Brum's cyclepaths on the road to ruin

Irony of ironies, Birmingham Council is spending another £580,000 expanding the coverage of its ‘average speed’ cameras.

You’d think this was a waste of money given it’s almost impossible to drive at any reasonable speed through much of the city thanks to its long-term campaign against motorists.

Still, you can’t be too careful. Not everyone has yet switched to bicycles, which may explain why the city is spending £4 million on its Big Birmingham Bikes Provision and £2.3 million teaching kids to cycle.

In case cyclists still feel neglected, the city’s paying £22,652 to a Mr Paul Baker to ‘conduct intercept surveys of cyclists’ and another £8,500 for ‘bicycle counter equipment’ as well as £50,000 for ‘a series of e-cargo and cycling support projects to increase cycling uptake’ and over £200,000 on air-quality monitoring.

Meanwhile, the city’s latest contracts register shows its agreed to spend at least £5.6 million on 20 mph zones, bollards and road closures, double yellow lines and ‘modal filters’ to prevent through traffic, all designed to make life difficult for drivers.

Then there’s speed limit reductions from 40 to 30 at ‘multiple locations’ which will cost £305,331.65, civil engineering works for number-plate recognition cameras are costing £169,019.88 though that’s less than the £165,220 going to Waterman Infrastructure and Environment Ltd and a bit more than the £136,934 for a transport planning secondee from Constella Public Ltd.

Flowbird Smart City UK gets £140,000 for the repair and maintenance of pay and display parking machines ‘required by the Council to ensure that citizens are able to pay for their parking sessions in a timely and efficient manner’.

Oddly, the council is giving Guardian Angels Catholic Primary School £56,240 to buy ‘a saloon or estate car’ while Calthorpe Academy gets £36,027 and Cadbury Sixth Form College has to make do with only £23,385.20 under the same heading.

It’s bizarre the city is buying cars for colleges when it’s now planning to waste £14.3 million on cycle lanes along the A45 Coventry Road – a scheme opposed by more than two-thirds of those who thought it worth bothering to express an opinion in the face of the council’s arrogant intransigence. Birmingham: the city of cyclepaths.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-council-defends-cycle-route-32683731?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1760545372