Foleshill Road Improvements

UPDATE APRIL 2021 - The consultation has now closed. We will update this page when the responses to the consultation have been reviewed.

Background

The Council has won funding from the Government to help improve air quality and to encourage more people to walk and cycle in the city. We want to use some of this money to make Foleshill Road a better place to live, work, shop and visit.

Foleshill Road is a busy road with many important uses - shops, businesses, Places of Worship, schools and homes – all either on the road or the roads that are directly linked to it. Traffic survey data shows us that there are high amounts of traffic, much of which does not need to use Foleshill Road. This contributes to:

• Poor quality environment and spaces in around the shopping area. Spaces which might make people feel that they don’t want to shop or spend time there.
• Poor air quality due to traffic building up and having to wait. Around 31,000 vehicles use Foleshill Road each day, but many of these just use the road to get between the A444 and the ring road and don’t stop at local businesses.
• Poor reliability of bus services due to the build-up of traffic.
• No space to cycle, meaning that people don’t feel safe to ride bikes in the area.

What do we want to do?

To make Foleshill Road a better place to live, work, shop and visit, we want to:

• Make it a better place to cycle - more cycling means less cars on the roads and a healthier community that lives longer. Regular cycling can reduce the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke. It can also reduce the risks of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
• Improve air quality in the area – we can do this by making the cars that just pass through the Foleshill Road use the A444 instead. This was included in our Local Air Quality Action Plan which explains what we will be doing to improve air quality, and something that the Government has said we must do.
• Improve the quality and reliability of bus services that use the Foleshill Road - we are already working with bus companies to improve the quality of buses operating in the city, with the planned introduction of electric buses over the next few years. We want to ensure that these new buses can run as reliably and smoothly as possible, by reducing traffic congestion and stopping illegal on-street parking – particularly where it stops buses getting to the bus stops.
• Make it a nicer place to shop – we want to help local businesses to do well. People are more likely to spend time in places and spend their money in clean, safe places. This includes where it is easy for people to cross the road, to walk and cycle, and to get the bus. There is much evidence to suggest that people arriving by bus, bike or on foot will generally spend more in their local shops.
• Make it easier for local people to get to education and jobs – Lots of people in Foleshill don’t have a car or a car they can use. These people need to use buses, or walk or cycle to get to get around the city, including to work and to school, work, college or university.

How can we do this?

Using the money from Government, we would like to make changes to help us achieve the above. There are different ways of doing this, some of which are mentioned below and are shown on the map, but we also want to know what you think would make Foleshill Road a safer and better place to live, work, shop and visit.

• Making it easier and safer to cycle along Foleshill Road. This could include a segregated cycleway on the road, this is where a lane for cyclists is separated from the rest of the road, for example with kerbs, so only people on cycles can use it.
• Encouraging traffic that is just passing through Foleshill Road to use the A444 instead. There are different ways to manage this through traffic and this could include giving buses priority access to make them more reliable.
• Installing Average Speed Enforcement Cameras. These check the average speed of traffic along the whole stretch of the road and, if a vehicles average is above the speed limit, the driver will be fined. This will improve road safety in the area and is being rolled out on main routes across the city including the section of Foleshill Road north of the A444.

Tell us what you think by completing the survey below. The survey closes on Sunday 11 April 2021.

What happens next?

Once you have told us what you think the issues are and how we could make Foleshill Road better, we will use what you tell us to help us design the improvements to the road. As soon as we have a design that we think best meets the needs of the Foleshill community, we will share it with you, so that you have another chance to tell us your views. We hope to do this in the summer.