Issues

This section lists issues - problems on the street network and related matters.

Issues always relate to some geographical location, whether very local or perhaps city-wide.

You can create a new issue using the button on the right.

Listed issues, most recent first, limited to the area of Push Bikes - The Birmingham Cycling Campaign:

  • Birdcage Walk

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    Birdcage Walk is fitted with Cycling Prohibited signs and barriers, yet it is as wide as some roads. Talking to a PCSO on a bike I saw cycling there, he told me Cadbury's were happy for people to cycle on Birdcage Walk if they did so responsibly. So how about replacing the signs with "Share with Care" signs, and the barriers with bollards spaced wide enough to allow cyclists through but not motor vehicles?

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  • Use of Spray and Chip

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    This new path has been finished in spray and chip, creating a very unstable surface. It is unnecessarily narrow and twisty. It is a typical example of BCC building a footpath and then calling it a cycle route. It is unusable for cycling unless you want to cycle at the same speed as a pedestrian, which defeats the point of cycling. In needs to be rebuilt.

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  • Witherford Way Roundabout

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    The roundabout here has a carriageway designed for multiple lanes of traffic, and some motorists take full advantage of it and just blast through without slowing, which is extremely dangerous. The design is hopelessly obsolete, yet it has been recently carefully preserved during resurfacing works. The island needs to be extended outwards to force motorists to drive around it. The roundabout is so large it could possibly be made single lane without an overrun area. Better still, build a Dutch roundabout and cycle paths connecting to it.

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  • Bournville Boating Lake

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    The paths around the boating lake are already used by cyclists. However, the path shown on the map parallel to my suggested path is narrow and in dangerously poor condition. My suggestion is to create an armoured grass path as shown. The path that heads North at one end should be extended to join it, and the old path removed. This is to improve safety at what is currently a blind junction.
    It would be good to address the bridge at the western end of the suggested path, which has wheel-grabbing slots.

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  • Weoley Park Road

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    The sections of Weoley Park Road service road could be linked with short cycle paths to create a cycle route. Alternatively, take some of the road space away from the road proper (it is very wide) to create segregated cycle paths.

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  • College Walk

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    College Walk is in a terrible state and the ancient and totally obsolete street lamps no longer turn on at night and off during the day.

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  • Woodbrook Road - Oak Tree Lane Crossing

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    The junction with Woodbrook Road is nasty. Woodbrook Road is a prime contender for traffic calming and reduction, as it suffers from speeding and heavy motor traffic (being a rat-run), and it's next to a junior and infants school. A simple solution would be to give Oak Tree Lane priority over Woodbrooke Road, favouring the cycle route and disfavouring the rat run. The flow of the rat-running traffic needs to be analysed and cut off.

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  • Old Barn Road <-> Charfield Close

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    This link is part of a suggested cycle route between Northfield and Selly Oak. The bitmac is falling apart and needs to be replaced. In addition there is a narrow path in the middle that could be widened. Making it shared use is probably technically necessary, though given its short length (a few metres), engineering overkill.

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  • Old Barn Road

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    Old Barn Road makes a useful part of a cycle route between Northfield and Selly Oak. Giving it priority so cyclists can go straight from Mulberry Road to the end of Charfield Close without stopping for Griffins Brook Lane and Hay Green Lane would encourage cycling and discourage fast driving on Hay Green Lane.

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  • Conversion of Fire Track to Cycle Path

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    The route shown is a fire track. There is a chain across the Teazel Avenue end, and the grass is armoured (with concrete). It would be nice to have a dropped kerb each end and the chain replaced with one or two removable bollards. Better still, replace the black bitmac with red bitmac where the new cycle path crosses the footpath that runs alongside Gallows Brook. This would create a first-class demonstration of filtered permeability, and without any major changes.

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  • Obstructed Path

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    The multiple barriers here achieve nothing. All that is needed is the fence adjacent to the carriageway, and even that is debatable (since the road ends here). However, they do make cycling at best difficult and at worst impossible. Cycling should be encouraged here as the path is next to a school. Cycling to school would improve the life-long health of the children, and reduce the numbers of "school run" cars parked in Teazel Avenue, engines idling.

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  • Mary Vale Road <-> Hunts Road

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    There is no provision for cyclists trying to get to the Rea Valley cycle route from Bournville via Mary Vale Road. Instead cyclists are expected to mix with truck, buses, and heavy motor traffic. When traffic is light, motorists speed. I've even had to take evasive action to avoid being hit by a bus driver who wasn't stopping for anything. There is space here to link the two with a cycle path going via the existing crossing, but instead that space has been used for an ill-conceived LSTF-funded arrangement that uses cyclists as speed bumps. Unfortunately cyclists make lousy speed bumps, because unlike speed bumps they die if hit by a speeding motorist. It's actually more dangerous and unpleasant now than it used to be, since there is no possibility of a motorist passing to the left of the cyclist.

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  • Linden Road Crossing on Mary Vale Road

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    This crossing is a problem for all road users, and it's quite common to hear blaring horns and screeching tyres. Pedestrians have a Puffin crossing, but for cyclists there is nothing. There is good reason for cyclists to cross Linden Road here, as it connects the bulk of the Bournville housing with the Worcester and Birmingham canal and the Rea Valley cycle route, and the motor traffic levels on Mary Vale Road are tolerable. Linden Road, on the other hand, is busy with motor traffic, including trucks. So the crossing needs to be improved, especially for cyclists heading along Mary Vale Road. Helpful to cyclists would be changing the priority in favour of Mary Vale Road. This would also encourage motorists to slow down on Linden Road. Unravelling routes in this way (so that cyclists cross main roads at a right angle and giving the cycling route priority) is one of the ways the Dutch encourage people to cycle rather than drive. Other possibilities are traffic lights or a mini-roundabout.

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  • Anti-Cycling Barriers

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    These barriers make life awkward for pedestrians, as well as cyclists. It would be better if they were removed. Germany has opened up paths such as this to cyclists, and it hasn't resulted in blood on the streets. It has encouraged cycling, however.

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  • Bournville Park Link with Sycamore Road and Cadbury World

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 0 threads

    It would be good to link Bournville Park, Sycamore Road, and the Cadbury World access road with a cycle path and road crossing. There is an existing Puffin crossing, but it is not well suited for a cycle crossing as the footpath between Bournville Park and the crossing is very narrow. The radical answer would be to build a bicycle road across Linden Road, making traffic give way to bikes. This would have the additional advantage of forcing motorists on Linden Road to slow down. This section of road really needs to be considered holistically to make it more oriented towards sustainable transport and less hostile. Cars often don't stop for a red light on the crossing, and it is adjacent to a junior and infants school. There is space here for doing something far better.

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  • The Barberry

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 1 thread

    Whilst it is good that cyclists have been considered here, the design is abysmal. To remain within the law, cyclists have to dismount in the carriageway, push their bikes along a few metres of footway, and then remount their bikes to continue. Additionally, because every effort has been made to speed car drivers through the roundabout, both pedestrians and cyclists have to wait for a steady stream of motorists, but courtesy of the bend in the road the sight-line when heading South-West is abysmal. Meanwhile traffic can come from the right from no less than three roads using the two available lanes. It doesn't have to be this way, and shouldn't be.

    Cyclists and pedestrians should have priority, and a severe speed table built to force motorists to drive dead slow. The roundabout needs to be narrowed to one lane with a cobbled overrun area. None of this is new engineering design, and the techniques are perfectly legal in the UK. It could have been designed this way from scratch, which would have been much cheaper.

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  • QE Hospital Main Entrance

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 1 thread

    The cycling infrastructure at this brand new hospital is abysmally designed. As can be seen from the photo is passes through busy bus shelters, rendering it unusable. Consequently cyclists are forced to use the multi-lane gyratory system that has been built directly outside the hospital main entrance. Cyclists heading away from the hospital towards Harborne Lane have to make a weird right turn off the carriageway on to Vincent Drive, something drivers are not expecting.

    There is thus no cycle friendly route between the Vincent Drive cycleway and the popular cycle parking at the main entrance. This needs to be corrected.

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  • Harborne Lane Cycleway <-> Vincent Drive

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 1 thread

    The distance between the cycleway and Vincent Drive is a couple of metres. It is illegal for people to cycle this distance because the connection is via a zebra crossing. This is backed up with a CYCLISTS DISMOUNT sign. This is absurd and needs to be corrected.

    There is also an obstructive pavement-mounted tree at this location. There is plenty of space for trees just a couple of metres to the right, so the tree should be removed and a new one planted in the grassy area.

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  • Bournbrook Walkway <-> Harborne Lane Cycleway

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 1 thread

    A pair of Toucan crossings is provided to get cyclists across Harborne Lane, but nothing is provided to get cyclists between Bournbrook Walkway and the Toucan crossings.
    * The path alongside the garage needs to be widened.
    * The step between Bournbrook Walkway and Harborne Lane needs to be removed.
    * The parking between Bournbrook Walkway and the Toucan crossing should be removed to allow a cycle path to be built between Bournbrook Walkway and the Toucan crossing.
    * The junctions at the garage should be redesigned to give cyclists priority over garage traffic.

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  • Frederick Road <-> Selly Oak Park

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 1 thread

    Gibbins Road is busy with fast-moving traffic, as despite being a residential road it is used as a rat-run by motorists on the A38 trying to avoid the Selly Oak Triangle junction (this has been facilitated by the junction design). As a result there is a significant problem with speeding on this road.
    Firstly this rat-run should be closed. If this were done, the following might not be necessary. Selly Oak park needs to be linked with Frederick Road to create a cycle route. This could be partly built using some existing footway, the service road, and a short section of cycle path to link with the pinch-point crossing. This last feature should be widened to be large enough for a bike, and the road belled around it to create a chicane on both sides (to slow motorists).

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  • Langleys Road <-> Frederick Road

    Created by Dawes Jaguar // 1 thread

    Langleys Road and Frederick Road are both quiet, though it would be good to see traffic in Oak Tree Lane prevented from using Langleys Road as a means of avoiding the Selly Oak Triangle junction to turn left on the A38. However, the A38 acts as a barrier to this connection. A cycle path is needed to take cyclists between these two roads via the existing crossing.
    Lodge Hill Road could be closed to traffic turning left off the A38 to allow the cycle path to cross it close to the junction mouth without creating a left-hook problem.

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  • Extremely poor cycle provision for crossing the Coventry Road

    Created by Bracken VanRyssen // 0 threads

    Cycle provision before this junction vanishes entirely and the only option beyond navigating this extremely busy junction are unappealing subways beneath the junction. For the less confident cyclist this junction would pose a significant barrier as mixing with three lanes of heavy bus, HGV and motor traffic is a daunting prospect for most people. The dank and dirty subways are even less appealing with poor sight-lines, long walks and poor social safety as a result.
    This junction is frequently used by cyclists and could be part of an effective links between the north and south of Solihull, as well as this there is clearly enough space for a full Dutch style junction with proper protection for bicycle users to enable them to pass this barrier.

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  • No/very little cycle provision

    Created by Bracken VanRyssen // 0 threads

    Beyond a single ASL there is no cycling provision for this section of the signposted route from the Coventry Road to Solihull town centre, despite cycling provision being of a decent off-road/ quiet road standard before and after this section.
    The short section of road before the turn into Moat Lane is pretty daunting as this is a major traffic and bus route; a barrier that could easily lead to less confident cyclists being forced onto the footway.
    A possible solution could be the continuation of the off-road cycle path up to Moat Lane (or indeed directly to the town centre) and a 20mph limit and traffic calming beyond there.

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  • Badly signposted route section

    Created by Bracken VanRyssen // 0 threads

    This section of cycle route has only sporadic signposting and also diverts through a narrow underpass with poor social safety. While this route does provide a decent alternative to the other busier roads, the way-finding is poor and the route is very rarely used by cyclists and as such has a poor feeling of social safety.

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This map shows all issues, whether points, routes, or areas:

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