A small bit of CBD bikeway news, it looks like Council are removing this loading zone on Edward Street that was created as part of the âEdward Street Visionâ streetscaping project 10 odd years ago, but which ended up falling on the opposite side of the Edward Street bike lane when that was put through later.
Adore this. This loading zone was problematic for both pedestrians and cyclists given the frequent trade vehicles operating a bit loose here and the risks that pose. A bunch of the older buildings in the CBD lake the on site trade loading docks within their builds that most new sites have.
Saw this interesting and unfortunately all to common design choice on Gladstone Road tonight, youâd really think that the bike decal being too big for the lane would be a warning bell for the bike lane being too narrow but I guess not!
When they use those markings Council and TMR are well aware it is too narrow for a bike lane and thatâs why they came up with another name for them - bicycle awareness zones.
Instead of actually creating a safe space for bikes of courseâŚ
Interestingly the link to the BCC website from that page is dead, so perhaps BCC is unofficially phasing them out.
Those âbicycle awareness zonesâ are a convenient way for the government to shift blame for dangerous cycling conditions from themselves to drivers (âif drivers fail to overtake with enough space, thatâs poor driver behaviour and we recommend you report it to the policeâ).
Yeh theyâre dead. Itâs either off-road shared or exclusive, on-road protected or suburban green streets. What killed the bicycle awareness zones was coroners and safe passing laws.
ABC reporting that the new ebike laws have been watered down somewhat
Speed limit on footpaths bumped to 12km/hr, 12-17 year olds can ride no license with supervision, 25km/hr limit when on a shared path and not passing a pedestrian.
Still not great (and would be better if the new law was scrapped altogether) but better than nothing I suppose
Nation-leading e-Mobility Laws to make Queensland safer
https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/105201
whatâs the definition of âsharedâ and âfootpathâ
Is a shared path signed and all other paths footpaths?
Because I know I can get to approx 25-28km/hr on a regular bike pedalling fast.
Hear hear
While still a heavy handed response generally, I am very glad that it has been watered down, and that licencing exemptions will be carved out for people with medical conditions.
I will say though, as someone who has had several close calls with scooters flying past me from behind, while on constrained inner city footpaths, I do welcome the 12km/h limit for passing pedestrians. I donât know whether it necessarily had to be a blanket speed limit on all footpaths through - in the suburbs you could ride for kilometres on footpaths without seeing another soul.
I was overtaken by 2 blokes on escooters the other night coming into Forest Lake when I was travelling over 50km/hr. 5 min later they went off the road into the Lake Parklands onto the shared paths down to the lake.
No idea how fast they would be going in there, but I doubt that it would be less than 12kmhrâŚ
Came up during the committee review that most of at least the BCC bike infrastructure (once you remove just the standard narrow footpath next to roads) was shared pathways built generally for recreational cycling (through parks / between suburbs) and then the purely cycleway only paths was pretty abysmal (Veloway is like one of the few, everything else is shared). Thus why the speed mix of all types just reinforces that the standard of infrastructure for cycling in Brisbane is pretty bad outside of a few key routes. I donât think itâs the only pull factor, but definitely people getting on high speed PMDs cuts that time down, but the bulk and speed are not great if you hit someone. I think the appeal of all these devices is sort of missed in the response, kids want to have fun with them (a tale as old as time) and older people jumping on the e-motos or PMDs are likely trying to get to areas with woeful traffic and parking (e.g. industrial areas) or donât have drivers licenses (either by choice or by court order, or just canât get one).
I have a Tern which is a 25km/hr EPAC and sometimes I do wish it could do 30km/hr instead on the long winding Gateway motorway, especially since I can do 40-45km on my regular bike. However, when I have 2 kids on it and shopping, I donât really need to and honestly the weight and safety requirements once youâre over 30km/hr donât really stack up.
E-scooters are already required to be used at max 12 km/h on footpaths (whether there are pedestrians or not).
Current laws also require cyclists (of all kinds) to slow down and exercise due care around pedestrians, there is no need to indicate a speed limit as it is context dependent.
The real issue is that cars are given the majority of space on our streets, with everyone else crowded onto narrow footpaths. Areas with high numbers of active travel users should have physically separated bike lanes, and/or restricted car access and low speed limits.
These new laws are appalling and will do nothing to improve safety.
These kinds of devices are already illegal, and since they are illegal, users are already breaking the law and will not follow any news laws put in place.
I agree these kinds of devices are an issue, but the new laws will not ban the sale of these kinds of âsouped upâ e-scooters.
Donât disagree with anything youâve said, just adding context to what people are seeing out and about. Average Joe doesnât know what the specs are for e-devices to be legal, they just see people out on them doing dangerous things.
And that problem has been unfortunately exacerbated by the shemozzle of a committee inquiry, goverment response and introduction of the legislation.
Rather than getting any closer to effectively addressing the actual dangerous devices and behaviour, theyâve just doubled down on the confusion and stoked more anger towards safe, legal devices and users.
Coming soon:
Dr Matthew Bourke - CEO of Bicycle Queensland interviewed on The Brisbane Channel.
