Birmingham plans to divert car traffic from city via ring road

Birmingham City Council’s cabinet will vote on closing roads to through traffic, introducing a fleet of zero-emission buses and building additional cycleways on October 12.

The Birmingham Transport Plan (BTP) - which sets out the vision for transport investment up to 2031 - is centred around a number of key principles.

These include the change in allocation of road space away from single occupancy private cars, and the transformation of the city centre through the creation of a network of pedestrian streets and public spaces.

Additionally, where development potential exists, land currently occupied by car parking will be put to "more productive use", says the report. 

Birmingham City Council claims the plan will support the creation of jobs and inward investment, and be good news for the environment.

The report for the council's cabinet said: "To unlock the transformational potential of transport, we need to fundamentally change the way people and goods move around the city.

“Without change in our approach, these opportunities and benefits will be constrained by poor air quality in our city, a lack of transport capacity and further adverse social and environmental impacts.”

It continued: "We know that our over-dependence on private motor cars is bad for the health of ourselves and our families, bad for our communities and bad for business, and bad for the future in terms of transport's contribution to carbon emissions, which accelerate the climate emergency.

"Investment in our transport system and implementation of schemes that prioritise people over cars will help develop a cleaner, greener, healthier and more sustainable environment to deliver the health and wellbeing benefits for the people of Birmingham and allow Birmingham to continue to grow and prosper."

“We’re one of the original motor cities,” said Birmingham city council’s member for transport and environment, Waseem Zaffar. But like other UK cities, Birmingham suffers from an excess of single occupancy car journeys, he told The Guardian. 

Twenty-five per cent of the city’s car journeys are one mile or shorter, Zaffar said. To convert people to cleaner and healthier forms of transport, the city, including the central area, will be split into seven zones, and rather than driving directly between zones, motorists will be diverted via the A4540 ring road.

Birmingham City Council launched its Clean Air Zone (CAZ) on June 1, which requires drivers of older cars, vans and trucks to pay a daily fee to enter the city’s centre. 

The Class D CAZ applies to all vehicles that do not meet the minimum emissions standards of Euro 6 for diesel and Euro 4 for petrol.

Restrictions apply to all roads within Birmingham’s A4540 Middleway Ring Road, except the ring road itself. The CAZ is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including bank holidays.