Langley SUE and Peddimore

Langley SUE (sustainable urban extension) is a proposed new development in the Sutton Coldfield area, currently in its planning stages. Although located in a green belt area, it has been allocated for development within the Birmingham Development Plan and provides the opportunity to build 6000 homes in a modern, safe and sustainable community.

As such, we believe this to be the ideal place to implement Phase 1 of the driverless car roll-out. Infrastructure required for the safe running of autonomous vehicles (AVs), for example roadside sensors or separate lanes, can be easily embedded into the planning phase and built to meet the needs of the area- without having to adapt around the constraints of the ageing infrastructure found in other regions of Birmingham.

Langley SUE puts sustainability at the centre of its design, with features such as wide, well-lit footpaths and cycleways discouraging residents from driving as much as possible. In addition, a new rapid transit transport system, the Sprint, is planned to be introduced in the area, providing journeys to the city centre. However, the Langley SUE Supplementary Planning Document states that “The approach should also include arrangements for access to existing (including the Cross City North Line), and consideration of access to proposed (Sutton Park Line), rail stations in the Sutton Coldfield area”. This is where we believe AVs could best be implemented.

A fleet of AVs would operate from within the SUE and provide a door-to-station service for residents and employees. Transport would be ordered through an app and the most efficient route would be calculated based on how many people need picking up from where. The AV would then pick up its passengers at the locations they indicated on the app and shuttle them to the train station, before returning to the Langley SUE. Car sharing in this way would reduce the cost of the journey per person, as well as reducing the number of vehicles on the road. Purpose built AV lanes would ensure a fast and efficient service and prevent potential tensions between AVs and manually driven cars. This solution to commuting has the potential to reduce the number of cars per household and could free up space around train stations currently used for parking, which could be used to benefit the community in other ways.

The AV fleet could also be integrated with the proposed Peddimore industrial area. This new 71 hectare site will provide up to 10,000 skilled and technical jobs. The AVs would provide a sustainable first/ last-mile solution, picking workers up at the train station and dropping them off outside their workplace in the morning and returning them to the train station in the evening. This would encourage more people to take public transport to work and thus decrease congestion and air pollution in the area.