Skip to main content

Birmingham mobility action plan unveiled

Birmingham City Council has unveiled its Birmingham Mobility Action Plan (BMAP), a twenty-five year vision for improving transport in the congested UK city, which planners estimate will have an extra 80,000 cars on its road by 2031, bringing the network to a grinding halt.
November 7, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Birmingham City Council has unveiled its Birmingham Mobility Action Plan (BMAP), a twenty-five year vision for improving transport in the congested UK city, which planners estimate will have an extra 80,000 cars on its road by 2031, bringing the network to a grinding halt.

Presenting a draft version of the BMAP consultation document, Birmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore outlined the plan which includes a 200-mile network of eleven Sprint rapid-transit lines, a hybrid between a bus and tram service, as the centrepiece. BMAP also includes a new London tube-style map to help visitors and commuters around the network of buses, trams and trains to give Birmingham a genuine integrated transport network. A more integrated Oyster Card style fare system will also simplify payment for public transport in future.

He said: “This is a transport plan, not for tomorrow but for over the next 25 years. We need an integrated transport system in Birmingham which we all need to agree on. This is why we are putting out this consultation document. Once this plan is agreed across the businesses and residents of Birmingham then we need to put in place funding programmes that will allow us to implement the plan over the coming years.

“This is precisely what countries such as France and Germany have done over the last 20 years, and which is why their transport infrastructure is so much better than ours. We need to do better in Birmingham and this plan will allow us to deliver a transport system comparable to other cities in Europe.”

Related Content

  • Smarter mapping makes for more informed decisions
    December 2, 2016
    Following his keynote presentation at the 2016 ITS World Congress in Melbourne, ITS International caught up with Esri founder Jack Dangermond. It is getting close to half a century ago that Jack Dangermond and his wife Laura founded the Environmental Research Systems Institute – known today as Esri - of which he remains president.
  • Will mobile apps kick-start mobility pricing?
    January 5, 2016
    Thomas Hallauer from Ptolemus believes trials of connected road charging services will show the pay per mile concept will go much further than previously thought. Drivers are progressively becoming directly connected to the transport infrastructure and while the methods are changing, the innovation is really in the models rather than the technology.
  • Debating contactless toll charging by smartphone
    April 25, 2012
    Developments in the mass transit sector could provide indicators of potential for greater use of mobile consumer electronic devices for charging and tolling, according to Consult Hyperion’s Mike Burden. However, opinion among toll system suppliers is divided. Jason Barnes reports The combination of mass-market devices and their protocols, typified by smartphones featuring near field communication (NFC), points to some exciting cross-fertilisation possibilities in the charging and tolling sector, says Consul
  • New report indicates reduction in London’s pollution
    July 20, 2015
    A new report, produced by experts at King's College London, for the first time quantifies the health and economic effects of the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2), where all previous studies have focused on particulate matter (PM2.5). Combined together the effects of both pollutants reveal a higher health impact than previously estimated after taking into account this further pollutant. The study also found that nearly half the health impacts are caused by air pollution outside London such as diesel