Hale Street
Hale Street runs north from Milton Road at the edge of the Brisbane CBD, crossing Caxton Street and joining Musgrave Road, Kelvin Grove Road and the Inner City Bypass. It is extended to the south by Boomerang Street to join Coronation Drive.
Northbound
Hale Street is a short but particularly unpleasant and unsafe road to cycle on, especially going northwards. Unfortunately there's virtually nothing in the way of feasible alternative routes. The lefthand inbound lane of Coronation Drive peels off to become Boomerang Street, with the righthand outbound lane flying over the top to come down and join it on the left. Cyclists following the right lane around from Coronation Drive will need to move across the left lane.
Cyclists coming under the tunnel from the Bicentennial Bikeway will be guided by the footpath around to the end of Little Cribb Street, where one lane of the flyover splits off to the left to Milton Road. From here it is fairly awkward (and dangerous) to get across to Boomerang Street; you will find yourself already on the Milton Road turnoff and needing to go straight across that lane to get to the continuing (right hand) lane. There is surprisingly little visibility around the corner of the flyover, vehicles tend to come around it fairly fast, there is often a lot of broken glass around the wedge between the two lanes, and you will need to turn sharply onto the right hand lane when you reach it, so take your time and be careful.
Once on Boomerang Street, there is a short section of shoulder before a lane joins in from Milton Road. Look out for broken glass and other hazards, and of course make sure you move off the shoulder before it becomes a wedge between the two lanes and tapers down to nothing. The new lane merges in to the right, but fairly gradually and most cyclists will probably want to move into the new lane and then continue on to the shulder that is left when the lane ends.
The shoulder continues past the stadium until a new lane comes down from Caxton Street, where it again tapers down to nothing as the two lanes come alongside each other. Around here the relatively flat road starts sloping more upwards for the remainder. This is where things get uglier, particularly if you want to continue on to the Inner City Bypass. The new lane on the left continues straight up to Kelvin Grove Road, with a lane to Musgrave Road turning off on the left. To get to Musgrave Road, get over to the left and stay there. To get to Kelvin Grove Road, get over to the left and watch for cars wanting to exit to Musgrave Road as you pass the exit.
To get to the Inner City Bypass (which continues from the two right hand lanes) the quickest thing is to stay in the middle lane all the way up the hill. It's up to you whether you prefer to take the whole lane, but either way you'll want some power in your legs and no fear as you'll have impatient cars speeding up the hill on both sides of you. At the top there's a left hand curve through a tunnel under Musgrave Road in which there is no shoulder and you will be a surprise to motorists coming around the corner behind you. You'll need to make your own decision again about whether it's safer to claim the lane (making it harder to miss you) or hug the wall (making it harder to see you in advance) - neither option is enjoyable.
As you get to the crest of the hill a lane coming down from Musgrave Road merges in on the left. The merge section isn't very long and there's still no shoulder at the far end of it, so stay in the continuing lane to avoid having to merge back in to traffic when the lane ends.
Coming over the top of the hill another lane from Kelvin Grove Road joins from the left and you can move across to this as soon as it's clear and the dividing line becomes broken. At this point, Hale Street ends and becomes the Inner City Bypass, heading east.
