By james art November 01, 2024
by Christopher Carey
One of the UK’s largest local authorities, Birmingham City Council, is considering banning cycling in pedestrianized parts of the city centre.
A report by the city council’s Department of Regulation and Public Safety has highlighted growing concern about food delivery couriers cycling through pedestrian areas at high speed, posing a risk to the public.
Under the new proposals, which must go through a public consultation before being implemented, cycling could be “time-limited” or even banned altogether.
“We are considering measures to try to reduce the incidence of speed cycling through a small area of the city center where there is heavy traffic and it is not safe to cycle due to the potential for near misses and collisions,” a Birmingham City spokesman Council said Cities today.
“This does not affect the council’s commitment to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists as part of ongoing developments and its transport plan.
“Before any decisions are made, we are seeking everyone’s views through consultation on how best to manage the issue. Appropriate restrictions could be put in place in this pedestrian only area to restrict all bicycles, some cycles, manage the direction of cycles to ensure safe traffic flow, or no action on this issue.
“To inform this consideration, we would encourage all residents and community groups to make their voices heard once the consultation opens.”
Concerns
The review recommended adding cycling in pedestrian areas to the city’s current Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), which would give police the power to clamp down on disorderly behaviour.
The proposed measures have raised concerns among activist tourism groups, who have questioned how the plans will be implemented.
“There are people in this world who are irresponsible and some of them cycle, but if that’s the problem we need to tackle that behaviour,” said Duncan Dollimore, head of campaigns at Cycling UK.
“Banning a whole class of activities and means of transport is not the way you deal with the problem.
“It is very difficult to see how banning all cyclists, including people who would always behave responsibly, does not restrict access, which is not the purpose of the PSPO. Plus, many of the companies hired by municipalities to levy these fines have an incentive to do so.
Birmingham would not be the first UK council to introduce such restrictions.
Over the summer, North East Lincolnshire Council introduced a loudspeaker system to remind people that cycling is restricted on the 200m pedestrian zone in Grimsby.
Last year, cycling was included in the PSPO by Coventry City Council, while Peterborough and Southend-on-Sea councils also introduced cycling restrictions in certain areas.
Image: Dreamtime