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“Off yer bike!” – Birmingham cyclists told to dismount due to tramlines, or take diversion to avoid them

City council says Broad Street tram route and wider pavements means section is “impractical” for people on bikes

Cyclists in Birmingham will have to dismount when travelling through a main road in the city centre due to tramlines or else take a diversion – leading one local campaigner to describe the city as “way behind Manchester and London” when it comes to provision for people on bikes.

The expansion of the existing line 1 of the West Midlands Metro system will take it through Broad Street, the hub of the city’s nightlife – but Birmingham City Council says there is not enough space there to safely accommodate trams, pedestrians and bicycles, reports Birmingham Live.

The £83 million section of the tram route from Centenary Square to Five Ways is linked to redevelopment of the area, including pavements being widened to more safely accommodate cyclists.

The council insists that cyclists will have to dismount and walk through a section of Broad Street between Ryland Street and Sheepcote Street via Grosvenor Street West, more than doubling the riding distance between the two points and with a roundabout to be negotiated too.

But James Le Grys, who leads rides for CycleBirmingham – the social arm of local cycling campaign group Push Bikes – believes there is sufficient space on that section of Broad Street to accommodate a protected cycle lane.

“I really don't want to be negative because I'm not that kind of person, but Birmingham is way behind Manchester and London,” he told Birmingham Live.

“Manchester has a cycle network, we've got a line that is taking forever to build and will now have no provision for cyclists on Broad Street.

“Birmingham is so hit and miss. The council should have put a blue cycle route right down the middle of Broad Street so that everyone could understand what it was.

“Cyclists are not stupid, they would not ride in front of a tram,” he added.

A spokesperson for Birmingham City Council said: “We cannot provide segregated cycle tracks everywhere, and whilst we have widened the footways on Broad Street there are certain constraints in delivering the public transport improvements, that means it is impractical to fully accommodate cycling along the stretch.

“Notwithstanding the significant environmental enhancements made to the street-scene by the project and improved pedestrian facilities, there are limitations on where cycles, pedestrians and the requisite public transport infrastructure can be safely reconciled in shared use.”

Highlighting that “the tram stops prevent safe cycling between the rail and the kerb,” the spokesperson said that “the final scheme will necessarily prevent cycling between Sheepcote St and Berkley Street, and at the Five Ways underpass.

“Cyclists are still permitted to use the strip between the rail and the kerb along the rest of the track but should proceed with caution when crossing the rails, and consider dismounting to do so.

“For the tram stop near Ryland Street, an alternative route via Ryland St, Grosvenor Street west and Sheepcote Street is available to avoid passing the tram stop,” the spokesperson added.

Mick Stanford, a member of Cannon Hill Cycling Club, pointed out that tramlines can pose a hazard to cyclists, making segregated infrastructure essential.

“There should be provision for cyclists on a road like Broad Street because tramlines are dangerous,” he said.

“It's always the front wheels that get stuck in the rails, no question, and then over the handlebars you go.

“I would ride across tram tracks but would never dream of riding parallel to them, he continued, insisting that “The council should have segregated cyclists from the tram tracks.

“Cycling is now supposed to be part of the plans for roads, so this is shocking and it baffles me sometimes why there isn't more consultation,” he added.

Birmingham Live said it had appoached both the Midland Metro Alliance and Transport for West Midlands for a comment, but each said that the issue was one in whiuch the council is exclusively involved.

Last year, Birmingham City Council heralded an end to “the golden age of cars” as it published plans to ban drivers of private cars from crossing the centre of the UK’s second largest city by using  a Dutch-style approach aimed at encouraging more cycling, walking and use of public.

> Birmingham heralds end to “golden age of cars” by banning trips by private motorists across city centre

According to The Birmingham Transport Plan 2031, which aims for 5 per cent of trips to be made by bike by 2023 and double that to 10 per cent over the following decade: “Birmingham’s transport timeline shows a sequence of periods during which one mode of travel has been dominant only to be replaced by the next new best thing.

“So, the golden age of canals was superseded by the golden age of steam trains, the golden age of trams, the golden age of buses and the golden age of cars.

“Birmingham is now entering a new cycle of change which will be different because no single mode of transport will be dominant,” it added.

“Instead, members of the travelling public will have a choice between a range of modes of transport – each of them accessible, viable and sustainable – which together will form a go-anywhere, anytime integrated transport system.”

Although not if you’re travelling on a bike and want to continue through the length of Broad Street, it seems.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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22 comments

Avatar
Shades | 2 years ago
0 likes

I remember my father reminiscing about negotiating tram lines on a bike (before we ditched them); there wasn't any nanny-state or elf & safety guidance though.  I had to cycle through a dockyard years ago for work; stacks of old recessed railway lines to negotiate on the roads.  Apart from crossing them at 90 degrees, the advice they don't mention is that the metal is as slippy as ice when wet.

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qwerty360 | 2 years ago
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*wonders how big a disruption could be caused by following the instructions to the letter... Dismount and walk (reducing the tram to walking pace) every time you are concerned about wheels + tram tracks...

(Technically pushing a bicycle while walking is still driving a road vehicle so it should be on the road, and the tram can't maneuvre around you...)

 

I also wonder how long it would take for safe, usable alternatives to appear...

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NPlus1Bikelights | 2 years ago
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“The council should have segregated cyclists from the tram tracks."

This. You do not want to be cycling between the tracks.

May actually be sound advice do dismount as they have failed to buy rubber filling sections that remove gaps but squash under the weight of trams. Available in EU countries only. Same EU countries laughing at this news.

Edinburgh case studies should really be compulsory reading for any UK building/ expansions of trams lines. Rubber strips aside, there should be well designed places for cyclists to cross at good angles (guided by road markings and cyclists should not end up in dead ends where you are suddenly forced to hop a rail (looking at you Princes St.). Even experienced cyclists crash crossing the tracks in the wet, you need 70-90 degrees.

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joe9090 | 2 years ago
4 likes

A good chunk of Leidsestraat in Amsterdam (a tiny bit narrrower than the pic above) is no cycling officially. Its trams only really and peds. However, if you do cycle down it the police might wag an index finger at you, or the tram driver might ring her brrrrrr bell. Its kind of down to personal responsibility, the kind of mentality lost in the UK with its elf and saftey and US style litigious crap. 

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Philh68 | 2 years ago
5 likes

Hard to believe there's not room on a "Broad" street  That's poor design imho. Our tram in Newcastle AU runs in similar width of road reserve on Scott St, but manages to fit in a central tram stop, 2 tramlines, 2 road lanes and pedestrian space. The problem isn't a lack of space but a lack of imagination.

 

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Jenova20 replied to Philh68 | 2 years ago
2 likes

Might also help if there isn't idiot taxi drivers parking on the tracks near Grand Central. Why do taxi drivers think double yellow and double red lines don't apply to them?

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wycombewheeler | 2 years ago
3 likes

it's not clear, but is the road essentially for trams and pedestrians only now? with cars and cycles diverted elsewhere?

so instead of cyclists and pedestrians mixing on broad street, and trams and cars mixing on paralell roads, they have decided to put vulnerable road users in with large metal boxes on both roads?

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pockstone | 2 years ago
6 likes

Why trams? Massive expense in track laying, platform infrastructure and, as we see here, roads rendered unusable to bicycles. 

Just put in the overhead lines and run trolley buses, infinitely more versatile, divertable and needing no road digging except for the poles to support overhead wires.

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Sriracha replied to pockstone | 2 years ago
2 likes

Odd, but Googling trams vs trolleybuses, bicycles don't figure in the reckoning at all. Says it all really.

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the little onion replied to Sriracha | 2 years ago
12 likes

MONORAIL 

 

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Efe M. Balli replied to pockstone | 2 years ago
0 likes

Buses, especially articulated ones, are very hard to drive in such narrow roads. Pedestrian safety will suffer, and the road/lane needs to be 40-60cm wider than the bus itself for the driver to reliably fit the bus through. Trams, going on rails, do not have this problem, as they are very accurately placed side to side.

Also, buses cannot stop very close to a bus stop and there are generally sizable gaps which are a problem for the disabled and the elderly.

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Hirsute replied to Efe M. Balli | 2 years ago
2 likes

Not sure where you live but buses can easily stop at the right point. Where I live ECC spent money building up the kerb for easy access for wheelchairs/prams. The main issue is cars parked in the bus stop preventing this.

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Awavey replied to Efe M. Balli | 2 years ago
4 likes

Though you dont have to shut the whole bus route & dig the road up every 5 years to replace the tarmac... trolley buses back in the day, though not as voluminous as their modern replacements so maybe an issue on carrying capacity,were a feature of many towns and cities in the UK and happily travelled on roads that were much narrower than must buses or trams would fit today.

But we ripped out all the infra for them, because ICE. Whether the current obsession with trams that some councils are spending money on, and it's hard in some cases not to feel its just boys playing with big toys, is long term the best solution or just a that there Manchester has a tram so should we, we will see.

But its ridiculous that theyve built this system at vast expense and taken the best part of a decade to build and theres no provision for cycling built in at all.

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pockstone replied to Efe M. Balli | 2 years ago
2 likes

Good points. Trams have some benefits/advantages.

Trolley buses, if given the same exclusive use of routes as trams, would have little difficulty negotiating most city streets.(Motor buses do so now anyway.)

No need for articulated buses. They are a menace. Double deckers work fine where high capacity is needed, bridges allowing. Or run two or more buses. I doubt that three buses work out massively more expensive to buy than a three carriage tram. (Running costs and extra drivers less so.)

When a tram breaks down, ( or is blocked by inconsiderate parking etc.) the whole line grinds to a halt. Buses can go round/divert away from broken down vehicles.

We need green public transport systems now, not in the time it takes for individual cities to design and commission unique tram systems and lay tracks and infrastructure. Electric buses with limited overhead lines to increase range can be a much quicker fix than trams.

It would of course help if we had a national strategy and standardised technology. I'm not holding my breath.

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mpdouglas replied to pockstone | 2 years ago
5 likes

Because that's what we get when we vote in cretins to run our country! It doesn't matter whether it's national or local government, we manage to vote in the very least able set of people to develop and implement a well thought through strategy. We are obssessed with single issue politics (Brexit, immigration, etc) and/or the cult of celebrity, rather than valuing intelligence, critical thinking and the ability to take a long term view. You only need to observe the quality of debate in the press, on social media, or on the TV and radio to see what drives our thinking and our voting behaviours.

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Flintshire Boy replied to mpdouglas | 2 years ago
0 likes

I'm looking forward to voting for you, though you'll have to - you know - actually stand first.

Talk and moaning like yours is very, very cheap.

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HoarseMann replied to pockstone | 2 years ago
6 likes

I'm a fan of trolley buses. The Black Country Museum has got one (vid found on YT).

When I visited I was struck by how quickly the thing could accelerate up the hill for an old vehicle. It also seemed a lot narrower than modern vehicles (but maybe that's just because all vehicles seem to have got wider).

They just make more sense nowadays, as battery technology allows them to run for a considerable distance without needing overhead cables. Combined with auto-connecting pantographs, you can limit overhead cabling to longer runs on more major roads and keep unsightly wires out of the city centre. Makes junction wiring less complex and opens up the possiblity of them being able to overtake eachother.

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NPlus1Bikelights replied to pockstone | 2 years ago
0 likes

pockstone wrote:

Why trams? Massive expense in track laying, platform infrastructure and, as we see here, roads rendered unusable to bicycles. 

Just put in the overhead lines and run trolley buses, infinitely more versatile, divertable and needing no road digging except for the poles to support overhead wires.

laugh Athens does it quite well but they do have issues losing power once in a while- maintenance and losing connection. I wouldn't want to try and reconnect them.

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Sriracha | 2 years ago
4 likes

So, knowing this, they made provision to accommodate bicycles on the trams? Thought not.

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brooksby | 2 years ago
3 likes

Quote:

The council insists that cyclists will have to dismount and walk through a section of Broad Street between Ryland Street and Sheepcote Street via Grosvenor Street West, more than doubling the riding distance between the two points and with a roundabout to be negotiated too.

So is this some sort of anti-LTN?  Like putting in pop-up cycle lanes without proper consultation, but in reverse?

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AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
4 likes

TBH, Broad Street was a bad ride even before they put the tram tracks in so no differences to me. But I don't see why one stretch of tramway is off limits and the other is fine. The actual layout doesn't change much at all. 

I actually do use Grovesner Street West though and I'm assuming the diverted buses from Broad street is now permanent fixture. So now sending all cyclists down the road with buses that have done this to the road TWICE in two years is going to be fun. 

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Jenova20 | 2 years ago
8 likes

“Instead, members of the travelling public will have a choice between a range of modes of transport – each of them accessible, viable and sustainable – which together will form a go-anywhere, anytime integrated transport system.”

And yet the most sustainable option is an afterthought to them...

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