Action Briefing Apr 2003 - May 2003
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Seeing red on the Stratford Road

Red Routes - What and Why? One of the aspirations of the Local Transport Plan for the West Midlands is to introduce a network of red routes for certain main roads in the conurbation as a way of making more efficient use of existing highway space and improving traffic flow.

Red Routes have been established in London since the early 1990s and are claimed to have provided several benefits such as higher average speeds for all traffic, more reliable bus journeys, and fewer accidents. The yellow lines become red lines (surprisingly enough) and on double red lines no stopping is allowed for any purpose for much of the day (typically 07.00am-7.00pm). Penalties for illegal parking both on footpaths and the road will be much more rigorously enforced. With parking removed from the carriageway, off road car parks or parking bays cut into pavements or grass verges will be needed. The A34 Stratford Road from the M42 junction in Solihull through Hall Green and Spark Hill to Camp Hill Circus will be the first to receive the Red Route treatment as part of a pilot scheme, to be quickly followed by another scheme on the A449 Stafford Road, north of Wolverhampton.

Urban Speedways?
Birmingham Friends of the Earth has many serious concerns about Red Routes in general as well as more specific concerns about the Stratford Road proposals. Although no physical road widening takes place, the freer flowing traffic will make crossing more difficult unless additional pedestrian crossings are provided. The potential for speeding will be significantly increased, exposing cyclists and pedestrians to greater danger unless traffic calming and speed cameras are put in place. It’s easy to forget that parked cars on the road often act as a traffic calming measure. Sadly, there is very little in the proposals for cyclists, the emphasis being placed on car parking provision and speeding up motor traffic.

Will Red Routes really benefit the communities through which they pass or will they just let car users enjoy shorter journey times when driving into the City Centre from outlying districts? An unacceptable growth in car use may result as people are tempted into their cars by faster flowing traffic and this may undermine the viability of public transport. Therefore, bus priority measures and traffic calming are required to prevent the Stratford Road and other proposed Red Routes from becoming urban speedways.

Parks into car parks
We are also concerned that the extra car parking provision will be at the expense of green open space, mature street trees and grass verges. In the Stratford Road proposals, several areas of green space with mature trees have been identified as being suitable for car parking. In Sparkhill, two such areas exist at the junction of Stratford Street and St. John's Road, while in Hall Green there is a green area between Reddings Lane and Stratford Road with another smaller area at the crossroads with Colebank Road. There are several more stretches of the Stratford Road where mature street trees are under threat from the proposals to create new parking bays. A door to door survey of residents in Reddings Lane, Hall Green which we recently conducted revealed that nearly a third of those we spoke to were unaware of the Stratford Road Red Route Scheme, while nobody knew of the threat to their small area of parkland.

What’s good about them?
It's difficult to find much good to say about the Red Route proposals, but we do support stricter enforcement of parking restrictions, especially on footpaths as far too often these are blocked by illegal parking. There's the potential for more reliable bus journeys, but the effect of this will be negated by the prospect of more reliable journeys for all vehicles. The promotional leaflets talk of freer flowing traffic, lower pollution levels and a more efficient use of road space which will (hopefully) make future road widening schemes unnecessary, but we remain unconvinced. Finally, the question needs to be asked ‘do we really need Red Routes in the West Midlands’? Better enforcement of parking restrictions on existing yellow lines, along with bus priority measures and improved pedestrian facilities such as ‘entry treatment’ for side roads (i.e. raising a section of the road surface so that it is flush with the pavement), would seem more appropriate.

A disappointing consultation
A consultation was conducted by Faber Maunsell on behalf of the City Council, but unfortunately many people who are going to be affected were unaware of the proposals. The plans lacked clarity generally and gave no indication of where parkland or trees would be removed to make way for car parking or road realignments. In one instance, what the plans call an ‘obstacle’ (to be removed to allow widening of the footpath opposite the entrance to Hall Green Rail Station) is in fact a clump of three mature trees with gorse bushes!

Although the consultation period has closed you can still see the plans and make your comments heard, but you need to be quick as we expect the proposals to be finalised by the end of April. We submitted our response for the Stratford Road proposals at the end of February, details of which you can find on our web site.

For more information contact: Vanessa Ryan on 0121 262 1900 or email Redroutes@FaberMaunsell.com; or Mel Jones at Birmingham City Council Transportation Department on 0121 303 7758; or visit www.westmidlandsltp.gov.uk

Martin Stride