Eric,
We'd had several years of it when I left Brum in January 1961. At that point we'd had all the disruption that was involved in building the first section of Smallbrook Ringway. I've intermittently visited Brum over the last 50 odd years and it certainly doesn't seem to have stopped, the road system is full of tunnels and you never know where you are going to come up, and just as I thought things had started to settle down a bit, they smash down the Library. I don't think any city has suffered as much as Brum.
The roads that were built around Hall Green & the south were originally a single carriageway in each direction. Due to the increase in traffic it seems that these single carriageways were converted to double, but cars were allowed to park in the nearside carriageway thus forcing you to use only the offside carriageway. Where was the improvement - the carriageways are narrower than in any other city I know?
Maurice