Birmingham City Council has sketched out a Transport Plan for the next 20 years – and it’s asking for feedback as to whether it’s on the right road.

The Birmingham Mobility Action Plan signals a shift away from the car-centric thinking that dominated the city from the 1960s onwards. Indeed, it explicitly states “road capacity will need to be shifted from cars to public and active transport (e.g. walking and cycling)”. For example, the Plan envisages Green Travel Zones in which less than 50% of their commuters will arrive by car.

The ‘Birmingham Cycle Revolution’ scheme, for which the city has already won £17 million of funding, is part of this. This will see a network of routes created within 20 minutes of the city centre: over the next 20 years, BMAP envisages expanding this to further develop cycling.

“Not ambitious enough”

However, the document falls short of the ‘Go Dutch’ vision being pursued in London. Sample street designs ask merely for “a wider footway that could be used by cyclists”, rather than fully segregated cycleways.

Birmingham Friends of the Earth say that the document is not ambitious enough. “While the Action Plan does place good emphasis on cycling, Birmingham should be aiming for 10% of cycle journeys in the next ten years rather than the next twenty.”

You can read the document online, and make your views known, at the Birmingham Be Heard website.