Birmingham City Centre's Future Doesn't Involve Cars

A car-free Birmingham city centre has moved a step closer.

The Birmingham Transport Plan, adopted in 2021, is being rethought as part of the Our Future City Plan process.

The proposals come as city leaders contemplate up to 80,000 more cars on the city's roads and 200,000 more daily vehicle movements by 2031, Birmingham Live reported.

The proposals, which include reducing traffic levels by a third and revision of the tunnels which funnel the A38 through the city, met with hostility from some car campaigners.

The plan will also include 3,600 electric car charging points, reallocating road space away from private cars, more space for buses, pedestrians and cyclists, and low-traffic areas in one-third of the city's neighbourhoods by 2030.

The property industry is supportive, but has long argued that a greener growth plan needs to be eased into place, rather than risk sudden shocks to the city's economy.

The Our Future City Plan reaches a decisive milestone this month, with traffic issues at its core.

New thinking on road traffic has been underway since 2021. At that time the council appeared to be softening a hard-line position in the face of the economic problems faced by the city centre thanks to the pandemic.

The city council had been considering a ban on all but disabled parking in the city centre.

The proposed changes now allow for “some instances” at off-peak times when public transport is thin on the ground. But no more than 10% of venue capacity — whether that is an office block, theatre or site — and only “where clear justification can be evidenced”.

The plan envisages the removal of all uncontrolled on-street parking in the city centre.

Replacement standalone off-street parking and new off-street parking in the city centre will not be supported unless it can be demonstrated that there is a deficit in local publicly available off-street parking, or that it will help to relieve on-street parking problems.