Birmingham votes to divert traffic from city centre

Birmingham City Council’s Cabinet has voted today on closing city centre roads to through-traffic, except for zero-emission buses and cyclists.

The Birmingham Transport Plan (BTP) - which sets out the vision for transport investment up to 2031 - is centred around a number of key principles and builds on the existing Clean Air Zone and Birmingham’s ambitions to reduce congestion and improve air quality. The Plan details how the city will reduce car dependency and deliver public transport improvements that will create a better environment for residents. 

Twenty-five per cent of the city’s car journeys are one mile or shorter. To convert people to cleaner and healthier forms of transport, the city, including the central area, will be split into seven zones, and rather than driving directly between zones, motorists will be diverted via the A4540 ring road. 

Birmingham has already started to shift the balance and build a future in which fewer journeys by car are necessary. In addition to the introduction of Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone, it has started to invest in projects including the city’s first fully segregated cycle ways, plus extensions to the Metro network and the introduction of 20mph speed limits on residential streets.  

HS2 and its supporting package of connectivity measures, together with Birmingham’s hosting of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, present further opportunities to advance investment in transport infrastructure. 

See the BVRLA's Clean Air Zones resource for information on Birmingham and other UK cities' CAZ plans.