[bikeqld] Jindalee bicycle bridge under construction

[Michael Yeates]

Thanks for the news Mich ...

But it is worth considering how significant it really is? Sure its 
good for local cycling.

Is it really such a vital piece for cycling connectivity for 
Brisbane? Will it reduce car use in peak hours? Or is it another 
project in the effort to encourage cyclists off the roads?

It doesn't appear to help much with replacing car trips to shops or 
schools etc either.

It is useful to consider when the dollars being being spent per annum 
is mentioned, how useful the dollars spent actually are and how many 
people actually use the facility .. indeed to question what the aims 
of the project actually are.

For without those aims being made explicit, monitoring and therefore 
evaluation is next to impossible.

For example, I was told the walking/cycling provision on the Gateway 
Bridge #2 cost in excess of $100m.

If true, is that better than spending $4m here at Jindalee ... or 
would $1m on sorting out the traffic lights and Western Freeway 
Bikeway crossings at Moggill Road be better value?

It may be too that the effectiveness of any particular facility is 
not related to its cost ... so it is high time evaluation and 
monitoring addressed the connectivity benefits rather than being 
promoted on the cost.

Same goes for counting raw numbers ... more people cycling IS a good 
thing but under what conditions or intentions is it the most 
important? Which types of cycling represent the best cost:benefit? Is 
cycling off road really the best outcome?

For example, would a 30km/h speed limit on the streets of Jindalee 
have been more effective in encouraging more people cycling and cost 
less? Perhaps even rendered the bridge less important or even not required?

Or what about a bike + ped bridge from Fig Tree Pocket to Graceville 
near "Sherwood Forest" aka The Arboretum ... not only for cycling 
trips but for a huge increase in ease of access and catchment for 
public transport, schools and shops etc?

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

At 09:07 PM 30/01/2010, mich rolling wrote:

>Yeeah! Slowly and with little fanfare (BQ you slaggards start 
>updating your news pages and publishing this amazing bike count data 
>talked about in your newsletter - 1000 bikes a morning on the 
>Schonell? Publish the tables!!!) Brisbane's cycle networks emerge.
>
>http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/cycle-bridge-swings-into-place-20100129-n3f6.html
>
>"A new link in Brisbane's cycling infrastructure fell into place
>  yesterday, with the installation of a new bridge at Jindalee.
>
>The bridge, Australia's largest single-span aluminium bridge, was lifted
>  into place over riverside bushland this morning.
>
>About 30 locals gathered to watch as a crane gently lifted, turned, and
>  slowly lowered into place the 39-tonne, 54-metre long bridge......
>
>Once opened, it would give cyclists a direct link from the Rocks Riverside
>  Park at Sinnamon Park, along Kooringal Drive to Mt Ommaney Drive, which
>  ran around the river to Westlake"
>
>
>Yes Peter, "That would be Isambard Kingdom Brunel's work, rather than
>  either of the famous Stephenson's" My mistake. That bridge is glorious in
>  its' place and for its' era. I would like the Alice St bridge be
>something out of a Delaney sci-fi novel. Something gloriously inorganic
>  and ethereally artificial launching homeward travellers towards the
>  cliffs!
>
>
> 
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