Better Streets for Birmingham

IMPORTANT EDITORIAL: “The Guardian view on Oxford Street’s pedestrianisation: cities should be designed around people, not cars.” “The transformation of Europe’s busiest shopping street should be a case study in making cities greener, less congested & more inviting places to live.” @theguardian.com

Meet Will, the Cambridge plumber who gets to many of his jobs by e-cargo bike. Will founded Veloplumb in 2023, with a simple idea: many plumbing jobs don’t need a van full of equipment. 'I really believe in it, it boosts mental health to be outdoors, exercising and of course doing some plumbing!

Safer School Journeys Phase 2 Consultation Response - Better Streets for Birmingham

Interesting to see what one person with the help of their community can do to make a road safer. follow the link below to see what Majid Cheway did. If you want to find out how to make birmingham safer like Majid then join our mailing list & whattsapp group! www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY4g...

Hilary Topp and her fellow volunteers do a great job of making these rides - as well as other Bike Birmingham projects - fun, welcoming, and safe. You can hear more from Hilary here on the @betterstreetsforbirmingham.org podcast: www.betterstreetsforbirmingham.org/post/ep-9-bi...

Dutch cycling infrastructure during the school run, showing why safe infrastructure is vital if we want children to cycle to school. From a fietsstraat, where bikes have priority, to protected cycle tracks where cars must give way to bikes at every junction. Safe, convenient cycling for everyone.

🧮 Basic street math: Bicycle parking is not the problem, but a fundamental part of the solution.

We’ll be listening to this ahead of hearing Melissa & Chris speak in London later this month with @londoncycling.bsky.social lcc.org.uk/events/lcc-a...

Physical infrastructure works! :)

To anyone who gets around Birmingham without a car, this is in no way shocking and did not require AI to report something aleady so obvious.

We're not getting very far with the Road Safety Emergency if the cops are collectively parking on the zig zags.

Today we met with West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster to discuss the work he is doing across the region to make our streets safer. We are very grateful for his time and commitment to continue to work with us and partners to improve road safety.

Every street is a type of road, but not every road is a street. Our cities are full of roads masquerading as streets and the results of that design choice are clear. Streets become deadly barriers to the freedom of independent mobility for everyone outside of a car.

I’m sure they used a stock image, BUT it illustrates something else obstructing the footway. Have they included footway parking in their PSPO? They don’t mention it, yet I guarantee it will cause more of a problem most of the time in the city - as it does elsewhere. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Over a third (34%) of parents are worried about heavy traffic on the journey to school. This International Walk to School Month, we're calling for safer streets so that more children can enjoy the benefits of walking, wheeling and scooting to school. https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/iwtsm

Bike lanes are for more than just cyclists!

Today the Better Streets for Birmingham committee met with Councillor Roger Harmer, Leader of Birmingham City Council, and Councillor Julien Pritchard, the Deputy Leader, to discuss road safety. Thanks to both for their time and commitment to delivering safer streets for our city's residents.

This is why infrastructure is so important!

This is the dream.

"But the handicapped need cars!" No, what they need are options in mobility. The tech exists to enable their freedom of independent mobility, but almost always what is lacking is the enabling infrastructure. Bike lanes and quality sidewalks serve everyone.

Applications open for part-time roles with Better Streets - Better Streets for Birmingham

Drivers who speed because they like the feeling of going fast should ride a bike. It feels fast at 20 mph.

Since everyone’s arguing about speed cameras, let’s keep a couple facts in mind: 1) Research show that camera enforcement is much more popular than the media implies – in suburbs as well as cities. Lesson: Don’t conflate a few angry car owners with “public opinion.” (cont'd)

Approximately 74% - 80% of drivers ticketed by New York City's speed camera ticket do not receive a second one. Speeding dropped by 94 percent reduction in locations where cameras were installed. www.nyc.gov/html/dot/htm...

Cargo Bikes Can Replace Cars for Many Families, New Study Finds. momentummag.com/cargo-bikes-...

September 2026 Newsletter - Better Streets for Birmingham

Free Selly Oak from its rat run status! (Yes those cars are stopped in the box junction)

One of these is an oversized, elitist mobility vehicle. The other is an e-cargo bike. One tears up our local infrastructure and is a threat to people outside of it. The other weaves into the urban fabric, accomplishing a lot and asks for very little.

You can now watch City of Cars 13 MINUTE VERSION! follow the link to watch it now! vimeo.com/1203509441?share=...

I took 5yo and her friend on a cargo bike ride today. It was his first time and he was so full of joy and enthusiasm. We took the long way home just to get more time feeling like a bird flying.

A bit of litter picking with my local community gardening group and we stopped to admire this little bed which one of us planted up a while back and has finally bloomed after such a hot summer! 🙂

Hyper-fast acceleration is dangerous as well as pointless. As I wrote in 2024, the 0-to-60 metric is outdated and needs to die. No driver on a public road needs to go from 0 to 60 mph in under 8 seconds. Even the slowest car on the market is more than quick enough.

This is a refuge on a residential street. The guy leaning on his bike is at the primary school entrance, hence the green fencing beside him. The bollards are pencil shaped to say “KIDS HERE” the plastic bollards on the refuge have been flattened. There is no #WarOnDrivers there is a #WarOnWalkers

So excited for this!

I love the freedom of riding a bike in the city. You can explore so many areas & discover new places. Parks, canals, alleys - all waiting for you. #paris #bike

Thanks for reminding me of this.

Bike/pedestrian networks don't take 30 years to build. Stop accepting those timelines in your community. The best practices have been proven & they already exist. Safety should already be the #1 priority. The ROI is unbeatable. The timeline is a moral document and it shouldn't be generational.

When it comes to road safety, cities have two choices: Adapt kids to traffic: keep them indoors and drive them everywhere. Or adapt traffic to kids: make streets safe enough to move as autonomous members of society. The choice says a lot about the kind of city we want to build. youtu.be/O_WjWRmQwtg

“They’re too young to ride" Nope. They’re ready to ride, it’s our cities that aren’t ready.

If we want to be successful in advocating for better streets, we need to tell better stories. A short excerpt from episode 358 with Sara Stace 👇 youtube.com/shorts/X0o8t...

The countdown is on for a traffic-free Oxford Street. Monday 26 October marks a new chapter for the nation’s high street as it becomes pedestrianised.