Last year the cycle counter in Kings Norton Park ended up on its side with a plastic fence around it. When I first encountered it like this, there was nothing to suggest how it got that way, so I just assumed it had been vandalised. Since it appeared to have been forgotten, I recently reported it on Fix My Street. Such reports locally get sent to Birmingham City Council. The reply I got back was not what I expected at all. The person who received my report did some detective work, and discovered that the counter was knocked over by a car in June 2020, despite being behind two bollards and a hedge, some distance from the Pershore Road carriageway. The driver had left the wide and straight carriageway and driven over the pavement and grass verges before crashing through the bollards and into the counter. The toucan crossing and a sign post were also damaged in the incident. The contractor sent to repair the damage was not able to repair the counter, so they erected a safety fence around it.

Since then the counter has been awaiting quotes for repair, and that is proving problematic. I'm told it's likely it will take some time for a repair to be made.

Incidents like this make me wonder why we tolerate the misery, damage, and destruction that cars bring. There are other, safer and far less damaging ways of getting about a city. Those of us who want something better need to support (and constructively criticise) those attempts the council is making to rein in car usage.