You can post pictures an discuss about Rush Hour in Birmingham, I personally have never experienced major traffic in the city centre, however I dont think I have ever been at Rush Hour times.

But I have been down the Chester Road outside the Jag, when they are all coming out of work. It took us nearly half an hour to get threw the traffic.

Bloody ridiculous, deffinatley one of the worst places for traffic.

Sadley I have no pics!

I haven't got any pictures but it took at least an hour to get from the city centre to Spag Junction on the Aston Expressway around January this year. The driver even turned the bus off at one point.

The most horrendous rush hour experience i've ever had was about 2 weeks ago, those bastard road works they're dong on the hagley road meant it took us over an hour to get from five ways to the strathallan. Oh and then there was in April, when the works were on the otherside of the road, and the traffic was backed up fom TGI Fridays to Jonathans just up the road from me! God it was hell that morning, took about an hour and a half to get into town.

There's a reason I get the train (too many years of sitting in rush hour traffic)

Main choke points in my bit of Brum are the M5/M6 junction & Spaghetti Junction. Where those two motorways merge, it causes huuuge tailbacks which frequently do get all the way back to Spaghetti, and then spanner the Aston Expressway all the way back into town. Effectively - you have 6 lanes becomming 3.

Traffic also gets bad where the Aston Expressway meets the A5127 at Gravelly Hill - 4 lanes merging into one as you get off spaghetti - nightmare!

Railway wise, the Cross City Line gets really busy at peak times. 9 car trains can have standing room only by the time they get into Erdington, in the morning and I have seen the odd occasion where they get so full that people physically can't get onboard the train and you have to wait for the next one.

Metro gets very crowded in rush hour too.

I'm also amazed at how much extra traffic is on the roads at school term time, and how rude & ignorant some of these drivers are to other road users - in some cases completely blocking the roads so that they can drop their kids off directly outside the school - even though the street is clear on both sides a little further down the road!!!

If there's a problem on the Kingsbury Road, almost the whole of Erdington is paralysed. :ohno:

BlahBlah I did not think trains got that busy where people cant even get on, and with the population going up and cnstant redevelopment, things are only going to get busier!

I get just as frustrated outside rush hour.

I came through the city a few weeks ago between 9.30 and 10.00 in the evening. It should have been quick, but every set of traffic lights in the centre stopped me, and each one stayed red for ages despite the fact there was no traffic coming the other ways. It ended up taking 30 minutes to do what should have taken 15.

Basically it's down to cheap traffic control or poorly set up systems - either way it's beginning to really p*** me off.

BlahBlah I did not think trains got that busy where people cant even get on, and with the population going up and cnstant redevelopment, things are only going to get busier!

Been a while since I took the XC into town in rush hour to be fair. Always seemed to be the 8:00 and 8:10 services which got it worst. Litterally everyone crushed up against each other and people having to get off, to allow other people to get off before getting back on!

Apparently, the XC is the busiest line in the UK outside London.

F&N - I've always thought that traffic lights should flash amber when there is no traffic around - effectively making them a Give Way signal, and we should adopt the american system where they can turn right (would be left here) on a red signal provided the road is clear.

Been a while since I took the XC into town in rush hour to be fair. Always seemed to be the 8:00 and 8:10 services which got it worst. Litterally everyone crushed up against each other and people having to get off, to allow other people to get off before getting back on!


When I used to live in the jewellery quarter I used to catch the train to Solihull in the mornings for work and always ended up on a 7:50/8am service and the trains were always packed to the extent I couldn't get on a lot of them.

Of course things could have been improved by not running a short service early in the morning. I lost count of the amount of times a service would arrive with only 3 carriages. Best place I found to stand on the train was in the between carriage vestibule!

The traffic on the Hagley road at the moment is appalling with these roadworks on the water pipes.

Anybody know if the Kings Heath bypass will ever materialise? The Alcester Rd through Kings Heath is impossible at rush hour!

This probably sounds weird but I thought the rush hour traffic was actually worse about 20 years ago, and can remember in the mornings the queues backing up from town into Selly Oak along Bristol Road; whereas now it goes back to Pebble Mill.
I think the surge in train travel has helped a lot in reducing traffic.

I can tell you that now they've closed a road by Newtown baths, the whole area is a complete snarl up every ******* night. It's driving me potty.

it normally always is...along newtown row at rush hour takes ages

On the way to Pype Payes yesterday it was rammed, the roads, the path and the park lol!

^^ I can believe it, as there's no fireworks display in S Brum a lot of people are going north for the celebration. It'd be nice to see pics of Pype Hayes, there was a good Wicker Man effect with the pyre on the horizon from Ravenhurst Rd(?) in years gone by.

there should have been at least 3 displays in the city

A friend of mine got beat up at Pype Hayes on Wednesday! Completely unprovoked and no motive whatsoever. He's alright, mainly bruises.

It took me 1hr 20mins to get to Bromsgrove at 5pm tonight the traffic was that bad! I can usually do the 19 miles within 40mins even around rush hour. I'll never go at that time again. :ohno:

There was a firework display at the rugby club in Sutton as well, also the city centre was rammed last night after the lights, took me ages to get out of town but at least I had the lovely brand new lights to stare at!

A38 through the city centre was nuts last night:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/3024694324_20c74dc8f9.jpg

Someone managed to overturn their car on the opposite side of the carraigeway to Etap (blue lights beneath the trees). Not sure how they did it; maybe the sight of Etap was too much for them?;)

I don't care what happened - that's a great photo :)