Transport for West Midlands is planning to widen stretches of the Moseley Road through Balsall Heath, requiring the destruction of trees and the narrowing of footways. This will lead to even heavier traffic and a worse environment for pedestrians and cyclists. Yes, we want less delay to bus journeys, but this can be achieved by using the road more efficiently rather than widening it.
Birmingham Friends of the Earth will be submitting a petition as part of the public consultation into the proposed changes. Please sign our petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-birmingham-city-council-no-to-widening-the-moseley-road
You can make a more detailed response on Birmingham BeHeard. The deadline for public consultation is 22 November. All the documents are on online at Beheard https://www.birminghambeheard.org.uk/economy/alcester-road-bus/
I use the no 50 bus regularly but not in the morning rush hours. I went to a neighbourhood meeting in Moseley in November 2018 in which many many people attended including the Chief Inspector of the West Midlands Police a film producer and other high profile people. They said Moseley train station would be reopening I think it’s three years and bringing measures (street furniture) to slow down the flow of traffic to 20 mph and pedestrians could cross half way across the road as the film producer showed a film where this has been done already in parts of London and some where else in the North of England.
Acocks Green has benefiitted by widening of footways and narrowing of the A41 to one lane in each direction, allowing people to cross without using red light to halt the traffic. Kings Heath High Street has 4m footways while Balsall Heath is threatened with the minmum 2..1 m width to make room for four lanes of traffic.
The issue is getting a good bus service running smoothly at peak hours and not creating a gridlock as we get a few times at the moment.
There are issues that the current plan does not address properly.
There are no plans to enforce parking regulations. You get a car or two parked in the bus lane and the lane becomes unusable for a while. I’ve seen this happen. The only way to deal with this is by moving the offending traffic. This isn’t likely to happen.
There are plans to introduce traffic calming measures on the west side of Moseley Road. The Brighton Road crossing becomes a multiway crossing but everything else gets a road bump. The council surveyed and found that 75 vehicles a day turn off this section of Moseley Road. The number is too small to be a problem. This survey was taken in January/February. I would expect the traffic flow would increase drastically during the cricket season and especially during a test match as this is the way to the cricket ground.
Several trees will be cut down. It has been said that there are plans to plant more in the neighbourhood to more than replace them. It is implied that some will go onto the pavement. New trees tend to have low branches and with a narrower pavement this is going to be a problem.
the bus lane needs extending tidal-flow wise in front of the shops between cromer road and edward road. that is where the bottleneck is. a simple move and some smartening needed.
why not use a small part of the budget to help old-print-works roof at risk at rear, now rotted, before it collapses completely and puts OPW out of action. The holding supoport i did is only temporary and has not stoppoed water coming in
I disagree with the road widening. The pavements left to us pedestrians will be too narrow, especially for wheelchairs & trolleys. We will have 4 lanes of fast traffic whizzing by only feet away. Air quality will become worse. And matures trees will be destroyed – those of us without cars need trees for shade & shelter. We all need trees for oxygen & to mop up CO2. This doesn’t sound like helping the clean air zone to me!!!! I am already having difficulty breathing as I have COPD & a bad heart. I also disagree with getting rid of the pedestrian refuge on Alcester Road in Moseley, it will make it far more dangerous to cross this busy road.
Muslim Students House, 517 Moseley Road, B12 9BX will be adversely affected by widening the road in front of its entrances/exits for the following reason:-
The place is used for worship, social functions with large crowd gatherings. The entrances/ exits are directly facing the road and hence the consequence of widening the road will introduce a very serous hazard concern especially in case of emergency, fire or crowd stampede.