This photo is taken at the A4040 / A34 junction, facing towards Perry Barr local centre. The single-stage cycle crossing can be clearly seen, as can the expanse of shared use pavement between that crossing and the section of cycle track the photo is taken from. At the A4040 and A34 junction, only the A34 has a cycle track - anyone going along the A4040 faces either shared-use pavements and crossings or cycling with the motor traffic. The section of shared use pavements here could be defended as a means of legitimising cycle users travelling along that A4040 direction on the shared-use crossings, but I think that it confuses matters and results in poor design decisions that create problems later.
There must be a network of high-quality cycle tracks along main roads in the future plans of Birmingham City Council, and if current cycle track designs at junctions don't incorporate options for cycle tracks in multiple directions, then it either results in expensive digging up of the junctions multiple times or poor connections. We need to do better in our network planning when we rebuild whole junctions like this.
