Birmingham could ban cycling in pedestrian zone over safety concerns

One of the largest UK local authorities, Birmingham City Council, is considering a ban on cycling in pedestrian-only parts of the city centre.

A report by the city council’s regulation and community safety arm has highlighted increased concerns over food-delivery couriers cycling through pedestrian zones at speed, posing a risk to the public.

Under new proposals, which are set to go to public consultation before being introduced, cycling could be ‘restricted by time periods’ or even banned completely.

“We are considering measures to try and decrease instances of cycling at speed through one small area of the city centre where there is high footfall, and it is unsafe to cycle due to the likelihood of near misses and collisions,” a spokesperson from Birmingham City Council told Cities Today.

“This does not impact on the council’s commitment to prioritise pedestrians and cyclists as part of ongoing developments and its Transport Plan.

“Before any decisions are made, we are seeking the views of all through a consultation in how best to manage the issue. It may be that appropriate restrictions should be introduced in this pedestrian-only area to restrict all cycles, some cycles, manage the direction of cycles to provide a safe flow of movement, or take no action in this issue.

“To inform this consideration we would encourage all residents and community groups to make their voices heard once the consultation is opened.”

Concerns

The review has recommended adding cycling in pedestrian areas to the city’s current public spaces protection order (PSPO), which will give the police power to clamp down on unruly behaviour.

The proposed measures have raised concerns among active travel groups, who have questioned how the plans will be enforced.

“There are people in this world who are irresponsible, and some of them are on a bike, but if that’s the problem, we need to deal with that behaviour,” said Duncan Dollimore, the head of campaigns at Cycling UK.

“Banning a whole class of activity and a means of transport is not how you address the problem.

“It’s very difficult to see how banning all cyclists, including people who would have always behaved responsibly, isn’t restricting access, which isn’t what PSPOs are designed to do. Plus, a lot of the companies contracted by councils to issue these fines have an incentive to do so.”

Birmingham would not be the first UK council to put such restrictions in place.

During the summer, North East Lincolnshire council introduced a loudspeaker system to remind people that cycling was restricted along a 200-metre pedestrianised zone in Grimsby.

Last year, cycling was included in a PSPO by Coventry city council, while Peterborough and Southend-on-Sea councils have also introduced restrictions on cycling in certain zones.

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