Big City Plan Talk A Place To Talk About Birmingham’s Big City Plan

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Digital technologies have been a key driver in influencing society and shaping 21st Century living. Digital opportunities will need a 21st Century telecommunication infrastructure to become the ‘norm’ for city centre development, and changes in working, learning and social patterns need to be incorporated in the future spatial design. This will need a city centre that is equipped for the growth in information, data access and communication associated with the 21st century knowledge society. The city needs a ‘connected’ infrastructure that will support the city’s international competitiveness, sustain existing growth and attract new high value businesses and establish itself as a leading and iconic digital city.

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It is essential that the city centre has interactive and intelligent real time information systems to navigate and explore the city by all modes and through physical wayfinding and legibility systems, variable message signage, mobile devices and satellite navigation systems. These will enable greater linkages between the various quarters within the city centre, provide a richer visitor experience and reduce vehicle congestion through managed intelligent information and navigation systems.

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In addition, we should ensure that new development is future proofed with suitable digital infrastructure to meet both existing and future digital and communication needs. This will require suitable ducting to enable a wired and wireless digital infrastructure capable of delivering next generation connectivity for transport, business development and innovation, open spaces such as public squares and parks and to new buildings and business premises. The concept of an underlying digital infrastructure is inherent in each of the options in this report.

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The creation of a “Virtual Birmingham” is another valuable concept. Starting with a 3D representation of the City Centre, it would enable city planners, developers, stakeholders and the public to plan and visually re-shape the city centre and consider its impacts. It would enable citizens and both national and international visitors to view and navigate the city centre more effectively and interactively, providing a richer experience and engagement. It would encourage inward investment by acting as a showcase to attract national and international interest and open up opportunities to explore the art of the possible.

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Finally, in line with the concept of the flexible and adaptable home, all new households should be equipped with a technology infrastructure fit for 21st century living capable of delivering the information, entertainment and communications needs for families across all generations.

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The creation of a “Virtual Birmingham” is another valuable concept. Starting with a 3D representation of the City Centre, it would enable city planners, developers, stakeholders and the public to plan and visually re-shape the city centre and consider its impacts. It would enable citizens and both national and international visitors to view and navigate the city centre more effectively and interactively, providing a richer experience and engagement. It would encourage inward investment by acting as a showcase to attract national and international interest and open up opportunities to explore the art of the possible.

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Another possible approach would be to create the “Birmingham Boulevard” – the transformation of the A38 corridor into an attractive route not only for vehicles but for people to walk along, fronted by shops and building entrances and lined with trees to create a much more habitable environment.

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This historic emphasis in Birmingham on enabling and accommodating movement by private vehicles has led to an urban form that is not conducive to movement by other means. For pedestrians, this means that, although the city centre is relatively compact, conditions for walking are adversely affected by numerous physical barriers and the disconnection of different parts of the central area, and some areas have poor public realm and legibility. For cyclists, dis-incentives include poor provision of cycle lanes and facilities, the severance of cycling networks by major highway and railway corridors and road danger. So although improvements have been made over recent years for both pedestrians and cyclists, much more is needed if walking and cycling are to become genuinely attractive modes of transport in the city centre.

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Traffic flows into and out of the city centre have been falling gradually over the past decade, and the City Council wants to continue this trend. However, new development within the centre, as envisaged by the Big City Plan, will lead to the generation of new car trips and therefore current levels of congestion are expected to increase unless a range of appropriate action is taken. Highway capacity increases in key locations may be necessary as a result of the increase in the total number of trips related to new development. Such infrastructure changes should be designed to keep as much traffic as possible on the main roads and out of the most sensitive city centre environments.

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Birmingham city centre has outstanding connectivity to a wide range of national destinations by rail, with New Street Station the focus of an extensive network of services and Moor Street and Snow Hill stations having a secondary but nonetheless important role. New Street Station is also the main route to Birmingham International Airport and thus the primary global entrance point into the city centre. However, the arrival experience is poor. Current capacity difficulties at New Street Station have been exacerbated by significant growth in passenger trips in Birmingham. The comprehensive redevelopment of New Street now has committed funding. Space to allow for four tracks between New Street and Birmingham International stations is protected over much of the route, and the opportunity for running European High Speed Train services to both the City Centre and the Airport is under investigation.

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With regards to other public transport, the primary issue to be addressed by the Big City Plan is whether and how the Midland Metro system might be extended, given the need to put together a practical funding package. This issue is closely inter-related with initiatives to improve both conventional bus services and to introduce Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) operations. Another important issue is on-street congestion in the city core. Streets simply do not have the physical capacity (space) to accommodate all the movement and other demands that are and are likely to be placed upon them (pedestrians, buses, trams, quality public realm). Resolving these conflicts and determining priorities on a street-by-street basis is required. Increased demand will also need to be met through improvements to alternative modes of transport, as well as demand management.

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The Council has developed a new transportation model for the city centre. Detailed land use surveys have established a 2004 database and scenarios have been produced for 2011, 2021 and 2031 to identify possible changes in transport demand. This has considered future levels of population, housing, employment and other activities. The preparation of the Big City Plan will interact with transport modelling, and in combination will establish required infrastructure improvements for the city centre.

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Traffic congestion is currently related primarily to key junctions on the Ring Road, while the A38 corridor also continues to experience high levels of traffic demand. The main areas of congestion in the centre are at the junctions of Holloway Circus, Paradise Circus, St Chads, around the gyratory systems at Bull Ring/Moat Lane and at Masshouse. While access by car is and will remain vital for the success and vitality of the city centre, reducing traffic levels will be necessary if carbon emissions targets are to be met, while reduced congestion will also benefit the city. Improving the quality of alternatives to the car will clearly be essential (see later sections). The negative impacts of the physical traffic and highway infrastructure on the development and overall attractiveness of the city centre must also be addressed.

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The A38 corridor within the city centre could be radically reconfigured to greatly enhance the city centre environment and improve pedestrian/cycle crossing links between the core and the rest of the city centre. Comprehensive restructuring would enable areas to the west of the corridor to fulfil their full potential as integral parts of the city centre. Lowering Great Charles Street, dismantling the Suffolk Street viaduct or changing its slip road arrangements and filling in the Holloway Circus underpass are all major engineering projects that could be pursued. The road would still retain an important traffic carrying function. However, depending on the extent of the changes to the road infrastructure, capacity could be reduced and this could have an effect on congestion, so any proposals would require modelling to establish the impact on accessibility and design.

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Increased residential population and expansion of retail and employment uses in the city centre will generate significant additional goods vehicle movements. Measures will be required to mitigate the effects of these vehicles on the function and quality of sensitive streets and on congestion generally, through improved street management and delivery consolidation.

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One approach would be to develop an Urban Freight Consolidation Centre outside the city centre. This would create a ‘hub’ in a less sensitive built environment where large goods vehicles could trans-ship their loads to a fleet of small, low-emissions vehicles that would then redistribute the goods to individual premises within the city centre. The centre would need to be close to the centre to work efficiently.

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Another possibility would be to establish a network of suitable routes for service/delivery vehicles in each sector of the city. This would involve investigating a network of service routes, including certain bus lanes, that prioritises access for service vehicles during limited hours. As part of this network, methods for consolidating service deliveries would be explored to reduce the impact of servicing on city centre streets.

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A low emission zone would significantly reduce traffic congestion by deterring the worst polluting diesel-powered goods vehicles, coaches and buses accessing the city centre or core through initiatives such as the Urban Freight Consolidation Centre or pricing mechanisms. In turn this would greatly improve air quality, health and quality of life in the city centre

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Time based vehicle restrictions could be introduced. These require businesses to better manage the delivery of goods and services to periods that do not conflict with other street activities and the quality of the public realm. In this way conflicts between deliveries and pedestrian or bus activity can be effectively managed.

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The control and management of the parking supply is usually a vital tool in influencing traffic levels. In Birmingham city centre, however, there is currently an over-supply of publicly available parking in certain areas. This allows us to think about the possibility of developing on some existing car parking sites. A city parking strategy is in preparation, for consultation. This will consider parking provision in the wider context of improvements in other modes of transport, the control of parking and the potential for more park and ride capacity.

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The number of trips made by rail to and from Birmingham has increased notably in recent years. Growth could be heading for 100% by 2035. Additional services and longer trains will handle some of this growth and the New Street Gateway redevelopment will provide a better arrival experience. Improved rail frequencies will be provided to the Airport through double tracking and, in addition, improvements to the Bordesley Chords will allow new services to access central Birmingham. These improvements may not be able to handle all the predicted growth.

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The opportunity for European High Speed Trains to serve Birmingham should be firmly grasped. The Big City Plan should help influence the ultimate choice of route and station location for a future HST connection to the city centre, providing the opportunity for strengthened national and international rail connections in the future. Further work is required to understand what alignment the track would take, and requisite processes for safeguarding land requirements.

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Centro, in partnership with Birmingham City Council, has identified four metro routes that will radiate from the city centre:

• The existing Line 1 running between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton.
• The planned Line 1 extension heading through the city centre to New Street Station then heading along Broad Street to terminate at Edgbaston and later at Junction 3 of the M5.
• A route to Birmingham International Airport extension running along Digbeth High Street.
• A route to Great Barr, using the alignment of New Town Row.

Figure 4.1 shows the proposed future metro network developed by Centro in partnership with BCC. As well as the Line 1 extension referred to above, a one-way city core loop is proposed serving Eastside, Southside and Westside quarters. The route, running around the south of the Bull Ring and immediately north of the international markets, will greatly improve tram system capacity and improve public transport accessibility in these areas. This loop would be required to deliver the airport extension from Digbeth High Street. A further extension is planned out to Great Barr via New Town Row. A route along Sherlock Street is also shown, which would infill a route to the south.

An alternative to Metro for some routes would be to implement ‘Bus Rapid Transit’. While the transport and regeneration benefits of trams are well understood in many modern cities, the costs and practical issues surrounding their implementation are considerable, while they can have adverse impacts on other modes (e.g. on pedestrians in crowded streets). Bus Rapid Transit is an intermediate mode between buses and trams, with optional features such as better vehicles, enhanced priority through guideways, and less frequent stops than conventional buses. BRT may be a more cost-effective alternative to tram in certain locations/corridors. Centro have suggested routes to Bartley Green, Chelmsley Wood and (as a pre-metro) to Perry Barr.

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Buses have the potential to carry a greater proportion of trips to and from the city centre but suffer from various drawbacks in terms of increasing patronage, such as congestion, actual or perceived reliability, levels of comfort, and poor image generally. The Big City Plan initiative should be seen as the opportunity to pursue a transformation in the quality and indeed dignity of bus travel in Birmingham.

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One approach would be to reconfigure the existing bus network serving Birmingham city centre to provide a more efficient service to passengers and reduce the impact of buses on the street environment. This approach envisages the progressive installation of bus priority measures on radial routes. ‘Showcase’ standard bus shelters, facilities and information, improving the quality of the waiting experience and overall public realm of the streets. This should be regarded as a ‘do-minimum’ level of bus service enhancement.

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In addition to the above improvements, it would be possible to re-route buses around the city core and exclude them from Corporation Street. The aim would be to reduce bus congestion and environmental impact whilst maintaining and improving their attractiveness. Buses would use a circuit of streets on the edge of the core and serve clusters of stops at sites – on or off-street – that are well located for walking into the core itself. Significant effort will be required to make the stop/waiting areas as attractive as possible, while improved pedestrian connections and wayfinding measures would be needed to offset the loss of direct access into the core, which would be more pedestrian friendly and have an improved public realm throughout.

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In addition to the options identified above, Birmingham can take the opportunity represented by the Big City Plan to launch an initiative to transform the quality, attractiveness and dignity of bus travel in the city and set a new benchmark for urban transit. One approach is the pursuit of quality partnerships. Another is to encourage further improvements in hardware and software and customer facilities to develop a truly leading European public transport brand (the ‘Birmingham Bus’ concept). This could be pursued with participation from vehicle manufacturers, educational establishments, product designers and others, especially those based in the region.

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Birmingham has the potential to have the UK’s most walkable big city centre. Many cross-centre trips are achievable on foot within 15-20 minutes, making walking the quickest door-to-door option. However, the quality, directness and ease of understanding of the routes involved often leave a lot to be desired. New and improved crossings, better information, greater levels of pedestrian priority in key locations and the removal of key barriers all need to form part of the picture.

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To begin addressing the problem, one approach might be to identify and roll out a network of outstanding walking routes, starting with the highest priority routes where early intervention should be targeted for maximum return. These would link Birmingham’s key activities, destinations and urban/open spaces and could incorporate a mix of street-based links, pedestrian-only routes and public spaces. They could include core pedestrian ‘spines’ which would make pedestrian journeys to, from and within the city centre more viable and attractive. One issue is the need to ensure that redevelopment schemes that straddle important routes (such as Paradise Circus) accommodate fully all pedestrian desire lines in an attractive and inclusive manner.

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In addition, streets/routes could be identified where pedestrians need to be given higher priority than at present, especially those that are deprived of the most basic facilities.

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These initiatives could be supported by a comprehensive signage and legibility strategy to support journeys to key activities, destinations and urban/open spaces through conventional signage and through public realm design, supported by virtual tools (see section 4.10 on digital connectivity) that provide more comprehensive guidance on how to experience and move around the city centre. Signage would integrate pedestrian journeys with cycling and public transport.

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Cycling has an important role to play in providing for future movement demands generated by city centre growth. Yet present conditions for cycling are often hostile, due to vehicle dominated streets and a shortage of cycling facilities or direct routes to and from key destinations. A concerted effort is required to improve conditions for cyclists through changing the behaviour of vehicles, removing major physical barriers and the provision of improved ‘end to end’ cycling facilities.

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The city already has a set of core cycling routes, but segregated paths are difficult to create in a dense urban area so the issue is what other improvements can be made to develop a comprehensive network of continuous, safe routes. One approach is to develop a connected network of cycle-friendly streets with an emphasis on reducing traffic speeds and road danger on those streets. In addition, public realm improvements and street upgrades could give cycling a higher priority, with cycle parking as an integral feature. New development should provide safe and secure cycle parking and should include suitable shower facilities. Cycle parking requirements will be included in the Parking Strategy.

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Another possibility would be to establish a city centre cycle hire scheme. Initiatives similar to the Ve-Lib and Velo-City schemes in European cities (e.g. Paris) could provide opportunities to increase cycle travel for short trips within the core, replacing the use of more polluting modes in the most sensitive streets.

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Birmingham transformed itself in the 1950s and 1960s from a traditional city of streets into the “motor city”. A new inner road, later named “Queensway”, was built, forming a tight concrete collar around the city’s core. Major investment took place to create new or widened radials such as the Aston Expressway and Digbeth High Street. The ring road, “Middleway” was constructed further out as a route around the wider centre. The urban design consequences of these major transport investments have already been described. Whilst the concrete collar has partly been dismantled, enough of it remains – as part of the A38 corridor – to act as a significant barrier to movement within the city centre. At the same time the expectation of easy access into the centre by motor vehicle remains as a legacy of this era.

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What steps need to be taken to ensure that the New Street Gateway project radically improves access to the station from all points, especially Southside. How can we best integrate Snow Hill, Moor and Jewellery Quarter stations with their surroundings (and a relocated Bordesley station, which would need to be moved as a result of the proposed rail chords).

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How should we manage the anticipated growth in people movement, both “natural” growth and growth from new development, bearing in mind the objective of promoting non-car modes and reducing carbon emissions? How can future demands for delivery and service vehicle access to the city centre best be managed? What technological and design innovations could help facilitate deliveries to all types of premises?

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How should we go about developing a genuinely 21st century bus system, in terms of quality, reliability, safety, comfort, image and fuel efficiency/environmental performance? What is the future role of the bus in the city centre relative to other public transport options? What streets should buses use, where should they stop in the city centre and where should they interchange with other modes of transport?

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How can we go about making the city centre the UK’s most walkable centre? What streets and spaces should be the top priority walking routes? Where does attention need to be targeted to improve walkability, such as barrier removal and crossing improvement? What other kinds of improvement might be carried out?

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How can cycling to, from and within the city centre be encouraged and where should investment be targeted? How can the hostility of the highways environment to cyclists be removed?

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How can Birmingham provide a digital infrastructure to enable new and existing businesses to have a competitive advantage, globally and locally? Can a ‘Virtual Birmingham’ improve people’s understanding and appreciation of the city centre, increase opportunities for the visitor economy and attract global business interests to trade with or invest in the city centre and enable the city to achieve its ‘Connected City’ aspirations both locally and internationally?

How should Birmingham ensure that the development of new households within the city centre have a digital infrastructure that supports family living across all generations and supports the flexible lifestyle requirements of 21st century living?

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How can the A38 corridor within the city centre be reconfigured to reduce its negative impact, whilst still retaining an important traffic carrying function?

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Should the traffic-carrying capacity of the Ring Road be increased by selective junction improvements (e.g. grade separation) where congestion proves to be a particular problem?

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How much private car parking should be provided for new developments in the city centre? Should we require any or all new development to be ‘car free’ (i.e. no parking provided) unless otherwise justified for non-commuter purposes?

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How, where and in what numbers should publicly available off street parking be provided? What should be the balance between long stay (commuter) and short stay (shopper) spaces? Should the controlled parking zone be extended?

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What should the Big City Plan say about providing for taxis and for motorcycles and scooters?

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How can rail play a stronger role in providing for commuter and other travel needs into the city centre, up to and beyond 2025, and what infrastructure projects will be needed to support this? Can and should the Big City Plan provide appropriate protection for a future High Speed Train route to the city centre and related disembarkation facilities?

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Where should the city centre metro routes go and how should they operate? What are the alternatives to Metro in different locations? Should an underground option be relooked at?