Core objectives were established for the Inner City Road Safety Demonstration Project by the project team at Birmingham City Council in agreement with the UK Department for Transport (DfT). These objectives are: to have ameasurable impact on road safety in actual and perceived terms; to integrate road safety activity into the regeneration and other agendas and buildpartnerships for delivery; to secure inclusive engagement and participation with a diverse community; to improve accessibility to jobs, services + leisure opportunities; and to improve quality of life. Achieving these objectives in Birmingham involves a mixture of initiatives concentrated around four geographic areas (Alum Rock, Coventry Road, Green Lane and Ward End). Three of these are largely route treatments addressing key corridors which were highlighted as having a significant proportion of accidents within the study area as a whole. These were augmented by a further area-wide improvement scheme, education, training and publicity (ETP) initiatives anddedicated junction improvements at locations throughout the area. The common issues in the study areas were high levels of child pedestrian casualties, parking / loading, congested junctions and poor quality street environment. The scale of the project area and the range of different schemes being proposed presented some significant difficulties regarding consultation. Complaints were related to a number of issues, including: concerns overspace available for parking in residential areas - any proposal which reduced space on-street was simply unacceptable and vehemently opposed; parking and loading for retail/business premises; traffic calming features - including both opposition and support for their implementation (support was greater for residential streets); and objections to proposed one-way streets and related access restrictions, largely from emergency services as themajority of residents were supportive. Accident investigation was an early part of the design process with cluster sites being identified for targeted treatment and those accidents not following clear patterns given consideration for route treatment or broader area measures depending upon theirdistribution. In order to prioritise targeted junction treatments within the broader scheme, the accident analysis graded sites for comparison against West Midlands Average Annual Accident Rates for corresponding junctiontype. On reflection, it has become clear to the City Council that consultation must be 'right first time' and if you get it wrong at the first attempt (such as with the failure of the initial steering groups) then it willbe extremely challenging to address these mistakes. The schemes that wereeasier to implement were generally those where local community groups were active and influential (such as Alum Rock Road Traders Association). Theimplementation of the projects is described and the collection of accident data after completion is planned.
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