Birmingham scraps six cycle lanes in favour of two segregated superhighways

I am very excited by the Perry Barr to Brum one as I travel that road often andwill give feedback !! 

Would like to see more but here in Brum this is major step forward, however the City Centre itself is still a mess this is an example of a ride I have done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6lCCIFfHB4

If it makes it easier to get across the ring road, without having either to take one's life in one's hands at a 3 lane roundabout or wait at a series of pelican crossings, it will be a Good Thing.

Cycling down the central reservation with 2 lanes of traffic on each side sounds horrible from a pollution and noise stand point! But presumably better than cycling in the traffic.
Does offer the opportunity to build a genuinely fast commuter route though since nobody is going to be taking their kids/dogs on it. Get the junctions right and design for continuous 20-30kph without stopping and it might work.

Birmingham has some of the most appalling standard of crap 'cycle infrastructure' which barely merits the description. For example (I don't know for 100% sure it's still this way, but I imagine so) a pavement cycle lane on Harborne Park Road which has people walking in it, broken glass, and runs out near Battery Park with no suggestions as to what to do.

I've also seen some blue cycle signs on the A38 between Selly Oak and the city centre, which as far as I can tell are for a crap pavement cycle lane which is crossed by hundreds and driveways and side roads.

This sounds as though it will be a big improvement. There is lots of space in the middle of the A38. Ok, some leaves may fall on it. Ok, there is some pollution from traffic, but there's also an advantage to a main road route: people know it, and they can see it. Back roads routes don't have the same impact on public consciousness.

I believe we should criticise crap plans, but avoid the trap of being overly critical of imperfect but largely sensible ideas.

These wide centralreservations go alomost the whole length of the Bristol Road, right out to the Lickey Hills, with a couple of setions e.g. Selly Oak, Northfield where there's no reservation. I think they used to be tram routes, I've often thoght they would make good locations for cycleways instead of the ones on the footpath or the segregated lane down from Northfield towards Selly Oak - which is normally ovscured by vehicles parked for the Wodlands hospital, and who spread mud all over the cycle lane as they drive off.

They'll need some sort of traffic control where there are gaps in the reservation but, for me, the sooner the better!

That bloke at the front on the artists impression certainly gets around  

I'm sure he's been on artists impressions for the London superhighways, and he's been adopted on BikeSnobNYCs website too.

http://road.cc/content/news/213927-exercising-polluted-environments-can-...

4km up and 4km down the A34/A38 sounds like a breath of fresh air.

I can see the economy of using empty central reservations, but as with the Leeds Bradford supergutter, I cannot understand why more imaginative routes away from traffic aren't preferred to slavishly following the main roads.

I understand that the big central reservations used to be the old tram lines.  These roads are fast dual carriageways.  Good idea.  That's the easy bit, there are some big junctions on the selly oak road, I'm thinking of the ones in Edgebaston and getting those right will be the difficult bit.  I read a Birmingham bike blog a while back and the existing cycle routes that are on these roads are a bit of a joke.  

Birmingham clearly has trees whose fallen leaves are magnetically repelled from tarmac

They're going to have to make them seriously wider if the artist's impression is right.