[bikeqld] Coro Drive - oh goody

[Michael Yeates]

Thanks Seb ...

Aside from some of the more useful critiques of BCC cycling policy 
outcomes on the C-M website, what is also interesting is the following ...
The bikeway project, part of the council's $100 million spend on 
shared cycle paths,
will deliver two 400m-long separated pedestrian and cycle paths to 
make the section
between Cribb St and Park Rd safer.
Aside from a fair bit of whinging and whining about the way 
pedestrians assert their "right of way", it seems relatively few 
cyclists find the bikeway aka "shared footpath" in need of safety 
improvements (aside from reinstating it as "bikeway" and NOT a 
"shared footpath").

So is this yet another example of what at first seems to be $100m for 
cycling but in fact is $100m for pedestrians?

I may be as guilty as others in terms of not reading the "good news" 
carefully ... but this is the first time I recall having noticed that 
the $100m is for "SHARED cycle paths" ...!

So NOTHING for "bikeways"?

Also there is the project cost:benefit ratio.

What exactly is the cost for this 400m of improvement .. multiply 
that by 5 to get to Toowong  = how much?

Is that worth spending ... or are there other solutions? Or other 
places where there would be more "bang for the buck"?

(Reinstating) permanent bus lanes on Coro Drive might cost as much as 
perhaps $250,000 in line marking and signs and symbols ... and allow 
say another $250,000 for proper kerb ramp access and exit points for 
cyclists who could then enjoy cycling on the road as some do now (and 
quite a few more would, and did, with the bus lane in operation).

So is this project to widen the "bikeway" also primarily to continue 
to benefit motorists and continue to the "disbenefit" for bus 
passengers on Coro Drive?

Where these separated facilities have been used in other places, they 
still are not "safe" as people tend to cross them and if one path is 
a bit congested, use the other ..! One example was later converted to 
ONE WAY operation but shared by peds AND cyclists ... not sure how it 
now operates ...! Given the 2500m length and it being straight, I am 
not sure whether the operation of the separated paths at Kangaroo 
Point provide a useful comparison with Coro Drive.

Any thoughts about any of these observations?

MY............................

At 07:57 AM 4/05/2009, Sebastian Tauchmann wrote:

>http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,25422176-952,00.html
>
>As always, they're asking "commentators" to throw dung at cyclists...
>
>
>"Traffic controllers to restore safety for cyclists, pedestrians on bikeway
>
>By Bruce McMahon
>
>A SERIES of brushes between cyclists and pedestrians has forced a
>stop-go rule on the Bicentennial Bikeway upgrade alongside the
>Brisbane River.
>Brisbane City Council has suspended pedestrian access on a 400m
>section at Milton, in the city's inner-west, sending pedestrians on to
>a narrow footpath along Coronation Drive.
>
>Down below, cyclists - managed by traffic controllers from 5am to 8pm
>- travel on a temporary construction boardwalk, one direction at a
>time."
>
>continues and asks "Your Say: Are cyclists on the Bicentennial Bikeway
>out of control?" - nice priming of the pump there.
>
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