reddings Lane.

This would be transformative for the school and would also encourage more families to walk and cycle to school by providing a safer environment. We believe proposals must also consider the safety of the Moor Green Lane  pupils alongside those attending the schools on Queensbridge Road.

Improve the safety of pupils at schools on Queensbridge Road

Queensbridge Road has a secondary school on it, in addition to the 3 SEN schools. There are significant numbers of pupils that need to use Queensbridge Road to get to the school. There are also pupils needing to use it to get to Kings Heath Primary School. The overly wide junction with Yew Tree Road, which people use as a shortcut to get from Alcester Road to Moor Green Lane, is extremely hazardous to cross. A modal filter at the junction would render that junction safe for school children to cross.

Reduce the flow of traffic from Pineapple Road

Pineapple Road is part of two of the four shortcuts affecting Moor Green Lane. We believe that a modal filter just north of the junction with Lewis Road would remove some of the traffic from Moor Green Lane, as well as improving safety on Pineapple Road itself.

Conclusion

We regret that we are unable to endorse the proposals in their current form at this time.

We know that this may come as a disappointment to local residents as doing nothing means that West Moseley will continue to be used as a shortcut with speeding a constant occurrence, which is why we have suggested alternative measures.

This is the type of bold proposal needed to address the road safety emergency and deliver the Birmingham Transport Plan. Modal filters are an important tool necessary for reinforcing our road network’s hierarchy. We continue to advocate for the use of modal filters across the city in order to make our streets safer.

However, we believe that some time is needed to revisit these plans once the Camp Hill line, bus priority and LTN phase 2 projects are delivered. We would like to see a bolstered period of engagement with the SEN schools and health facilities before this is brought back to the table, although admit that this might be beyond the current capacity of the council.

Finally, we would like to express our disappointment in the unhealthy level of heat, from across the community and from all points of view, that has been put on our city councillors and council officers in response to them addressing well-evidenced road safety issues. People are perfectly entitled to all views on proposals, but personal abuse is unnecessary. We should all take time to reflect on this for future engagement.