This is a great plan but like many that I have seen over the 55 years I have studied, worked and retired in our city. In that time, the inner ring road was built, only to be destroyed in two sections to bring yet more traffic lights and one way streets to cause unnecessary congestion and air pollution. This, when the ring road was free flowing and, I thought, worked really well - like Coventry's ring road.
The middle ring road is slow going with all the traffic lights. I'm thinking of my route from Hagley Road via Monument Road to Aston Expressway at Dartmouth Circus. It cannot take the extra traffic by closing/greening the Queensway Tunnel on the A38. I don't think the ring road does at all "constrain growth and disconnects our communities", as you said. This was the planners' argument last century that ended in its part destruction.
My own suggestion is that you bring in a bus/business lane experiment on Hagley Road where it is dual carriageway, to act as an incentive for car commuters to leave their cars at home in order to free up road space for buses and essential business users. They must register to avoid being charged as thoughtless car commuters must be for adding to the climate emergency. Unregistered cars can, in addition, only use the overtaking lane and will be held up more to give bus and essential vehicles traffic lights priority on the nearside lane. Bus, tram and train must be free for all passengers, at least, in the rush hours as their reward and bribe for using public transport.
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