In 2024, the Birmingham Department of Transportation embarked on a series of projects aimed at modernizing the city’s infrastructure and transportation systems, including such measures as street resurfacing, creation of bike lanes and walking paths and methods to slow traffic and even discourage it.

The Birmingham Department of Transportation’s big-picture objective is to create a more inclusive transportation network that offers alternatives to car travel, broadly called the Complete Streets Policy.

BDOT Director and Traffic Engineer James Fowler highlighted the urgency of these developments by pointing to census-based travel and commuter data, which reveals that the Birmingham-Hoover Metro Area ranks among the highest in the nation for automobile dependency.

“This data positions Birmingham as probably one of the most auto-dependent places on earth,” Fowler noted, underscoring the need for the city’s ongoing transformation projects aimed at improving pedestrian safety and public transit access.

This initiative is particularly vital for residents who may be unable to drive due to financial constraints, age, mobility issues or personal preference.

“We don’t want to get rid of cars,” Fowler said, “but we do want to create a city where people have mobility and access without having to own and operate a car.”

Work on 2nd Avenue South area around Pepper Place is one example.

“We’re taking what was once multi-lane roadways and we’re narrowing them down to be a two-lane roadway, and we’re introducing all-way stops at a few key locations to help with pedestrian crossing,” Fowler said. Sidewalks have been replaced to meet modern accessibility requirements, the road has been resurfaced and bike lanes and on-street parking are being added.

A section of Graymont Avenue has gotten similar treatment and also is almost complete.

So far, the city has completed about 42 miles of street and trail work under the policy, and it has about 20 miles of work planned in the next 12 to 18 months.

Plans were drafted for the Southtown area, near UAB St. Vincent’s, and the measures are being applied as that area is being redeveloped.

Work on the Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard Greenway, is set to start in 2025. That involves the roadway stretching from about 15th Street South to Valley Avenue and is to include an urban trail and reduction in traffic lanes.

Bicycle Trails

Paths for bicyclists are a fundamental part of the Complete Streets approach, and the city has several of those planned or underway in addition to ones being included in bigger projects.

Among those is a new two-way cycle track in Norwood. The track will connect Norwood Trail with Carraway Boulevard, offering safer routes for cyclists and pedestrians.

The project is designed to slow traffic by narrowing travel lanes. The bike lanes will be raised about 6 inches and will parallel the sidewalk. The project will also tighten up the intersection with Norwood Boulevard to create a safer pedestrian connection between Norwood Trail and Norwood Park, according to city documentation on the project.

But, it also is designed to create a gateway experience for those traveling through Norwood.

Other projects in the works include in Woodlawn and along Rugby Avenue.

Traffic Calming

A major part of the Complete Streets philosophy is embedded in the city’s Traffic Calming initiatives.

The Traffic Calming program focuses on collaborating with neighborhoods to assess residential streets and identify opportunities for streetscape redesign projects that slow down traffic and enhance pedestrian safety, Fowler said.

“Traffic calming is a part of the overall vision, slowing down the speed of cars so that it’s more comfortable for people to walk, use public transportation, or ride a bike, and the main tools that we use to do that are speed cushions, striping, signage, and traffic controls at intersections,” Fowler said.

A test case for the Traffic Calming effort is in Woodlawn around First Avenue South, where the city redesigned the streetscape, reduced the roadway from four lanes to two and added pedestrian crosswalks, stop signs, new signage, on-street parking and a dedicated two-way bike lane. Two traffic signals have also been converted into all-way stops.

“Woodlawn has the east permanent station for BRT (bus rapid transit), and we want to make that area as walkable as possible. The BRT system we’ve installed that runs from Woodlawn on the eastside along First Avenue North through downtown Birmingham, through Children’s hospital and UAB, on out west through the Crossplex on the westside is branded locally as the Birmingham Xpress,” Fowler said.

The city used similar measures in the East Lake area and combined it with a Safe Streets initiative, which is aimed at reducing crime. City officials placed barriers at more than 20 intersections in the neighborhood, which limits entry and exit points for criminals.

The city has set a hearing during its meeting Tuesday to hear how residents feel about the changes in East Lake.

Farther down on the calendar is a project to focus on 4th Avenue North and the Civil Rights District downtown, including the historic Fourth Avenue Black Business District.

“We’ll be converting the roadway from a 3-lane one-way road to a two-way two-lane street, and there will be street trees, pedestrian enhancements and bike lanes on that street as well as some transit improvements,” Fowler said. “For a few blocks, (this project and another one) overlap each other, so we’ll be combining those programs for a couple of blocks,” Fowler noted.”

The project, which Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to Birmingham to announce this spring along with a $14.5 million grant, is expected to be completed in 2028.

A redesign of 5th Avenue North, which also runs through the Civil Rights District to Legion Field, includes the installation of a multi-use trail for jogging and biking along with a transit component.

“Design has not begun yet. … Design elements like enhanced bus stops, floating transit islands, clear access to bus stops, etc. are all things we will be looking to include in the project,” a representative of BDOT said.

Fowler said the ideas behind the Complete Streets policy is being factored in any time the city is working on a road project.

“That’s an opportunity to take a fresh look at how that street is designed and see if it makes sense to add bike lanes to it. In other cases, we might be adding crosswalks, on-street parking and sometimes bus stops. We have a lot of sidewalk repairs and accessible ramps that we’re installing around the city and for some of our streetscape projects, we’re adding in trees to help provide more shade to make sidewalks feel more comfortable for people who are walking during the hot summers,” Fowler said.

Street Resurfacing

There are plenty of opportunities ahead to look at how streets are designed as BDOT works through its regular plan for street resurfacing. With about $12 million allocated for street resurfacing this year, more than 200 streets across various districts have or will see significant improvements.

The city maintains an interactive map on its website that is updated to reflect which projects have been done, which are active and which are on the list but not yet scheduled. It also has lists that show by City Council districts which roads are on the list to be repaved.

You can see those lists on the city’s Street Maintenance and Repairs site.