Please support Birmingham City Council's proposal to place a modal filter on Moor Green Lane. Push Bikes very much supports this proposal.

Moor Green Lane is a narrow residential road on the border of Moseley and Selly Park. At the location shown in the photo, which is a junction, I have routinely found myself subject to road-rage and tailgating, to the extent that I go out of my way to avoid this stretch of road. Indeed if you look carefully, you'll see the car on the right is being tailgated. I once told someone that every time I got to where that car is with a view to turning right, I could pretty much guarantee a white van would appear right behind me attempting to do warp factor nine. Even when I was driving it was a problem. Of course one has to slow down to make a right turn, but rat-runners get absolutely furious if someone making a perfectly legal and reasonable manoeuvre delays their journey by a second or two. Moor Green Lane is a key part of a network of rat-runs.

So I'm pleased to see that Birmingham City Council has finally recognised it as a rat-run, by performing a traffic survey. This survey came about because the people who live on nearby Russell Road were rightfully kicking up a stink about the traffic they have to endure (and hats off to them for doing so!). They want their road to be closed to through-traffic, but Birmingham City Council has done the right thing by first doing a traffic survey to find out out how traffic was flowing through the area. That survey showed that drivers were using Moor Green Lane to bypass the monstrous traffic jam that is Kings Heath High Street. Closing off Russell Road would help Russell Road, but the traffic would simply divert, for example via  Reddings Road. Although Reddings Road is wide, whilst cycling on this (partially) signposted cycle route I have experienced aggressive driving and close passes. At its junction with Russell Road there is a notorious busy roundabout where people on bikes have to deal with yet more aggressive driving (that BCC initially tried to address with paint). In other words, drivers are rat-running down multiple roads, but the road that is common to all their routes is Moor Green Lane between the roundabout and Shutlock Lane. That's why the city council is proposing to place a modal filter on this section of road, and why we very much support that.

So we urge you to take a few minutes of your time to support the council's proposal. It should greatly reduce traffic problems over a large area, including on Russell Road.

That all said, looking at the traffic counts it does look like BCC should also consider closing to through-traffic the route via Russell Road and Queensbridge Road, particularly since Queensbridge Road has schools at one end.