Post by Bracken Van Ryssen on Mar 18, 2015 13:07:10 GMT
Birmingham City Council are consulting on changes to the Minworth Island roundabout.
The plans are to increase the traffic lanes, introduce traffic signals and a direct pedestrian crossing on the roundabout itself, as well as modifications such as 20mph limits, cycle lanes and traffic calming to the advisory cycle route on the roads around the island. Plans and consultation can be found here.
Here is my response:
The main proposals for the widening of lanes on the roundabout itself is likely to only increase exit, entry and travel speeds for motor traffic as well as increasing the risk of shunt accidents due to a more confusing layout and the need for lane changes. While the signalising of the roundabout may mitigate the speed slightly, it is more likely to introduce a tidal flow to the roundabout with short periods of heavy fast traffic followed by a periods of no traffic.
This represents at best little change for pedestrians and bicycle users and at worst a definite worsening of conditions while crossing the entry and exit points and riding on the carriageway itself. For pedestrians, particularly the elderly and infirm, these exit and entry points would provide a significant barrier even with the grace periods supplied by signalisation. While the proposed crossings through the centre of the island do something to address this, only one desire line is being catered for and any other routes or destinations would be forced across the aforementioned unsupported crossings.
While changes to the advisory cycle route on the roads around the island will be most welcome, the route is far too indirect to cater to those bicycle users which need to move through the island to access other areas. For example travelling from Oxstall Close to Forge Croft is a distance of approximately 0.7 km but the same trip using the cycle route is approximately 2 km, which could be seen as at least a doubling of journey time which is clearly discouraging for the majority of users and the sort of detour that would be considered unacceptable for motor traffic. The Birmingham Cycle Revolution’s goal of a coherent and cohesive cycle network is only achievable if barriers such as this roundabout are dealt with or viable alternative routes are provided.
Possible solutions or modifications to improve the plans include; the suspension of plans until the Dutch style cycling roundabout completes trials in London and a similar design can be installed in this location, filtered permeability along the minor roads around the roundabout to make the advisory route more attractive and to cater to some desire lines, more crossings through the centre island to cater to a variety of desire lines, separated cycle tracks across all crossings and parallel to pavements to enable off-carriageway cycle movements and a link from Oakenhayes Crescent to the advisory cycling route.
The plans are to increase the traffic lanes, introduce traffic signals and a direct pedestrian crossing on the roundabout itself, as well as modifications such as 20mph limits, cycle lanes and traffic calming to the advisory cycle route on the roads around the island. Plans and consultation can be found here.
Here is my response:
The main proposals for the widening of lanes on the roundabout itself is likely to only increase exit, entry and travel speeds for motor traffic as well as increasing the risk of shunt accidents due to a more confusing layout and the need for lane changes. While the signalising of the roundabout may mitigate the speed slightly, it is more likely to introduce a tidal flow to the roundabout with short periods of heavy fast traffic followed by a periods of no traffic.
This represents at best little change for pedestrians and bicycle users and at worst a definite worsening of conditions while crossing the entry and exit points and riding on the carriageway itself. For pedestrians, particularly the elderly and infirm, these exit and entry points would provide a significant barrier even with the grace periods supplied by signalisation. While the proposed crossings through the centre of the island do something to address this, only one desire line is being catered for and any other routes or destinations would be forced across the aforementioned unsupported crossings.
While changes to the advisory cycle route on the roads around the island will be most welcome, the route is far too indirect to cater to those bicycle users which need to move through the island to access other areas. For example travelling from Oxstall Close to Forge Croft is a distance of approximately 0.7 km but the same trip using the cycle route is approximately 2 km, which could be seen as at least a doubling of journey time which is clearly discouraging for the majority of users and the sort of detour that would be considered unacceptable for motor traffic. The Birmingham Cycle Revolution’s goal of a coherent and cohesive cycle network is only achievable if barriers such as this roundabout are dealt with or viable alternative routes are provided.
Possible solutions or modifications to improve the plans include; the suspension of plans until the Dutch style cycling roundabout completes trials in London and a similar design can be installed in this location, filtered permeability along the minor roads around the roundabout to make the advisory route more attractive and to cater to some desire lines, more crossings through the centre island to cater to a variety of desire lines, separated cycle tracks across all crossings and parallel to pavements to enable off-carriageway cycle movements and a link from Oakenhayes Crescent to the advisory cycling route.