I cycled through Birmingham and felt like an outsider, but what I saw was delightful

I was interviewing a campaigner for safer streets when a driver passed a cyclist on a crossing. “That car almost hit him,” Rachel Withey, a cyclist from Harborne, said as we paused our conversation.

Ironically, we were both about to take part in a slow cycle ride organized by Better Streets for Birmingham (BSfB) to raise awareness of a recent spate of road deaths. One of these is a father killed while riding in Edgbaston and, in a separate tragedy, a four-year-old girl.

“I mean you just witnessed it now,” added Rachel, one of dozens of BSfB protesters who turned out for the demonstration. “You can see what happens when you get on a bike in Birmingham.”

Read more: Hornet drivers fail to deter bike protest in memory of city father as cyclists admit ‘terror of the road’

We set off on a thrilling ride down Harborne High Street, slowing down traffic right now, filling the roads with dozens of rubber tires as we made our way to where a cyclist was killed earlier this month.

“He was a local guy,” Rachel said. “A father with young children,” she added, finding it difficult to calculate how a tragedy of this nature could happen in real life.

“It’s not surprising, I must say, in my eyes, that someone was killed there. But he was killed… and now there are fatherless children.”

The place Rachel was referring to was the edge of Chad Road – a notoriously inconvenient junction in Edgbaston where cars cross every few seconds. The cyclist, aged 50, was confirmed dead at the scene following a devastating collision with a truck.

The ride there was grim, but it was equally uplifting to see the group of cyclists, some of whom seemed to know each other very well, chatting. This was a community of people who had come together to do something positive; calling for change.

I felt a bit of an outsider, though, really. In fact, I admit, I had to put air in the tires of my dusty bike before I even set off. But what I saw and experienced on this trip was delightful.

It also helped that the queue of traffic now forming behind us, including a double-decker bus, was not aggressive or forceful. At first, no, anyway.

The mood changed when we reached the top of Harborne Road – a steep hill that joins Chad Road. As everyone paused for a moment of reflection, the sound of honking cars echoed around the leafy suburb.

The minute’s silence observed from the activists made the honking sound even louder as the noise failed to escape the imposing trees. But undeterred, and perhaps even more dedicated to paying tribute, the protesters held up a sign saying “I don’t die anymore”.

Drivers’ honking continued without effect. It would have to wait.

When I asked Rachel if drivers in Birmingham have a bad attitude towards cyclists compared to other parts, she said: “Yes, I think so. I lived in London for a while and it was better.

“The infrastructure is better and attitudes to people cycling have been better. It’s not good in Birmingham. There’s a lot of anger. You get a lot of drivers who are really aggressive.

“It’s completely unacceptable and, to be honest, we’re all fed up.”

Sometimes the choice will really come down to risking a human life for your own convenience. I don’t pretend to be a saint. Away from. But I’d like to think that we, as drivers, know what’s more important.

Better Streets for Birmingham is calling for lower speeds in residential areas, investment in improving cycling infrastructure and the permanent removal of dangerous drivers from the city’s streets. Want to learn more? Click here.