[bikeqld] Kurillpa know how...

[kim]

Bump.....

Ok, I know I posted this a while back and there was not a lot of 
interest on list for that neck of the woods but as a matter of update I 
did spend a bit of time down there on the weekend checking how it was 
used. The connection between West End of the world and the Centennial 
seems to me to be a desirable one given the cycle friendly nature of 
that neck of the woods with Bicycle Revolution (the fixies fix), Bicycle 
Queensland and such fine bicycle friendly cuisine such as Sol Breads :) 
all located over there.

Here's what I noticed:

The nearest ramp from the Centennial to the actual Kurilpa bridge is the 
ca. Turbot St one. As far as I noticed it is not signed as the desirable 
ramp to access the bridge (altho like all the other ramps there are 
signs to the KGS bike centre, as seemingly all roads and especially the 
green ones lead there.)
That ramp takes you up to Nth Quay which is one way south away from the 
Kurilpa bridge. Your option is to take the footpath which narrows down 
to the traffic lights at Ann St where there are cycle lights to allow 
you to pedal across and land you on the opposite footpath. Now 
technically the QRR don't allow you to ride on that side of the footpath 
(contra-flow) back down to Tank St to get up to the bridge but of course 
it can be done. There is of course a pedestrian crossing as you go over 
Turbot St, which technically you can't ride across either but given the 
proximity to the seats of law, you might as well as BCC seem to 
encourage this contra-flow ride down Nth Quay with their provision of 
bicycle lights crossing Ann St and facing this direction (and they did 
mandate that during construction as the detour). You can of course go 
just outside the marked crossing too. You can legally ride up Tank St to 
access the Bridge.
If you are not comfortable with that or some barrister in a frock and a 
wig walking down there takes a different view you can also ride on the 
other abandoned footpath which might actually be legal despite Nth Quay 
being a one way. That is plenty wide and a lovely shady bikeway in 
itself. That will take you all the way to the bridge but then you just 
have to cross the 3 lanes of Nth Quay under the bridge. There is even a 
kerb ramp there to assist you. I watched plenty of cyclists do this on 
Saturday but there was very little car traffic and it was easy to get 
across. Different story in the week tho. It would be lovely if the 
bridge actually had a ramp to land you there but that would be a tall order.

Coming back the other way from West End to the Centennial you find that 
Tank St is a No Entry but only for a very short section from where 
cyclists get off the bridge. You could ignore that or to be pedantic you 
can hop on the opposite footpath on Tank St for no more than about 10m 
and then get onto the two way part of Tank St via convenient driveways 
and head down to Nth Quay. This time you are pointing in the legal 
direction and can use the footpath or road. If there is no traffic you 
can shoot straight across Nth Quay onto the riverside footpath or you 
can frogger your way across the three lanes and come directly onto the 
ramp down to the Centennial as it has a kerb ramp to assist. You can 
also continue up the footpath on the law court side and use the bike 
crossing at Ann St and then double back a little on the footpath to 
access the ramp down to the Centennial. The footpath does get a bit 
crowded there with the courts and motorcycle parking in the area during 
the working week.

Some BCC signage would be nice but I think they do not want to endorse 
that route as technically it probably breaks the current QRR unless they 
make it a proper bikeway /shared/separated path.

A signalled bike crossing of Nth Quay at Tank St would be very nice as 
this could be synchronised with the Ann St signals and effectively not 
be any impost for car traffic on Nth Quay. Even a less imposing solution 
might be just a big Keep Clear zone across Nth Quay at Tank St so that 
bikes could ride across when traffic was stopped for the Ann St lights. 
In theory the traffic on Nth Quay is supposed to not queue across there 
anyway under the QRR as a T intersection is treated like any other in 
that respect. Of course Keep Clears mostly get ignored viz Miskin St at 
Toowong or any fire station exit but some flashing yellow warnings as 
sometimes used might be a cheap way out. Not sure if riders do dodge 
their way across there when Nth Quay traffic is stopped in peak times, 
will have to have a look.

k



kim wrote:
> So how does one get from West End onto the Centennial Bikeway at North 
> Quay using the new bridge? I knew it was going to be a bit round about 
> but really, it seems impossible without getting onto the footpath 
> somewhere.
>
> The yellow brick road, or in this case the green pavement paint road 
> seems to get you to the KGS bike parking station and marginally to the 
> Roma St Parklands but nowhere else.
>
> If you come off the bridge and head up Tank St to George St, what's 
> the deal with turning left to go down George St to then go left again 
> down Herschel or Makerston St to get to the bikeway via the BAZ's on 
> those streets? It would seem that you are to turn left when you get 
> the green left turn arrow at George St but there are also left turning 
> cars in the Tank St car lane adjacent to the bike lane which is 
> dangerous as a turning cyclist will be slow to get up to speed and a 
> car rushing up Tank St to catch the green arrow onto George St may not 
> expect traffic on George St.
>
> So when you get down to North Quay you need to pedal all the way back 
> up to Adelaide St to be able to use the ride across facility there. 
> The Makerston St and Herschel St ramps to the bikeway are pedestrian 
> accessible only via the pedestrian crossings.
>
> You can't ride up George St the other way, directly to Adelaide St as 
> Adelaide St only allows a left turn at North Quay and the bike ride 
> over is on the other side of Adelaide St.
>
> If you use the Vic Bridge, you are no better off. It seems like the 
> Goodwill Bridge is the only connection from that side of town.
>
> Or is there some secret route I am missing?
>
> k
>
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