Birmingham City Council is consulting on changes to Moor Street Queensway to create a more welcoming pedestrian-friendly space for the expected shift in passengers from New Street Station to the new HS2 Curzon Street Station. They aim to create a welcoming gateway for people visiting Birmingham on the new high-speed trains, taking advantage of the segmentation of the city center, reducing the volume of private motor traffic, to reallocate road space. The consultation runs until November 15th, 2024, and can be found on the Birmingham BeHeard website: Moor Street Gateway.
The key feature of the scheme, as far as cycling is concerned, are the bi-directional cycle tracks that will connect up the A34 and A38 cycle tracks. One cycle track will go from St. Martins Church in the Bullring, along Park Street and Moor Street Queensway, to James Watt Queensway and the start of the A34 cycle track. The other cycle track will start at the junction of Hill Street with Smallbrook Queensway, up to join the first cycle track outside Moor Street Station. Unfortunately, because of the narrow space in the tunnel under the Bull Ring, there is not enough space for a segregated cycle track there, and cycle users will share the road with buses and taxis.
Overall, we think that the scheme will provide an important link through the city centre, so it is worth supporting, but there are some areas where it could be improved.
Key features of the scheme, with some suggested improvements:
It is best if you look at the plans in the consultation before reading through these comments, otherwise they won't make a lot of sense to you. The plans for the main section around Moor Street Station are relatively clear.
Cycle track in the centre of the Queensway:
Having a cycle track in the middle of the road can lead to issues for cycle users getting on and off the cycle track, especially if there is a lot of motor traffic either side. In city centres, this might not be a good design for cycle tracks, but for this scheme, we think that it is acceptable. With no central bus station, the main roads in the city centre function, in effect, as a spread-out bus station, leading to a lot of demand for kerb space. With large numbers of people using the bus stops on the Queensway, putting the cycle track in the middle of the road, rather than using bus-stop bypasses, removes the issue of bus passengers spreading out into the cycle track. There are also very few shops opening onto the sections of the Queensway where the cycle track will be in the middle of the road, so cycle users won't want to stop and get off to go in a shop. Finally, there are frequent junctions along this stretch, where cycle users will have 'cycle only' phases, which will enable them to get on and off the cycle track as needed.
St. Martin's Queensway tunnel, under the Bull Ring:
At the Moor Street Station end of the St Martin's Queensway Tunnel, it is too narrow to fit in segregation for cycle users alongside the pavement and space for buses. In our meeting with the designers, Better Streets asked the designers about taking one traffic lane for a segregated cycle track and having the flow of motor traffic in the other lane controlled by traffic lights. The designers explained that they had had that idea, but given the volume of buses that use the tunnel, the bus operators said it would impose too long a delay. The designers assured us that the volume of motor traffic would be low, and the speed limit is 20mph, so shared space for motor traffic and cycles was acceptable.
At both ends of the tunnel, cycles will be given separate traffic light phases from the motor traffic, because they will be crossing the path of motor traffic to get onto and off the cycle tracks. It also looks as if cycle users who are comfortable taking the lane and cycling with motor traffic will be able to stay in the motor traffic lane if that gets a green light earlier.
As cycle users entering the tunnel will have a separate phase to motor traffic, they should be able to get part way through the tunnel before motor traffic enters the tunnel behind them. Although the traffic volumes will be low, the enclosed space, with walls right next to the carriageway, could make it more uncomfortable being overtaken by large buses than it might be on a road with open space each side. We think it would be better if no overtaking was allowed in the tunnel, to make the experience more comfortable for cycle users. We think that the short delay from following a cycle user through the tunnel would not significantly inconvenience buses, but the peace of mind from knowing that they wouldn't be passed too closely by a bus would help to encourage more cycle users to take this route.
Cycling between High Street and Moor Street:
With Carrs Lane being kept as a one-way street, with bus stops in one lane and the other lane for passing them, the expected route for cycle users to get from the main shopping area in the city centre to Moor Street Queensway will be down Albert Street, alongside the tram lines. On Albert Street, the tram stop is in the middle of the road, so there won't be the kerb build-outs that impact space for cycling on Broad Street and Corporation Street, but once cycle users reach the junction of Albert Street and Moor Street Queensway, they will be faced with a difficult challenge of crossing the tram lines at a safe angle.
Because this scheme is being drawn up several years after the plans were drawn up for the tramlines, there has been insufficient forward planning for how to integrate the cycling infrastructure for the two schemes. This is a consistent issue with cycle infrastructure planning in Birmingham, which needs to be overcome. It is a predictable issue, and it should not be acceptable for designers of one scheme to say "the next scheme will just have to deal with this issue" as an excuse for not planning ahead.
It should be possible to have a segregated uni-directional cycle track coming onto the pavement for cycle users going down Albert Street, which then crosses Moor Street parallel to the pedestrian crossing, into the cycle track in the centre of Moor Street. That would encourage cycle users to then cross the tram tracks at a safe angle, and could be given a green light at the same time as the main cycle phase on these lights.
The best solution, however, would be to relocate the bus stops on Carrs Lane and have a bi-directional segregated cycle track on Carrs Lane, taking the main route for cycle users away from the tram tracks entirely. It might be challenging to put those bus stops elsewhere, but it would greatly reduce the risk of cycle users being injured on the tram lines.
Jennens Road junction and accessing Millenium Point:
Where James Watt Queensway meets Moor Street Queensway, the cycle track continues along the Queensway, with no connections to Jennens Road or to Millenium Point. In order to access Birmingham City University or Matthew Boulton College, cycle users will need to rejoin the general motor traffic, or get off and push over the pedestrian crossings. During the pandemic, there was a pop-up cycle track installed on Jennens Road, which connected up with the A47 Parkway route, which received positive feedback from cycle users and led to an increase in cycling in that area. Although it was removed, it is clear that there is a need for protected cycle infrastructure in this area.
For cycle users connecting to and from Millenium Point, they will need to negotiate crossing several lanes of motor traffic to get into the lanes they need. Park Street and Masshouse Lane and we should not be expecting cycle users to mix with general motor traffic here. There should be segregated cycle space provided to connect up with the rest of the cycle route.
As this scheme is rebuilding part of this junction, expanding the pavement and giving space to a cycle track, it would be best to build in connections across to Jennens Road and down to Millenium Point. If those connections are not built now, then either more money will have to be spent to change the kerbs again, or a poor solution will be implemented, as has happened at the Bristol Road / Priory Road junction with the cycle track connection to Cannon Hill Park.
The plans involve expanding the pavement by a full lane width along Park Street, so there is space to install an segregated cycle track branching off down Park Street to reach Millenium Point. The existing pedestrian crossing would need to be altered to include a parallel cycle crossing, and the unused bus stop relocated, but it would be possible to create a good link to Millenium Point that would encourage more people to cycle in this area. To provide access to Jennens Road, a parallel crossing could take cycle users to the central island, where a shared use space could be used to allow them to access either side of Jennens Road and the bus lanes until a scheme is drawn up to provide segregated cycle infrastructure.
