Bus Priority Measures on Sherlock Street

Feedback Updated 23 Dec 2019

We Asked

Following a first consultation, on a new outbound bus lane along Sherlock Street (between Gooch Street and Belgrave Middleway) and a shared footway/cycleway on Sherlock Street in the direction of Digbeth.

We asked for your views on a revised proposal, incorporating:

A bus gate on Sherlock Street, located just after the junction with Gooch Street (in the direction of Belgrave Middleway). The bus gate will restrict traffic in the outbound direction to buses, cycles and Hackney Carriages (black cabs).
Widening the footpath between Hope Street and Mowbray Street. This is to improve pedestrian access to the bus stop.
Upgrading the crossing on Sherlock Street (close to Hope Street) to a parallel crossing for use by pedestrians and cyclists. This is to improve connectivity for cyclists travelling between National Cycle Route 5 on Gooch Street and the A38.

You Said

Of the 28 respondents who expressed an opinion as to whether the proposed Sherlock Street bus gate scheme should be implemented, 57% of respondents were in favour of the scheme. There were nine respondents who stated that they really liked the scheme and seven more were positive about the scheme. Only eight people stated a real dislike about the scheme and two more gave a negative view.

This is much better than the old scheme, it doesn't remove the cycle lanes and the bus gate will significantly reduce the traffic too and I'm fully supportive of this scheme.
You will need to enforce the bus gate for it to be beneficial to bus users.

This improves bus access to Sherlock Street without adversely affecting pedestrians or cycle users. The recent utility works have demonstrated that Sherlock Street is not essential for the flow of private motor traffic in the city centre, so it shouldn't cause any problems.

We Did

The scheme will be implemented in Spring 2020, with the following changes:

The advisory cycle path cannot be made mandatory due to loading/unloading provisions on Sherlock Street.
The pedestrian crossing will not be upgraded to a parallel crossing and left as existing as additional lighting works will be required for the whole of Sherlock Street. This is currently out of scope for the proposed bus priority measures.

Overview

Lots of people travel to and in Birmingham city centre every day. We need to improve public transport to make it easy for people to get around and to reduce reliance on private cars, which cause unnecessary congestion and air pollution. We are currently working to create a clean air city, including the introduction of a Clean Air Zone from 2020. The main goal is to reduce the level of nitrogen dioxide in the city's air.

As part of the Clean Air Zone, a number of additional transport improvements including bus priority schemes have been designed on key transport corridors in the city.

Between 1 April and 7 May 2019, we consulted on proposals for an outbound bus lane (travelling away form the city centre and towards Belgrave Interchange) and shared footway/cycleway. Of the 164 people who gave a response about Sherlock Street, half liked the scheme as it would improve bus journey times outbound from the city centre. There were, however, concerns that the scheme did not fully address the needs of pedestrians and cyclists. We have taken into consideration all the comments made during consultation and have decided to put forward an alternative design for consultation. We are looking to provide a scheme which balances the needs of all road users as far as possible.