Quirk promises more bikeways

[lethoso]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensl ... 1x0zx.html

Cr Quirk said he wanted to develop a ‘‘bikeway commuter network’’ in eight high-employment areas rather than in established ‘‘recreation’’ areas.

....

Under the scheme, bikeways would be either built or expanded in eight zones, including: along the Australia Trade Coast; at Toowong Indooroopilly and St Lucia; in Nudgee, Banyo and Boondall, near Chermside; between Rocklea, Darra, Oxley, Inala and Richlands; in the central city and Fortitude Valley; at Griffith University and Mt Gravatt and in South Brisbane and Woolloongabba.

Still misses the northside --> city link, and 120 million over 4 years is kinda peanuts, but it's not so bad I guess, focusing on commuting instead of recreation is certainly a step forward. Thoughts?

[Dizz]

Brisbane now had around 1100 kilometres of bikeways, he said,

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensl ... z1s9Ivya8T

Seriously, pull the other one
Bikeways in Australia are little more than a joke and Queensland is no exception.
It's a good thing I have no other expectation and a good sense of humor; "1100 kilometres"

By the way thanks for sharing; I am about to put 6hrs into the saddle today and am sure to get drenched, so this laugh has at least served to boost my spirits

[PawPaw]

Hard to make a judgement without a map of the routes/upgrades.
Presume he means he's going to paint more lines on back roads, seeing the State Govt look after main roads.
Would be good to see KBB widened, and elevated so it isn't still a pond a week after the rain stops, but doubt that'll happen.

And what about the bikeway that was supposed to accompany the busway to Chermside?

[dfc.]

At least they might put a path to the airport and surrounding areas from the Trade Coast

[marinmomma]

Hope that some of it goes into a decent dedicated bike path for the northside!

And also to fix up the V1 through Holland Park between Birdwood Tce and the bottom on Gaza Rd

[RobM]

And also to fix up the V1 through Holland Park between Birdwood Tce and the bottom on Gaza Rd

Already been highlighted - subject to state gov funding for 2015 however. They are doing Stage C at the moment which is nice to see.

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Projects/Name ... orway.aspx

[PawPaw]

The trade coast route is probably already earmarked as well - in connecting the Gateway Bridge path to Nudgee Rd.

[Max]

I've never heard of the trade coast route? What area/route does it refer to?

Max

[PawPaw]

I've never heard of the trade coast route? What area/route does it refer to?
Max

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Projects/Name/G/Gateway-Bikeway-Project-northern-link.aspx
Maybe i shouldn't have called it Trade Coast, but the area at the north end of Schneidler Rd was the hub of Australia Trade Coast 10 years ago.
It seems the precinct has been expanded since.
http://www.australiatradecoast.com.au/

[marinmomma]

And also to fix up the V1 through Holland Park between Birdwood Tce and the bottom on Gaza Rd

Already been highlighted - subject to state gov funding for 2015 however. They are doing Stage C at the moment which is nice to see.

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Projects/Name ... orway.aspx

Yeah I know that but the most dangerous section, imo, from Birdwood Tce to Gaza Rd isn't due to start until 2015 subject to funding...at the speed that these bikeways get built it won't be completed until 2016/7.

I am looking forward to using the new section that they're currently building...that's gonna be a nice fast section, watch it have a segment on Strava

[liquor box]

Brisbane now had around 1100 kilometres of bikeways, he said,

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensl ... z1s9Ivya8T

Seriously, pull the other one
Bikeways in Australia are little more than a joke and Queensland is no exception.
It's a good thing I have no other expectation and a good sense of humor; "1100 kilometres"

By the way thanks for sharing; I am about to put 6hrs into the saddle today and am sure to get drenched, so this laugh has at least served to boost my spirits

this becomes really obvious when watching the cycling from Holland on the weekend, they seem to have bike lanes on every road, and if they are not on the road they are a separate track.

[PawPaw]

this becomes really obvious when watching the cycling from Holland on the weekend, they seem to have bike lanes on every road, and if they are not on the road they are a separate track.

and let's keep in mind that it is as impossible to do 30+kph on Dutch bikeways, as AUstralia's.

[liquor box]

this becomes really obvious when watching the cycling from Holland on the weekend, they seem to have bike lanes on every road, and if they are not on the road they are a separate track.

and let's keep in mind that it is as impossible to do 30+kph on Dutch bikeways, as AUstralia's.

Why?

They looked very similar to me on TV, is it illegal?

[PawPaw]

Why?

They looked very similar to me on TV, is it illegal?

Because they carry higher volumes of traffic consisting of adults dressed in work clothes and children, riding comfort bikes, who don't do 30kph.

[lethoso]

and let's keep in mind that it is as impossible to do 30+kph on Dutch bikeways, as AUstralia's.

In the inner city maybe, there are tons of inter-city ones which you can cruise along at 40 with no dramas. They even run little motorbikes on them.

Anyway, Smith's answer:

According to Labor's bikeways policy, the $100 million earmarked for bikeways over the next four years would include $10 million to construct the missing link connecting the Northern Bikeway, $1.9 million towards the Nundah Creek Bikeway at Nudgee, and $2 million for the missing link of the Kedron Brook Bikeway at Stafford.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensl ... 1x72a.html

Seems more or less the same to me? I would like to see a few more bridges.... but that's just talk, and talk's cheap.

[RobM]

Labor's “Better Brisbane Bikeways” policy, unveiled today, flags spending $100 million over four years on better bikeways and bikeway connections, while the party also wants to establish a formal Bicycle User Group steering committee to provide better advice to Brisbane City Council

Labor's policy – which comes three days after Liberal National Party Lord Mayor Graham Quirk promised to spend $120 million on bikeways – also calls for the creation of a small roving maintenance team to better maintain Brisbane's bikeways

pledged to improve bikeway facilities with electronic commuter counters, water fountains and other facilities, and start long-term planning for more bike bridges

Sounds pretty good. The commuter counters are abit of a novelty item, but they have been found to increase awareness and use of bikeways as 'everyone wants to ride past it'.

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2011/08/co ... elona.html


And re: better advice to BCC - as someone who works closely to one of the many areas involved with bikeway design in BCC, alot of the time it is funding rather than lack of design ideas that dictates what gets constructed. Unfortunately far too often the best bikeway idea (supported by BQ and other BUGs) will just not be able to be constructed because of cost. The best way is if you can get a current Councillor on board with the idea, as those projects are given highest priority to please the MPs.

My 5c anyways...

[Comedian]

Hmmm..so the plan is....

Election time : promise lots of bikeways
General term : do nothing
Election time : promise lots of bikeways
General term : do nothing
Election time : promise lots of bikeways
General term : do nothing
Election time : promise lots of bikeways
General term : do nothing

And so on....

This way you keep the people that want bike ways happy and don't alienate the car brigade by actually building them....

[PawPaw]

The best way is if you can get a current Councillor on board with the idea, as those projects are given highest priority to please the MPs.

My 5c anyways...

or better still, vote for a councillor who cycles.

Kim Flesser, ALP for Nundah, and avid cyclist, is responsible for the Nundah Criterium track and Jim Soorley Bikeway.
Back when Jim was Mayor, he had a spare $250k floating around and asked councilors for submissions on how it might be spent.
Kim put forward his ideas, and they were accepted. As usual the budget ran to about 2.5x the original for NundahDome, and Kim adjusted the BCC planners' design to make it actually more like a crit track should be.

It's a pity that the Nundah Criterium track is the only fully purpose built one in Brisbane.
It's a great public asset, as is the KBB Jim Soorley bike (and pedestrian) path.

I'd argue that council money should be spent on improving suburban arterial cycleways, before rebuilding the New Farm floating bikeway.
There's not that many kids living in New Farm, and I think we need to prioritize free recreational facilities for families and routes that connect cyclists who have further to travel than New Farm to CBD.

[elantra]

And re: better advice to BCC - as someone who works closely to one of the many areas involved with bikeway design in BCC, alot of the time it is funding rather than lack of design ideas that dictates what gets constructed. Unfortunately far too often the best bikeway idea (supported by BQ and other BUGs) will just not be able to be constructed because of cost. The best way is if you can get a current Councillor on board with the idea, as those projects are given highest priority to please the MPs.

My 5c anyways...

I am very thankful to BCC for some of the bikeways around the place which are pretty good to outstanding.

but other ones (usually the smaller suburban bikeways) are useless or worse, sometimes poorly lit and dangerous or prone to greasy leaf litter after any rain etc.

What is rather unfortunate is the pitiful bicycle route from the end of the Coro drive bikeway to the Uni of Qld St Lucia campus.
This is really substandard, which is hard to understand considering the number of potential and actual cycle trips to the Uni of Qld.
This route is quite pleasant on a roadbike on quiet sunday morning in fine weather, but now that it is getting dark early, the street lighting of the St Lucia part of this route is very deficient and the route is way too tortuous and hilly.

It amazes me that this has not been given a higher priority, UQ prides itself about being a world-class University but the transport options to its Campus are not as good as they should be.
I am surprized that the UQ powerbrokers have not seen fit to discuss this matter a bit more convincingly with BCC

[lethoso]

The green bridge is similar - great cycle facility, but doesn't really link up to anything.

[RobM]

Funny ride today. Came out of my street and who is on the corner, but the man himself - Ray Smith. He was with another MP and talking to some locals and generally drumming up support.

He waved 'Hi' while i waited at the lights. I thought about bringing up the lack of road shoulder in the local area (some streets dont even have a white line, it just trails off to gravel) which can make it abit hairy to ride sometimes. But in reality he cant do anything about it now, and im sure he would just eagerly agree with me and make some sort of vague promise.

Oh well. At least he was out in the suburbs mixing it with the common folk

[bprb]

Not sure on this, but I seem to recall a while back reading that Quirk had slashed a bunch of money from the road sweeping budget — can anyone confirm if that's correct?

I think I would vote for anyone that guaranteed more frequent sweeping of the smashed glass on the cycling lines. To me, the glass that's accumulating on the road edges is a huge deterrent to cycling, especially during patches of wet weather.

[Lukeyboy]

Saw this in the mail today for the council budget.



How the hell is that project worth 1.8 million? Is this the airport link of shared cycle/pedestrian pathways? The first bit of pathway they built in 2009 was only 500m. The second bit they just finished was only 650m. And the third bit is only 400m to connect to the existing pathway.

[elantra]

Saw this in the mail today for the council budget.



How the hell is that project worth 1.8 million? Is this the airport link of shared cycle/pedestrian pathways? The first bit of pathway they built in 2009 was only 500m. The second bit they just finished was only 650m. And the third bit is only 400m to connect to the existing pathway.

Actually that will be no mean feat, putting a bikeway under such a large multi-lane road.
1.8 mill will go very quickly.
Problem is, how useful will it be, and will it be safe and satisfactorily maintained?
But then nothing ventured is nothing gained.
Might as well build it - they can use some of the money i have paid them over the years

[Lukeyboy]

From what I remember of the area under the bridge there is plenty of room for a walkway. I remember playing under there as a child haha. Even a few of the cars from Zupps made it down past the bridge when the creek flooded about a decade ago. The can build it cheaply and if it floods just utilise the traffic lights to cross Gympie road. IIRC the bridge at Petrie Park near Youngs Crossing has a similar setup.