FOur day a week Casey Gardiner travels an electronic bike from the suburbs of northern Brisbane to its workplace in its south. On a permanent night shift, the health workers of the pedal tremakes at home under the steel transits of the bridge of history, while shining with colored lights in the dark of those “small hours”.
Or at least until 5.30pm on March 5, when the trails were closed on both sides of that dear structure, and its displacement abruptly and indefinitely separated.
At first, the Council of Brisbane City said that it had closed the trails while the ex-tropical Alfred occupied the margin and the meteorologists would be tracked through the capital of Queensland.
Alfred was then weakened to a low -pressure system (crossing the continental part on March 8), and Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner stated that his city had “dodged a bullet.” The cleaning began and the city again made family routines as the infrastructure and services reopen. However, the trails of the bridge of history remained closed.
Schrinner has since said that closures are needed to evaluate storm damage and to build the case for an important bridge restoration. More than a month later, at the time of writing, they remain closed without a reopening date, and the Council encourages pedestrians, cyclists and scooter pilots to “consider” the use of another bridge more than 2 km away by bicycle.
But the alternative crossing of the river would pass to Gardiner through the streets of the Central Business District at an hour when it is not sure to set up its bike and when public transport is not an option. So, since March, he has led to work.
Kathryn Good’s house in St Lucia is the same side of the river as the new agricultural markets in which she and her partner buy groceries. But with a section of the Riverwalk in the CBD it closed until the beginning of next year due to the construction of a billionaire private development, Waterfront Brisbane, the couple avoids the city streets crossing the river A Green Bridge of Kangaroo Point, and runs through the bridge of history.
Or they did so, until March, when their closure forced them through the CBD. A parade on St. Patrick’s Day was in full evolution that Saturday and the detour added 40 minutes to his trip. The good, 26, and an intrepid and enthusiastic rider, has not been bothered to go to the new farm since.
Gardiner and Good are just two among thousands of pedestrians, bicycle riders and scooter who have had their journeys and disrupted travels or have left them from the closure of the bridge path, which cycling defenders say that it is a primary example of the failures that plaguy the city’s active transport infrastructure. As they say, the infrastructure, which can go from almost world class, in its few better parts, to almost unusable for many riders when they are altered by development or natural disasters.
Paul French of the Brisbane CBD bicycle users group is among those who ask that one of the six lanes of the history bridge be temporarily close to traffic and is used instead of active trips. But the French does not breathe breathing. He claims that manipulating the closures of the History Bridge trail shows how policymakers are not taken seriously as a form of transport. “
“Mate, the car is still king in Brisbane,” he says.
“Bicycle riding is largely considered as a recreational activity; I think this is the main philosophy here.”
The Frenchman says that many riders only learned of the closure when they faced a closed door and a sign that directed the traffic of bicycles and feet to cross -only to find that this was also closed. Later, Corflute’s maps directed travelers to a new kangaroo bicycle and pedestrian bridge, but the river Paseo also closes due to the construction of Brisbane on the seafront. These maps were demolished.
The French himself learned of the closure of the bridge of history indirectly, through the publications of the social networks of “Formats” bicycle pilots. The information of the City Council of Brisbane, which manages the bridge, said, scarce and “coy”.
Almost a fortnight after closing -on March 18, Schrinner was in front of the media saying that the Council had “used the opportunity” of the enclosures to make “technical evaluations in various parts of the bridge”, starting with the trails, to develop his business case for a “important bridge” restoration plan.
Did not answer questions about why the two trails closed simultaneously.
Guardian Australia sought an interview with Schrinner or anyone on the board who could explain the situation. The answer was a statement on Tuesday attributed to the mayor who acknowledged the inconvenience of the necessary closure for public safety work, which would “continue for the next two weeks”.
Andrew Demeck, a Bicycle Defense Director of Queensland, says that although he is “very disappointing” that many like Gardiner and Good are forced to leave their walks due to the closure of the bridge path, also emphasizes the best that has become the city’s assembly infrastructure.
It is possible that a scroll like Gardiner was not possible before the construction of northern bicycles and bicentennial, mainly extended and updated in 2021 and 2015 respectively. The Kangaroo Point bridge opened at the end of last year.
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Yes, there are often gaps among the “bright bits” of the infrastructure: sections of occupied and unprotected roads that prevent many from horseback riding. But, says Demeck, Brisbane has the “bones of a really good net”.
“I think the key problem is that it has no resilience,” he says. “So whenever any important section is closed and you can go through all types of reasons, the type of bikeway network is melted.”
DEMACK says that the same problems that come from the northern suburbs for about five years during the construction of the Clem Jones tunnels and Link Airport Link. According to cyclists, construction diversions were narrow, difficult to manage, had more hills and added significantly to the assembly times. So many simply stopped mounting from northern suburbs to CBD.
Of course, he says, cyclists understand that the city needs to build and fix things. But they want clear communication, an urgency of work and a safe alternative step.
“Everything we ask for is parity with how motorists are treated,” he says.
And, in the state’s maximum engine body, DEMACK and other cyclists have found an unlikely ally.
Like several of his colleagues from the Royal Automobile Club in Queensland, Dr. Michael Kane often moves to his bike.
“It’s faster for me to make public transport or go to work in the morning,” he says.
Kane, RACQ’s public policy, published a report this month to slow down traffic speed in Southeast Queensland, which received an “urgent call” to stop “an unpleasant tendency” to increase congestion.
He requested a Queensland Transport Plan in the southeast long term to achieve two key goals: the first of which was to improve public and active transport networks.
For Kane, the reality of realizing this plan will largely fall into the next federal government. According to the governments of the city and the state, they have done some “good planning work” in Brisbane.
“What we do not have is the serious funding to follow,” says Kane. “We have never been seriously, as a country, we have studied the opportunity to use bicycle infrastructure to address congestion in a coherent way.”
But ultimately, he says, bicycle infrastructure is “among the cheapest infrastructure you can spend to address congestion.”
“Improving bicycle infrastructure is for 100% profit,” he says. “Everyone benefits.”
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Image Source : www.theguardian.com