Cycling in and around Birmingham England

Commuter Route

Hi all
Which is the best route from Harborne High Street to Steelhouse Lane.
Need the fastest route for commuting, It'll be a bit after Rush hour (After 9am)

Thanks

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Keith Dodds on February 2, 2017 at 17:25

Harborne Road to Five Ways, Five Ways down Broad Street to Victoria Square, round Temple Row to Corporation St at Minories and round to Steelhouse. Will be traffic heavy the whole way and a brief walk at bottom of Broad Street I would think but will be mostly flat

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Permalink Reply by doug salmon on February 3, 2017 at 10:00

Cycling round Five Ways island would be -

a Unpleasant

b Terrifying

c. The last cycling you ever do

If no need for speed, Harborne Walkway, Summerfield Park, Northbrook st, Canal, will take you most of the route off-road.

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Permalink Reply by Ian on February 3, 2017 at 10:03

Hi
Yeah I have done the Canal route - From Broad Street it's pretty nasty cobbles. Bit to bumpy too.

I would go down calthorpe and under the underpass (subway rather) and pop out on Broad street most likely.

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Permalink Reply by Ian on February 3, 2017 at 10:06

It's a lot easier coming back as Colmore Row is one way.
The cycling set up in town is really appalling especially given they have just spent the last god knows how many years changing it all.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Dodds on February 3, 2017 at 11:38

Yes it would which is why the cycle route goes under the roundabout

doug salmon said:

Cycling round Five Ways island would be -

a Unpleasant

b Terrifying

c. The last cycling you ever do

If no need for speed, Harborne Walkway, Summerfield Park, Northbrook st, Canal, will take you most of the route off-road.

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Permalink Reply by James Russell on February 3, 2017 at 12:45

I rode it once a week for a couple of years, and am still alive. I admit that it takes a cetain amount of chutzpah, you need to take the lane, have a pyschic connection with all the other driver's on the roundabout, be able to accelerate up to 30mph in seconds, and have eyes in the back of your head, but with all these attributes, you'll have no problems at all.

doug salmon said:

Cycling round Five Ways island would be -

a Unpleasant

b Terrifying

c. The last cycling you ever do

If no need for speed, Harborne Walkway, Summerfield Park, Northbrook st, Canal, will take you most of the route off-road.

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Permalink Reply by doug salmon on February 3, 2017 at 14:55

Impressed James. But please don't do it again.

Agree, cycle route under roundabout preferable, despite random pedestrians and round-about route to find it.

Anyone done the underpass?

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Permalink Reply by Tom H on February 3, 2017 at 15:28

The underpass is fine, really wide entrance/exits into the centre of the roundabout and wide direct paths inside to take you to whichever entrance/exit you want. Coming up onto broad street by where tescos used to be the exit path is not as wide as on the other side but getting out onto the road is impossible from the other side due to central reservation/barriers so if you want to drop straight back onto broad st you need to come up from the entrance/exit by tescos.

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Permalink Reply by LS on February 3, 2017 at 15:29

I've done the underpass from Broad Street to Hagley Road a few times but I don't go that way very often. Usually in rush hour so not much danger of being hit at the other end.

doug salmon said:

Impressed James. But please don't do it again.

Agree, cycle route under roundabout preferable, despite random pedestrians and round-about route to find it.

Anyone done the underpass?

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Permalink Reply by Simon on February 3, 2017 at 17:37

In the wet on a brompton the underpass was a bit interesting thanks to a couple of dodgy paving slabs, but once you know they are there it was fine...might even have been fixed by now.

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Permalink Reply by Kim on February 4, 2017 at 0:53

It's not a route I use often. I've been over the roundabout a few times, but mostly as part of Critical Mass - it was unpleasant but doable on the couple of occasions I've cycled it on my own, but those were unladen and not at peak times. One day I really must remember to go and have a look for this underpass...