Have your say

Improvements for buses on Highgate Middleway, Moseley Road and Alcester Road

Working with Transport for West Midlands, we want to speed up bus journeys by introducing new bus lanes and making improvements to existing bus lanes on Moseley Road and Alcester Road and building a new bus only road along Highgate Middleway. Changes to the pedestrian environment in Balsall Heath are also proposed.

Consultation runs until 8 November 2019, with full information online and two public drop in events are planned:

• Tuesday 15 October, 5.30pm to 7pm at Chamberlain Health and Fitness, B12 9FF
• Thursday 24 October, 2pm to 5pm at Balsall Heath Library, B12 9BX

Commonwealth Games Strategic Transport Plan

Transport for West Midlands have recently published the Birmingham 2022 Draft Games Strategic Transport Plan. The plan sets out the approach to the planning, provision and management of transport services during the games.

Consultation runs until 6 December 2019, with full information online and a number of public drop in sessions planned, including two more in Birmingham:

• Saturday 19 October, 10am to 3pm at The Parade, Sutton Coldfield, B72 1PL
• Saturday 23 November, 10am to 3pm at Goals, Perry Barr, B42 2UB

Perry Barr

Following public consultation last year on Sprint rapid transit, revised plans for the Perry Barr to Great Barr section of the Birmingham to Walsall route have been published. The route remains on the A34 as planned, but changes to the road alignment allow more of the on-street parking to remain.

A decision on the Perry Barr Highway Improvement scheme will be made at tomorrow’s (15 October) meeting of the council’s Cabinet. Under the proposals, Aldridge Road will be for buses and bicycles only, the flyover will be removed, Birchfield Island will be converted to a crossroads and the existing cycle route will be extended to the centre of Perry Barr.

With the large amount of construction work scheduled in Perry Barr, we want to ensure that disruption to people’s journey’s is minimised. At the end of the month, we will be launching a survey for everyone who travels into or through Perry Barr to find out how people are currently travelling and how we can keep them moving during the works.

HS2 works in central Birmingham

From today (Monday 14 October) to Sunday 27 October 2019, Curzon Street will be closed to traffic between New Canal Street and Cardigan Street. This is to allow holes to be dug to find exact locations of underground gas, electricity and water, in preparation for HS2 construction.

More about roadworks and closures can be found online at https://one.network/ and www.birmingham.gov.uk/roadworks.

Travel planning support for businesses and organisations

Are your staff ready for Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ)? If your business is in the CAZ or your staff travel to the city centre a lot, now is the time to get them thinking about how they are travelling. Although CAZ charges don’t begin until next summer, every trip made by public transport, walking and cycling instead of by car helps to make our air cleaner and reduce the city’s carbon emissions.

Modeshift STARS Business is a free online tool which you can use to:

• conduct a staff travel survey – find out how many staff might be affected by the CAZ
• create a simple workplace Travel Plan to get people travelling more sustainably
• work towards bronze, silver and gold accreditation

It’s FREE for Birmingham based businesses to register with Modeshift. For more information or to find out more, email connected@birmingham.gov.uk.

Car Free School Streets

Last month, we launched our first ever Car Free School Streets, where the the roads immediately outside six primary schools are closed to traffic at the start and end of the school day. We’ve had a fantastic response from schools, local residents and the media, and the children have loved the opportunity to safely use the space outside school.

Schools resources

As well as the Car Free School Streets initiative, we have many more resources available to help schools, including:

• Clean Air Cops and Roadstars, lesson plans, activities and work books to teach key stage 2 children about air pollution and road safety. Training for teachers is available, next sessions on 13 November 2019 (Roadstars), 29 January 2020 (Clean Air Cops) and 11 February 2020 (Roadstars).
• Bike Maths game, a classroom resource for key stage 2 children, where the class competes to run the best bike shop, practicing key maths skills.
• Young Active Travel Trust funding; schools can apply for up to £1,000 to increase sustainable travel to school and improve children’s safety on the journey to school. The next deadline for applications is 29 November 2019. More information.

Resources are free to Birmingham schools signed up to Modeshift STARS Education. Contact connected@birmingham.gov.uk for more information.

Have your say

Breaking the bus free from congestion, bus lanes on Alcester Road/Moseley Road – consultation ends Friday 8 November 2019

Commonwealth Games Draft Games Strategic Transport Plan - consultation ends Friday 6 December 2019

Dates for the diary

October - Walk to School Month

16 October - Arval Hydrogen Roadshow Birmingham

13 November – Roadstars teacher training session (email us to book a place)

18-24 November – Road Safety Week

29 November - -Young Active Travel Trust application deadline

29 January 2020 – Clean Air Cops teacher training(email us to book a place

11 February 2020 - Roadstars teacher training session (email us to book a place)

Article posted on 14 October 2019.