At the last Meeting of the City Council, the Birmingham Green Party group of councillors successfully got an amendment to the Lib Dems motion on Road Safety passed by Labour controlled Birmingham City Council.
The Green Party motion called for the City Council to adopt a target of 2034 for their vision zero approach to road safety. That means having no deaths or serious injuries on Birmingham’s roads by 2034. In addition the Green Party amendment called on the Council to:
Ensure the new road safety strategy
- Prioritises the most vulnerable road users (E.g. those on foot, on bike, or with access needs, such as wheelchair users), in line with the new Highway Code hierarchy of road users.
- Includes measures to tackle speeding, and anti-social obstructive and dangerous parking (e.g on pavements, cycle lanes, and across dropped kerbs) in a way that prioritises the most vulnerable road users
- Ensure road safety schemes and other highway improvements work to design out speed and other harmful behaviours.
- Reaffirm its commitment to 20mph on all its residential roads.
- Lobby Government once again for the powers to make this change to 20mph without having to resort to costly Traffic Regulation Orders for every change of speed limit on every residential road.
- Lobby West Midlands Police for more monitoring and enforcement of speed and more enforcement of anti-social, obstructive and dangerous parking that is under their jurisdiction.
Investigate what can be done to give greater support to groups wanting to set up and run Community Speedwatch sessions.
You can see the full amendment here and the original motion here.
Green Party Group Leader Councillor Julien Pritchard said:
“We called for a vision zero approach to road safety, to aim for no deaths or serious injuries on the city’s roads, and to give this some teeth we said this should have a target of by 2034.
“We also need the Council to resource road safety schemes for the many roads that need them. And have a city-wide road safety strategy that is designed to, and designs our streets to, reduce speed, stop dangerous obstructive parking and protect the most vulnerable. Basically ensuring we have streets that are safe to walk, cycle and wheel around.”
“We’re pleased that our amendment calling on the Council to produce a road safety strategy that protects the most vulnerable, reaffirms the Council’s commitment to 20mph, and aims for zero deaths and serious accidents on Birmingham’s roads by 2034 was passed. We look forward to seeing results in the upcoming new road safety strategy!”