[bikeqld] St Lucia bikeway consultation

Tue Oct 6 17:35:44 CDT 2009

Well said Kim ...

Another aspect from a cyclists point of view is it forces cyclists 
off the road and onto the path given it seems nobody has considered 
ONE WAY towards UQ ... if for no other reason than then being able to 
cycle up the small incline west of St Lucia shopping centre then roll 
DOWN the very steep Tarcoola Street ... but then what happens to the 
intersections at both ends of Tarcoola Street?

Council is giving nothing away in regard to the detail of the 
proposed "upgrade" to the Tarcoola and Hawken Drive intersection 
where having reached the top of this steep climb, odds on traffic in 
both directions would have right of way under the current ONE WAY proposal.

It is hard to imagine having spent or committed up to $5-6m or more 
of the $100m "bikeways budget" (or is that "bike PATH budget"?) on 
this link, that BCC would then give cyclists "on the road" any 
priority over traffic on either Hillside Terrace or The Esplanade at 
the Tarcoola Street intersection

Then add in that Council is again "promising" to install the BAZ on 
The Esplanade while despite similar previous "promises" when Carawa 
Street was widened some 2 years ago and as part of Stage 1 of this 
"bikeway" along Hillside Terrace (the 20 year "bike route") which 
Council says is completed in 2008 ... where NEITHER have the BAZ 
despite regular requests and reminders.

It is also worth noting that this work is in the Ward of Councillor 
Prentice who is well aware of the issues involved (the more so now 
she is the BCC Chair of cycling) yet still Council refuses to 
"complete" work that was "promised" ...!

Even the Councillor and Chairperson can't get the previously 
"promised" work done ... so why believe any more "promises" ?

To me the ONE WAY option is little more than an attempt to get 
support from people who have not thought through the consequences ... 
not only here but in general. There are always advantages for someone 
who will then loudly support them.

Perhaps the ONE WAY option is also intended to (further?) split the 
support aka by "wedging" ?

But if there is some merit in it, then why not just ban parking on 
the route already well used by cyclists uphill on Highland Terrace 
from say 6-9am to create a BIKE LANE uphill to Hawken Drive, do 
nothing else although a speed limit less than 50 would be sensible, 
and use Hawken Drive through to UQ but also from here access through 
the middle of St Lucia towards the CBD etc? As this is virtually all 
here now, all it needs is so signs and BIKE symbols for the BIKE LANE 
... so no need for the $5-6m paths? And no need to use Tarcoola Street?

The real question is why the whole route from the Jack Pesch Bridge 
to UQ has been regularly (and it seems quite deliberately) degraded 
if not downgraded from a well signed BIKE ROUTE to an ordinary road 
with hardly a cycling-friendly sign on it ... it seems then the $5-6m 
bike path is just an attempt to reduce cycling "on the road" to not 
only benefit motorists as Kim points out below, but to remove the 
nuisance of cyclists from the roads to and from UQ. But in practice 
who will use it? It has poor or no connections to the nearby 
residences and streets. It is not particularly safe either at speed 
or from a personal security perspective. And the Stage 2 option 
Council seems to keep pushing involves removing a lot more trees 
along what is a remarkable and very rare river edge "natural" area 
from UQ to almost the Indooroopilly Bridges. Hopefully nobody who 
cycles thinks that should be reduced...!.

So should ANY of the funding be taken from the $100m budget for "cycling" ?

Of course "we" always happy to be convinced otherwise ... but need to 
be convinced by evidence "on the road", not by more vague "promises" ...!

That "evidence" would have the BAZ from Indooroopilly station to UQ 
in both directions "on the road".

Anyone who wants more details, please feel free to ask.

Essentially it is a path not needed ... that is, there are much 
higher priority areas where the same money could be better spent ... 
than building paths that duplicate former BIKE ROUTES ... assuming 
BCC has indeed downgraded this route ... as based on the evidence, is 
the case ...!

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

At 03:43 PM 6/10/2009, kim wrote:

>Thanks Pete, So now the latest 'option', the one-way option, seems 
>to want to dip further into the specious 100m 'cycling' kitty to 
>build an off-site parking lot for University users with a nice 
>footpath to get from the parking lot to the Uni and forces cyclists 
>heading to the Uni or Bridge from Indooroopilly to use this footpath 
>too. What's wrong with just widening the road to include all the 
>available shoulders, preventing parking and extending the Uni's 
>30kph zone to include this? Surely there would then be plenty of 
>room for a BAZ both ways. Arguably there is a footpath, albeit a 
>narrow one, that could be improved and made more usable for locals 
>accessing the park from the adjacent homes. Right now the objective 
>seems to be for providing a footpath for the car parkers to get back 
>to the Uni in style.
>
>k
>
>Peter Whittle wrote:
>>
>>
>> From <http://www.bq.org.au>www.bq.org.au
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>St Lucia bikeway consultation
>>
>>
>>
>>6 October 2009
>>
>>Brisbane City Council is asking for cyclists' feedback on the next 
>>stage of a bikeway through St Lucia (along The Esplanade, part of 
>>the 'river loop'). A public consultation will be held on Saturday, 
>>10 October 2009, 2-4pm at St Lucia Uniting Church hall, 7 Hawken 
>>Drive (opposite Ironside State School), or you can email your 
>>opinion to 
>><mailto:communityfeedback at bigpond.com>communityfeedback at bigpond.com. 
>>  Of the options presented, BQ slightly favours the one-way option. 
>>See the PDFs (about 1mb each) linked below for details.
>>    * 
>> <http://www.bq.org.au/../_downloads/stluciatwowayoption.pdf>Two-way option
>>    * One-way option 
>> (<http://www.bq.org.au/../_downloads/stlucia1wayoption1of2.pdf>shee 
>> t 1, <http://www.bq.org.au/../_downloads/stlucia1wayoption2of2.pdf>sheet 2)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>bikeqld mailing list
>><mailto:bikeqld at bikeqld.org.au>bikeqld at bikeqld.org.au
>>http://www.bikeqld.org.au/
>><http://www.bikeqld.org.au/mailman/listinfo/bikeqld>http://www.bikeqld.org.au/mailman/listinfo/bikeqld
>>This list has NO affiliation with Bicycle Queensland.
>_______________________________________________
>bikeqld mailing list
>bikeqld at bikeqld.org.au
>http://www.bikeqld.org.au/
>http://www.bikeqld.org.au/mailman/listinfo/bikeqld
>This list has NO affiliation with Bicycle Queensland.
>
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>Version: 8.5.420 / Virus Database: 270.14.4/2416 - Release Date: 
>10/05/09 18:23:00
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.bikeqld.org.au/pipermail/bikeqld/attachments/20091007/52854d2b/attachment.htm