Our response to the proposed A38 city centre changes

Filed under: Consultation

This is our response to the City Centre Movement and Access Strategy (Tranche 2) consultation. If you agree with our response, you can reply to say you agree with Better Streets for Birmingham’s response.

We enthusiastically welcome these proposals which will make vital progress towards achieving the city’s transport plan.

The proposals do not prevent cars from accessing addresses in the city centre, however will mean that some trips require a different route.

7 in 10 journeys in the city centre do not begin, and will not end, at a city centre address. The city centre is increasingly becoming a collection of expanding neighbourhoods where it makes little sense to continue having vast amounts of through-traffic using inappropriate local streets.

We support the delivery and offer the following considerations to the design team:

Westside (N) and Westside (S) naming

We think this naming convention is confusing and would urge a reconsideration so that they are distinct and do not include two different compass points.

A missed opportunity to extend the A38 cycle route to Smallbrook Queensway

We think this is a missed opportunity to deliver a short LCWIP cycle lane by extending the A38 route from Wrentham Street to Smallbrook Queensway along Bristol Street and Horse Fair. This would join up with the proposed cycle lane on Smallbrook Queensway, providing the most direct route from the A38 into the city centre, a recommended LTN1/20 design feature.

Pedestrianisation of Livery Street (between the Moda Living development and Snow Hill Station entrance)

Given the anti-weaving measures and reduction in traffic due to the bus gate on Great Charles Street Queensway, we would like to see the reinstatement of the previous modal filter here, enabling pedestrianisation between Great Charles Street Queensway and Lionel Street.

Bus lane times

The City Centre is busy at most hours and for this reason, bus priority needs a 24-hour approach. Fundamentally, if the roads aren’t considered busy enough to require the bus lane to be active, then surely they aren’t busy enough to require use of the bus lane? The bus lanes in these proposals need to be 24-hour to ensure that services at all hours are reliable.

Overall, we fully support these important changes and look forward to their implementation.