23 October, 2018

Over the last year or so, a lot of people have asked me what my views are on the Brisbane Metro. Generally, my answer has been that I don’t have a strong view because there has been so little detailed information made available to the public. How can you have an opinion on a project when the LNP won’t tell you anything about it?

In the last few weeks though, a little more detail has been released, assuaging some of my concerns and reinforcing others, so I thought I’d outline where I stand at the moment, remaining open to changing my mind as more information becomes available. The following write-up tends to focus more closely on the Metro’s implications for the inner-south side, but a lot of it is relevant to the wider city.

Overall, I’ve come to the view that Brisbane Metro will, on balance, be a positive project for Brisbane, but it probably doesn’t represent the best value for money, and is making some significant compromises that mean it will yield small improvements to the transport network, but won’t be the massive transformative game-changer that the LNP is trying to portray it as.

Project Costs

The total budget for the project according to the LNP is $944 million. Once you take into account ancillary projects that might not have been included in that figure (such as intersection upgrades to accommodate changed traffic flow patterns), I expect this will blow out to $1 billion because of the usual flaws of outsourcing to the private sector.

Unsurprisingly, the breakdown of this budget has changed a bit from time to time. The LNP have said that of that $944 million, a whopping $315 million is going towards the new Cultural Centre station and the associated tunnel extension.

The other major costs are:

• Roughly $142 million expected to be spent on the new Adelaide St tunnel to connect to the King George Square bus station, and on converting Victoria Bridge to a green bridge
• $113 million on upgrading and redesigning other stations
• $189 million towards the 60 new Metro vehicles and building a depot for them

Again, I expect these figures will change a lot over the course of the project. There are many other smaller costs adding up to the $944 million. You can find a lot more detail in the business case and other project documents online.

Questionable consultation and decision-making process

It’s fair to say that the average resident’s response to the Brisbane Metro has been “meh, I guess that looks ok.” This lack of excitement is probably part of the reason that the LNP continues to spend tens of thousands of dollars advertising and promoting it. It also reflects the fact that the vast majority of Brisbanites still don’t have a clear idea of what the Brisbane Metro actually is, which is hardly surprising considering the way it was announced, scaled back substantially, then scaled up again a little bit.

One of the most telling aspects of this whole project is the first part of the project’s ‘Key Milestones’ timeline (you can see it on page 4 of the Draft Design Consultation Outcomes report). The project concept was ‘announced’ as an LNP policy commitment in the March 2016 election, which was followed by a first round of public consultation. But it wasn’t until early 2017 that the council undertook an ‘options analysis’ to see what the best way forward was. I would’ve thought that it would make more sense to first identify all the different options for improving Brisbane’s public transport network, then commit to a specific project. The full list of alternative options that the LNP considered has never been publicly released, so we don’t actually know for sure whether there might have been other better ways to spend $1 billion on improving public transport. This process of firmly committing to a project, and then conducting an options analysis and then releasing a business case seemed very backwards, and gave the public the impression that all the key decisions were being made behind closed doors.

The lack of project detail, combined with the public’s increasing scepticism that council doesn’t really care what ordinary residents think, is apparent in the extremely low level of engagement with the 5-week consultation on the Draft Design report, with only 240 formal submissions and only 300 people attending information sessions. Personally, I didn’t bother making a submission because I believed the project scope was already decided and I didn’t think the LNP would listen. In a city of over 2 million residents, the fact that so few people gave feedback on a major $1 billion transport project is a bit embarrassing for the LNP. I literally get more engagement with local decisions about where to install a basketball half-court.

The concern with such a weak consultation process is that significant flaws or opportunities for improvement might be overlooked, because the council hasn’t done a good enough job of drawing on the valuable insights of the people who will actually use this service. It also tends to give disproportionate weight to well-organised lobby groups and business stakeholders, and less weight to the most marginalised residents. For example, while there has been relatively little meaningful input from ordinary residents, the council is also regularly seeking input from major corporate and government stakeholders, including the commercial operators of for-profit carparks in the area. Naturally, such stakeholders are more likely to resist proposals to reduce car access, even though reducing car access might be the best way to improve convenience and travel times for tens of thousands of public transport users. More on that further down.

Increasing capacity and making embarking and disembarking more efficient

A key advantage of the Metro over Brisbane’s existing bus network is that commuters swipe their GoCards or buy tickets when they get onto the station platform, rather than when they get onto the vehicle itself. This is a no-brainer that will speed up boarding significantly, helping reduce journey times.

Council says the new fleet of 60 Metro vehicles will each have a capacity of up to 150 people. Currently, the largest articulated buses in council’s fleet have a maximum capacity of 116 passengers. Obviously it makes sense to have higher-capacity vehicles running along the busiest busway routes. Council claims there will be a Metro service every three minutes in peak periods, so it’ll be a proper turn-up-and-go service.

Reduced boarding times and increased vehicle capacity are obviously two of the biggest benefits of the Brisbane Metro. The devil is obviously in the detail in terms of understanding whether these improved travel times will justify the $944 million price tag.

I should note that some critics have said the capacity improvements and travel time improvements are not really that significant in the grand scheme of things. If you compare the number of people currently transported via the busway to the number of people that the new Metro vehicles can theoretically move, the Metro doesn’t actually look that flash. But it’s important to remember that the BCC is planning to keep some existing bus services running along the busway too (they just haven’t confirmed which ones yet). So simply comparing the frequency and capacity of existing busway services to the frequency and capacity of the proposed metro vehicles doesn’t paint the full picture.

Fixing up the Melbourne St busway portal

One of the biggest bottlenecks in our whole transport network is on Melbourne St, just south of Grey St, where buses turn in and out of the Southeast busway tunnel opening. This awkward intersection is extremely inefficient, causing long queues inside the tunnel and slowing down the whole network. The current intersection arrangement here is also dangerous for cyclists, and slow and inconvenient for pedestrians.

The Metro project largely fixes all this by extending the underground busway so that both buses and Metro vehicles using the busway don’t pop up to ground-level until just before crossing the Victoria Bridge, on the northern side of Grey Street.

Pros and Cons of Cultural Centre Station Relocation

Many residents don’t realise that the entire Cultural Centre station is being relocated underground, to the south-west corner of the Melbourne St-Grey St intersection. This means the station will be approximately 100 metres further away from the city and 100m closer to West End, right next to the South Brisbane train station.

This should greatly improve the efficiency of transfers between busway and train services, as commuters will be able to jump off a bus on the underground busway and head straight into the above ground train station, whereas currently you have to cross Grey Street. This relocation will also slightly improve access to the busway transport corridor for people living and working along Melbourne Street. Bringing the station further to the south/west should also help bring more life to the public realm along Melbourne Street, and might help draw a little bit more commerce back towards West End.

But the redesign might mean a slight decrease in convenience for people transferring between above-ground bus services running along Melbourne St and underground services that use the busway. Currently, if I’m catching a bus from West End, it’s pretty easy to get off at the Cultural Centre and change to another service, depending on where I want to go. Under the Metro redesign, for the buses running along Melbourne Street (e.g. Blue CityGlider, 199 etc), new street-level stops will be created under the rail bridge to the west of Grey Street. For people riding the CityGlider outbound, it will be relatively easy to get down to the underground Cultural Centre Station. However commuters riding inbound on services like the Blue CityGlider would have to get off at the stop under the rail bridge and cross Melbourne St at the Melbourne-Grey intersection in order to transfer to underground Cultural Centre Station services.

This means that for commuters who catch one bus service from West End into the Cultural Centre Station and transfer to another service that uses the busway, your transfer might be longer and less convenient than it is currently. We still haven’t seen enough detail on this aspect of the project, and I’ll be asking further questions about how we can minimise transfer times for commuters who might be heading in to the Cultural Centre from West End with the intention of heading back out south along the busway.

The other obvious downside of this change is that the new Cultural Centre Station will be slightly further away from the Museum, Science Centre, QPAC, South Bank and the Victoria Bridge, which brings me to one of the biggest missed opportunities of the whole project.

Greening Victoria Bridge

One of the biggest and most significant impacts of the Metro is of course closing Victoria Bridge to cars to free up more space for buses. This was first proposed by the Greens before the 2016 council election and the other parties jumped on board too. Later, when council announced it would significantly reduce bicycle access over the bridge, there was strong public pushback, and more recently the LNP have reversed their position and confirmed that there will indeed be separated bike lanes on the bridge.

Requiring cars to instead travel via the William Jolly Bridge or otherwise stick to the Motorway and the Captain Cook Bridge is a logical and straightforward step that will greatly reduce the backlog of buses that builds up on the bridge during peak-hour. Some motorists who are accustomed to using this bridge will resent having to make the detour via the William Jolly and North Quay, which adds 2 to 3 minutes to a journey outside of peak periods. My response to such concerns is simply to remind drivers that taking cars off the bridge will allow it to carry literally thousands of additional public transport passengers (either by bus or Metro). Any driver who argues that it’s unfair to make them detour via William Jolly is essentially stating that they would rather slow down and delay literally dozens or even hundreds of people using public transport, rather than drive the long way round, which strikes me as an indefensibly selfish position.

Intersection upgrades around South Brisbane

In order to offset the broader traffic impacts from closing Victoria Bridge to cars, the council is allocating a few million dollars to redesign other nearby intersections, particularly the main intersections along Peel Street and also the intersection of Vulture and Stanley Streets further to the east.

If the goal of these ‘redesigns’ is to increase the capacity of these intersections to carry more cars, that’s not necessarily a good use of money. Reducing car access in the inner-city is an important and necessary step in the transition to a network that revolves around public transport and active transport. So adding lanes or slip lanes to carry more motor vehicles directly conflicts with the core principles of BCC’s own ‘Transport Plan for Brisbane’. However, now that redesigning these intersections is part of the plan, well-applied pressure from local community groups might actually be able to shift the project brief and achieve some design improvements for pedestrians and cyclists.

Missed Opportunities for New Public Space and the Failure to Close Grey Street

For years now, planners and designers have identified that preventing motor vehicles from driving along Grey St through the Melbourne Street intersection could yield massive improvements in public transport efficiency, as well as pedestrian and cyclist safety and convenience. It would also free up thousands of square metres of additional public space, some of which could be used for green space and trees in an area where more greenery is sorely needed.

As shown in the accompanying images, you could create almost 3000m2 of additional public green space by closing Grey St at either side of Melbourne St. A clear path could still be preserved through the middle of this public plaza for emergency vehicle access and for diverting buses if nearby bridges or tunnels ever need to be closed temporarily. The only driveway access that would be directly affected by turning this area into a public plaza would be the staff carpark at QPAC opposite the train station, which only holds about 25 vehicles, and still has an alternative access from the northern side of the building.

There are many ways such public spaces could be designed and activated. There could be a focus on pop-up markets and commercial activation, or on a quieter vegetated green corridor to counterbalance the hustle and bustle of South Bank Parklands, or even on outdoor performance spaces to leverage off the close proximity to QPAC and the Conservatorium of Music.

But the biggest value of closing off Grey Street would be in improving the efficiency of the Melbourne-Grey intersection, so that hundreds of street-level bus services and thousands of pedestrians and cyclists can freely move through this space from the train station and the new metro station without having to wait for the lights to change.

As mentioned above, one of the big downsides of the relocation of the Cultural Centre station to the south-west side of Grey Street is that thousands of commuters will be further away from South Bank, Victoria Bridge and the CBD. But closing off Grey St mitigates this problem substantially, allowing a free flow of public transport commuters towards QPAC, the Queensland Museum and South Bank Parklands.

Tunnel Openings Diminish the Public Realm

Depending on how they are designed, the entranceways to underground tunnels can have a pretty negative impact on the surrounding streetscape and public realm. The worst examples are the ones that carry multiple lanes of fast-moving traffic, such as the entrance to the Clem7 tunnel on Shaftson Avenue in Kangaroo Point.

These kinds of tunnel openings create an impassable barrier for pedestrians and a noisy, heavily concreted environment that turns a neighbourhood into a through-corridor. It’s very difficult to have activated streetscapes with shops along the footpath in such areas. The opening to the Queen St underground bus station in Reddacliff Place next to the casino has a huge negative impact on the amenity and useability of this public square, carving up the square and inconveniencing pedestrians.

If you’re going to have underground busways, obviously you need tunnel openings somewhere, but generally it’s better to avoid locating the openings right in the middle of the CBD. This is why there was a bit of criticism of the proposal to have a tunnel opening along Adelaide St in the city, immediately to the south of the George St intersection. This will probably necessitate widening Adelaide Street and might make it harder to activate the frontages of the Brisbane Square library building and the Brisbane Quarter complex across the road.

Overall, the Metro project arguably involves a few too many ups and downs. Metros will run in the aboveground busway alongside the Pacific Motorway, dropping below ground level through the inner-south side, popping up again at the Cultural Centre to cross the Victoria Bridge, then going back underground again at Adelaide Street. It probably would have been more efficient (and would have freed up more public space) to run a new tunnel under the river and keep the whole Metro separate from surface traffic from Buranda right through to Roma Street, but I’m told a tunnel under the river would have added at least $1 billion to the cost of the project (currently budgeted at $944 million), which is why the Liberals decided to just repurpose the Victoria Bridge.

Power Source for New Vehicle Fleet

It is deeply concerning that the LNP have not ruled out using fossil fuel-powered vehicles for their new Metro fleet. There are many kinds of trains and buses around the world that run on electricity from the grid rather than diesel or petrol, and overseas we’re now also seeing rapid growth in the use of battery-powered electric buses that recharge their batteries at charging stations or bus depots.

When reducing dependence on fossil fuels should be a top priority for all levels of government, it seems crazy that the LNP wouldn’t go for an electric vehicle option even if it might cost a bit extra in the short-term (but perhaps not surprising when you consider their values and priorities).

Oil prices are likely to rise long-term, so the ongoing running costs of fossil fuel-powered vehicles are likely to increase, whereas the cost of electricity via renewable sources is predicted to continue decreasing.

Are They Just Glorified Buses?

When the Liberals first announced the ‘Brisbane Metro Subway’ project shortly before the 2016 election, a lot of the messaging and media statements gave the impression it would be some kind of underground light rail system. Later, when Graham Quirk clarified that it would be a ‘trackless’ ‘rubber-tired’ system, a lot of people rightly felt a little misled.

Since then, a lot of criticism of the Metro has focussed on the fact that the vehicles are actually just long, expensive buses. This element of the project is out to tender at the moment, so we don’t yet know exactly what kind of vehicles these will be.

Putting aside the LNP’s spin and doublespeak, I do wonder whether it might actually be worth distinguishing between conventional buses, and the modern vehicles which are increasingly being used in BRT (‘bus rapid transit’) systems around the world.

BRT vehicles brake and accelerate more smoothly than older-style buses like the ones we’re accustomed to in Brisbane. They also generally have much better suspension, are easier to get on and off without climbing steps, and are a little more spacious inside. So the experience for commuters is much more like using a train or light rail service than riding a traditional bus.

Professor Peter Newman has written a lot about these kinds of vehicles, which he refers to as ‘trackless trams’ rather than ‘buses’. He used to be a strong advocate of light rail, but has shifted his position and now advocates trackless trams as a more cost-effective and less disruptive way of expanding public transport coverage.

Certainly in Brisbane’s case, the use of trackless Metro vehicles would allow the city more flexibility to expand the network in future. For example, if we had a council administration that was less car-centric, we could extend Metro services along major road corridors (e.g. Gympie Road) by taking away a lane of general traffic and replacing it with a bus-only lane. This is much cheaper and easier to do when you don’t have the massive cost and disruptive construction impacts of laying tracks all the way along the corridor.

The biggest downside of a trackless system is that it further limits the fuel source options for the vehicles. A track-based system could more easily run off electricity from the grid, whereas a trackless system will either be petrol-powered, diesel-powered or battery-powered, and if battery-powered vehicles are more expensive, I worry that the LNP will just go for the cheap and unsustainable option of vehicles that run off fossil fuel-powered combustion engines.

Broader Network Review

One flow-on positive impact of the Metro project is that it will catalyse a proper rethink of the bus network throughout Brisbane. Over the past decade, network reviews have been repeatedly postponed or scaled back in scope, so it’s been years and years since significant changes have been made to the network. Putting 60 new Metro vehicles on the busway will free up existing buses for use on other routes around the city, and will help short-circuit the usual political games between Labor and the Liberals at both council and state government levels.

One volunteer who has spent a lot of time following Brisbane’s public transport policy debates commented that the entire Brisbane Metro project may actually just be a backdoor into forcing the state government to support a broader network review, which might have a grain of truth to it.

My main disappointment on this front is that the LNP seem to want to wait until after all the details of the Metro have been finalised (which probably won’t be until 2021 or 2022) before planning any new services or making major changes. I would rather see essential new bus services (such as the proposed City Glider between Woolloongabba, Kangaroo Point and Fortitude Valley) introduced now, so that they are up and running before the Metro project is completed.

At this stage, there’s still not really enough detail to evaluate how the Metro might positively or negatively impact other suburbs and bus routes (particularly the routes coming in and out of West End at street level) beyond the main busway corridor. Hopefully an overall increase to the number of vehicles in council’s fleet will also mean higher frequencies and later operating hours for the CityGliders, Buz Routes and other services around the city, but it’s hard to know for sure.

Currently, the operating hours of the Metro are still intended to stop at midnight most nights of the week, with all-night services on Fridays and Saturdays. This is a positive step, but long-term it would be good to see later services on weeknights as well.

What else could we spend the money on?

As highlighted above, there has been no public disclosure regarding what alternatives to the Metro were seriously considered by the LNP. This project largely just uses the existing busway infrastructure, and is trying to increase the capacity and efficiency of the public transport network without taking any space away from cars. It does not create major new public transport hubs in under-served parts of the city, or improve inter-suburban connectivity outside the existing busway corridor.

In many respects, Brisbane Metro reinforces rather than challenges the fact that Brissie’s PT network remains heavily focussed on moving commuters in and out of the inner-city. Almost all bus routes from the south side go through the Cultural Centre, creating bottlenecks that are much more severe than they should be considering our city’s current population and the low proportion of people who currently use the public transport network.

But there might have been other, cheaper ways to fix the Victoria Bridge and Melbourne Street bottlenecks without spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a new Cultural Centre station and a short extension to the busway tunnel.

The Victoria Bridge isn’t the only route across the river. The reason council’s bus planners don’t run more routes over the Story Bridge, Captain Cook Bridge and William Jolly Bridge is that the buses get caught up in general traffic, and unfortunately the Liberal councillors are very resistant to turning car lanes into bus-priority lanes.

Currently no high-frequency bus routes run across the William Jolly or Story Bridges, and only one high-frequency route – the 340 – uses the Captain Cook Bridge. Creating dedicated bus lanes or transit lanes on the other major bridges (and the main roads that connect to them) would open up a range of possibilities to rethink the network, addressing the Cultural Centre bottlenecks without having to spend big on tunnel portals. Running more bus routes up Ipswich Rd/Main St and over the Story Bridge would also help reinvigorate parts of Kangaroo Point that currently feel a bit dead.

The broader point here is simply that other cheaper options to address the Cultural Centre bottlenecks don’t seem to have been seriously considered, because the LNP has an irrational ideological objection to taking road space away from cars.

I can’t help but wonder whether instead of sinking two thirds of the project budget into tunnels and station redesigns, the money could have been put into paying for many more new vehicles, and installing bus lanes on all major road corridors to massively expand the coverage of high-frequency bus or Metro services throughout Brisbane.

Creating new transport corridors (largely via tunnels) is much more expensive than simply repurposing existing corridors for more efficient uses. If we are willing to prioritise buses over cars on existing surface roads, massive improvements to the transport network are possible at relatively low cost, which would free up more revenue for subsidising bus fares, and get us a lot closer to that holy grail of free public transport.

You could write all day about a project as big as the Metro. I still have a lot of unanswered questions and will be following the project closely over the next few years. Although $944 million sounds like a lot of money, this compares poorly to the hundreds of millions of dollars that BCC spends every single year on road projects that prioritise and encourage private motor vehicle transport. Sadly, we’re still a long way away from the public transport revolution that so many Brisbanites are craving.

3 July 2018

The general tendency of the current LNP-dominated council administration is to spend too much on mega-projects and too little on smaller value-for-money upgrades that actually improve safety and convenience for local residents, and that trend has continued with the 2018/19 budget.

In terms of spending on transport within the Gabba Ward for the 2018/19 financial year, most of the key infrastructure projects have already been announced and do not need much explanation. These include:

• Widening of Lytton Road in East Brisbane - $34 million in 2018/19 (details at this link)

• Woolloongabba Bikeway Project - $7.9 million carried over due to delays + $3.2 million for a total of $11.1 million this financial year

• Kangaroo Point Bikeway Stage 1 - $2.9 million

• Traffic lights at intersection of Vulture St and Montague Rd, West End - $4.3 million

There’s also $600 000 in the budget for significant repairs to the Kangaroo Point Riverwalk (schedule 2.1.3.1), a few hundred thousand for repairs to retaining walls and embankments around the ward, and $80 000 for a Pedestrian crossing island over Vulture St East near Norman St, East Brisbane (schedule 2.1.2.2).

I was initially quite surprised to see $118 000 for a ‘Congestion-busting project’ (schedule 2.1.2.3) on Vulture St between Hampstead Rd and Edmondstone St in South Brisbane, but we’ve since learned that this is simply to paint some right-hand turning arrows in the right lanes. I will be pushing for any changes to the road markings through this stretch to include space for bike lanes. I’m not sure how successful this will be.

River Loop Safety Upgrades for Bikes and Pedestrians

One newish project which I’m very pleased about is the allocation of $1 million towards ‘River Loop Safety Improvements’ (schedule 1.1.3.1) which refers to the popular cycling route around Brisbane’s inner suburbs. I will be pushing for a fair chunk of this budget to be spent on Gladstone Rd and Dornoch Terrace in Dutton Park and Highgate Hill. I have provided the clear advice to council that this money should be used to improve safety pedestrians and not just bikes, and I have highlighted following locations as deserving of particular attention:

• The dangerously narrow road shoulders/bike lanes and the informal pedestrian crossing point at Lochaber-Gladstone

• The intersection(s) of Gladstone, Pope and Deighton near St Ita’s Primary School

• The Gladstone Rd zebra crossing near Park Rd West

• The Dornoch-Hampstead intersection

• The St James Street stairway (where a footpath along Dornoch ends abruptly and forces users to either cross a busy downhill stretch of Dornoch without kerb ramps, or walk down a very steep flight of steps)

• The St Francis Crossing (previously designed as a zebra crossing, but now much less convenient for pedestrians since the zebra crossing was removed)

• The Dornoch-Ganges-Hardgrave intersection (one of the busiest and most dangerous unsignalised pedestrian crossings in the inner-south side)

Unfortunately, a budget of $1 million probably won’t be enough to fully address all of the above-listed trouble spots, and I will continue to lobby for more money to be spent on pedestrian and cyclist safety within the Gabba Ward.

As you can see, any new infrastructure project involving a roadway is insanely expensive. Some of the key factors which drive up costs include:

• Paying multiple designers and traffic engineers to sign off on the project (even if it’s a simple project like a pedestrian island that shouldn’t need extensive design work)

• Paying for traffic management schemes and traffic controllers for the duration of a project (adds a lot to labour costs even for minor projects like drawing new lines)

• Relocating underground cables and pipes – this is a particularly expensive element that often requires collaboration with Telstra, Energex etc

• Designing road environments to tolerate high speeds – with lower speed limits, you can have narrower lanes and narrower concrete barriers between bike lanes, but as the speed environment increases, so does the cost of infrastructure

• Unreasonable requirements to maintain traffic flow volumes – this is a key problem particularly with traffic lights and bike lane projects. Because the designers are told that they can’t reduce the flow of cars, it’s much harder to make more room for pedestrians and bikes and they often have to acquire more land and relocate more underground services – making what would otherwise be a cheap and simple project much more expensive

Brisbane Metro Project

The other massive spending allocation in the annual budget that impacts on the Gabba Ward is the Brisbane Metro project.  I’ll post in more detail about this over the coming months. The council has gone out to tender for early works and a few other elements of the project.

The project has been scaled down dramatically from what was originally proposed. It’s basically some bigger, longer buses running along the existing busway, but users will pay/swipe their GoCard when they enter the station rather than when they get onto the bus itself. It also involves a major redesign of the Cultural Centre bus station (which won’t begin for a couple of years) and closing Victoria Bridge to cars and bicycles. Personally I support closing Victoria Bridge to cars, but I think access for bicycles should be maintained.

One of my other main concerns is that BCC is seriously considering fossil fuel-driven vehicles for the new fleet. This seems pretty silly to me for a lot of obvious reasons, and I would hope and expect that they will prioritise electric or at least hybrid options.

For 2018/19, the Lord Mayor has allocated a total of $39.9 million to the Metro, with another $700+ million to come over the next few years. Project costs are dramatically higher than they need to be due to the short-sighted desire to keep Grey Street open to cars through the Melbourne St intersection, and the reluctance to introduce bus-only lanes on key bottlenecks like the Captain Cook Bridge, the Story Bridge, Ipswich Rd and Gympie Rd. It seems the analysis of alternative options within the Metro business case has been quite limited and restricted in its scope. Although I’m willing to accept that the project will have an overall positive impact on the transport network in Brisbane, I’m not convinced that this is the most cost-effective use of almost a billion dollars.

Still No West End CityCat Terminal

There’s still no funding for a new CityCat terminal to service the high-density developments along Montague Rd in West End. This is obviously extremely short-sighted of the LNP, and will probably exacerbate congestion and compound transport planning challenges in future years. I’ve still got a live petition on my website calling for a new CityCat or some other kind of high-capacity public transport solution for the western half of the 4101 peninsula. You can sign it at this link.

Continuing service gaps in the bus network

Public transport coverage in Brisbane’s inner-south side varies widely from one neighbourhood to the next.

This map shows the bus and train routes that run at least every 15 minutes (note that it excludes ferries and CityCats). As you can see, some parts of the Gabba ward – such as along the busway, the train line, and the CityGlider and 199 routes – are reasonably well served, whereas large chunks of Highgate Hill, East Brisbane and Kangaroo Point still lack high-frequency services. There’s also no direct east-west link between West End and East Brisbane/Coorparoo. These gaps need to be filled if we are to accommodate a growing population and shift more residents away from car-dependency. Projects which reduce vehicle access (such as closing the Victoria Bridge) or remove carparking (e.g. to make room for bike lanes) must be accompanied by investment in new high-frequency public transport services to cater for local residents.

Unfortunately, this year council has again failed to put any money into creating new bus routes and services, which is a problem right across the city.

Road Resurfacing

As well as all of the transport projects listed above, council is spending a lot of money on road resurfacing within the Gabba Ward. Here’s a rough list of all the resurfacing projects identified for our area in 2018/19:

All up, this comes to a total of just over $2.8 million. Across the city as a whole, the council is spending $90 million on road resurfacing in 2018/19 (schedule 2.1.3.1), and there are probably many more streets that need resurfacing that aren’t in this year’s budget. The Gabba Ward is one of the most heavily populated wards in Brisbane, but despite carrying a lot of traffic from other parts of the city, it also has significantly less spending on road resurfacing than most other wards, which is largely thanks to the higher density, and the fact that a higher proportion of Gabba Ward residents walk, ride and catch public transport to get around.

It’s a reminder that even once you spend the money building and widening roads, you have to spend a lot more money maintaining them on an ongoing basis. This is not sustainable for the city long-term. Every time council spends hundreds of millions of dollars widening a road corridor (such as Lytton Road or Kingsford Smith Drive) it’s also increasing the road maintenance burden for future council administrations. Putting aside the negative environmental and social impacts of a transport network that revolves around cars, this approach is also economically unsustainable.

Overall, the Gabba Ward has faired a lot better than many parts of the city in terms of the raw quantum of investment in transport infrastructure, but most of that money continues to be wasted on road projects rather than active and public transport. The total budget this year for traffic calming (e.g. speed bumps and build-outs) across the entire city was only $1.9 million, which compares very poorly to the massive outlays on resurfacing and widening roads. With a few notable exceptions (such as the Woolloongabba Bikeway project) Brisbane City Council’s priorities are still quite backwards when it comes to transport infrastructure and planning, and are completely out of step with the direction that most other developed cities are now taking.

If you’re frustrated about the lack of investment in pedestrian safety and public transport, I also encourage you to read this explanation of infrastructure spending shortfalls if you haven’t already seen it.

The recent use of die-ins and other temporary blockades to raise concerns about pedestrian and cycling safety has raised legitimate questions about whether this is a constructive and useful tactic.

There’s no denying that temporary blockades frustrate motorists and potentially polarise the community. But their value must be understood in the context of a broader, multi-faceted campaign for change. Blockades are one important tool in a big diverse toolkit, and they can be valuable and effective alongside other forms of advocacy.

Right now in Brisbane, we have an abundance of community groups and non-profit organisations pushing hard to make our city more walkable and less car-centric. We’ve had dozens of petitions, letter-writing campaigns and submissions, with little to no impact. Advocates have also organised all kinds of community-building activities to legitimise and normalise cycling, and demonstrate that a bike-friendly city is possible and worthwhile. Various groups have hosted a range of workshops and policy forums where we create the space for nuanced, evidence-based conversations (usually, very few people come).

While these various tactics have all played a useful role in shifting mindsets and achieving small wins, the pace of change has been far too slow. The proportion of funding and resources dedicated to pedestrian safety and bike lanes remains tiny compared to the amount of money that is wasted on widening roads. Maintaining a seat at the table through diplomacy and compromise sounds nice, but you might actually be sitting at the kids’ table, arguing over crumbs while the rest of the cake is sliced up elsewhere.

In Amsterdam in the 1970s, residents upended vehicles and permanently blockaded major roads to call for safer streets 

When you consider the growing problem of traffic congestion, the health system costs of so many accidents, the billions of dollars which are wasted each year on ineffective road projects, and the desperate urgency to reduce fossil fuel emissions in order to minimise the negative impacts of climate change, it’s clear that we need some radical changes. Not only has tangible change been too slow, but on some indicators we’re actually moving backwards. Active and public transport rates have stagnated in Brisbane, and for some demographics, they’ve decreased significantly.

Over the last ten years, the multi-pronged push for pedestrian and bike safety improvements in Brisbane has been characterised by an absence of civil disobedience. It has also been characterised by a lack of significant and tangible positive outcomes. Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Government have grudgingly funded a few valuable projects, but much of the city remains hostile and unsafe for both pedestrians and bikes.

People are dying on our roads. Thousands more are being hospitalised. If preventable accidents were occurring at this rate in a private workplace, the business would be shut down. But the high rate of casualties on our roads has been accepted and normalised due to the lack of political pressure for change.

I hear a lot of road safety advocates talk about the wonderful infrastructure and pedestrian-friendly road culture in cities like Amsterdam, which are designed to prioritise pedestrians and bikes. Too often, those advocates forget or are unaware of the widespread and controversial civil disobedience actions that Dutch citizens organised throughout the 1970s in order to help make this happen. Civil disobedience wasn’t the only part of the campaign, but it was an essential and crucial element. To challenge the growing car-centric mindset in the Netherlands, residents blockaded roads, held up traffic and pissed off a lot of people. Without this activism, the pressure from car manufacturers, motorist lobby groups, oil companies, road construction companies, mega-mall developers etc would have led to Amsterdam becoming just like every other car-centric capital city. But the Dutch fought back, and it worked.

Controversial tactics like blockades create the space for conversation. They draw a huge amount of attention to an issue, both from the general public, and from key decision-makers. But their true value lies not in the immediate media coverage, but in the subsequent discussions they provoke. Some of these discussions are hostile and antagonistic, but many are constructive and valuable.

Civil disobedience also creates the negotiating space for other ‘moderate’ groups to articulate stronger demands. When politicians are confronted by disruptive, controversial protests, they will publicly dismiss the protestors as vocal fringe extremists, but will then simultaneously seek to appease and build stronger relationships with the very community groups whose petitions they previously ignored.

The fact that residents are so frustrated that they’ve taken to protesting about pedestrian crossings and bike lanes is not a good look for a city council. After the immediate news story is forgotten, the lasting memory in the collective subconscious is that people are unhappy with the council’s approach to road safety and transport planning. The desire to counteract that negative perception helps shift policy priorities and accelerates change.

A few people have suggested to me that rather than blockades, we should instead focus on actions that disrupt meetings in City Hall or Parliament House. While I think protests of that kind do have positive value, they generally get less media coverage and do not make as big an impact on the collective consciousness as protests that actively disrupt roads or commercial precincts. From what I've seen during my time as a city councillor, it's actually pretty easy for politicians to ignore a bunch of protestors who disrupt their meetings. It's much harder for politicians to ignore the broader sense of public discontent that civil disobedience actions on roads or in shopping malls can create.

While other cities around the world are actively embracing walkable neighbourhoods and safe bike infrastructure, Brisbane has fallen behind. The problem is not that our city is uniquely car-dependent, or that the influence of the motorist lobby is particularly strong. It’s that without the pointy-end, antagonistic protests, there’s not enough political pressure for anything more than minor incremental gains. And we can’t afford to wait another twenty or thirty years for the political establishment’s current bias towards cars to die out.

There probably won’t be a direct and immediate political response to the kinds of actions we’re organising. But a year or so from now, when political parties are deciding their policy platform and funding priorities for the next Brisbane City Council election campaign, the memory of these protest actions will subtly but significantly influence those big decisions.

If blockades were the only tactic used in advocating for change, I would agree that the division and hostility they cause might not justify the positive impacts. But as part of a multi-faceted strategy, they are effective and necessary.

The risk-averse advocacy groups who condemn and distance themselves from these kinds of controversial actions would do well to remember that the cities they point to – particularly in Europe and South America – as examples of good urban transport planning have had decades of controversial direct action in order to get to where they are today.

Divisive tactics will inevitably put off some people. But Brisbane cycling and pedestrian safety advocates have spent the last decade asking politely and carefully avoiding any action that might annoy or aggravate motorists, even as more and more of our friends end up in hospital. It hasn’t worked. We need to shake things up. Our lives depend on it.

Further reading: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/05/amsterdam-bicycle-capital-world-transport-cycling-kindermoord

Council has released further info about what it's referring to as the 'Kangaroo Point Bikeway Project'. I think the title is a bit misleading, because the project actually falls within the suburb of South Brisbane, and focuses on Lower River Terrace, Dock St and Little Dock St, which is the link between the Veloway bikeway (which runs along the Pacific Motorway) and the Goodwill Bridge. I tend to refer to it as the 'Dock St Bike Link'.

You can find the basic details and give feedback via the council website.

I'm pleased to see this project going ahead and have been pushing for it for some time. We were particularly concerned about conflicts between bikes and cars, and also bikes and pedestrians. A lot of people would probably agree that in particular, the current design of the pathways leading up to the Goodwill Bridge is suboptimal.

I'm very supportive of most aspects of the draft concept design. In particular, I'm quite excited about the 'shared street' proposal for Little Dock St, which will clearly signal to cars that they need to share the road and be more conscious of pedestrians and bikes.

However, I think there are two key missed opportunities in this preliminary design that need to be reconsidered.

1. The lack of pedestrian and bicycle priority at the Lower River Terrace crossing coming off the Veloway.

2. The loss of public green space at the intersection of Dock St and Vulture St.

Pedestrians and bikes should take priority over cars

As shown on the right-hand side of the second page of the prelim design (pictured above), the proposed crossing from the Veloway 1 Bikeway over Lower River Terrace still gives priority to cars ahead of bikes. I understand this decision was made because council didn't believe it was possible to design a safe crossing point that gives priority to bikes, but I simply don't buy that. If the concern is that cars turning onto Lower River Terrace wouldn't stop or slow down in time to give way to bikes, it should be possible to narrow the road corridor with chicanes or install additional speed bumps to slow down motor vehicles.

We already have examples in Brisbane where bikes are given priority over cars along key cycling routes. One such example is the crossing at Albion near the intersection of Somerset St and McDonald Rd (see below). Although not 100% perfect in its design, this intersection gives priority to bikes and pedestrians on a 50km/h road in an area where heavy vehicles are common. If a car fails to give way to a pedestrian or bike at this kind of intersection, the driver would be responsible for the accident in the same way as if they had run a red light or hit someone at a zebra crossing.

The Dock St bike link in South Brisbane is one of the most popular commuter cycling routes in the country. Many more bikes pass through this spot than cars, and given that we are trying to encourage more people to ride rather than drive, it makes a lot of sense to give bikes (and pedestrians) priority over cars when crossing Lower River Terrace. As part of this project, council could also look at lowering the speed limit on Lower River Terrace to 20 or 30km/h, with further garden bed build-outs/chicanes. Lower River Terrace is not a key connector road - if we need to slow down motorists in order to make pedestrians and cyclists safer, so be it.

It's important to recognise that based on council's current draft plans, even if motorists technically continue to have right of way at this intersection, many cyclists will not necessarily realise this and will tend to ride as though they do in fact have priority. By designing a crossing with a raised platform that slows cars down and gives cyclists a flat run, but still technically assigning priority to cars, the council may inadvertently be making the crossing more confusing and thus more dangerous.

We should sacrifice road space rather than green space

The intersection of Dock St, Vulture St and Stanley St is a problematic spot for pedestrians and bikes and will be undergoing a major redesign as part of the neighbouring Woolloongabba bikeway project. The northern side of this intersection (Dock St and Vulture) clearly needs an expanded pedestrian island (shown in yellow in the below image) to accommodate the volume of pedestrians and bikes travelling between the Goodwill Bridge and the Mater precinct.

Unfortunately, to create space for this pedestrian island, BCC is proposing to substantially reduce the size of the small park on the corner. Although it doesn't look especially impressive, this little park is used by local workers (particularly from Griffith film school across the road) as a shady spot to eat lunch. The park is also a welcome patch of green at an intersection that otherwise feels very built-up and dominated by concrete and bitumen. This plan would essentially bring the roadway closer to the established trees in the park and reduce the size of this green space.

A better alternative would be for council to remove one of the general traffic lanes heading straight out of Dock St, so that Dock only has 1 left-turn slip lane and 1 lane for vehicles turning right or going straight ahead. Rather than reducing public parkland to make room for pedestrians, council should be reducing the amount of space we allocate to cars. Many of the vehicles travelling straight out of Dock St are commuters rat-running via Lower River Terrace and Ellis St to get to Somerville House or the hospitals. This also increases the time it takes for local residents of Dock St to get through the intersection and out of this precinct. This is not a shortcut that council should be encouraging. Reducing Dock St down to one lane would also reduce the amount of time pedestrians require to cross here, which should also help improve the overall efficiency of the intersection.

In a neighbourhood with such high volumes of pedestrians and cyclists, and which is well-serviced by a range of public transport options, it simply does not make sense to rank the needs of a minority of motorists ahead of the majority of active transport and public transport commuters.

I'm broadly supportive of the Dock St bike link. The shared street approach on Little Dock St is a great step forward, and one of the first of its kind in Brisbane, and the designers should be applauded for thinking outside the box. But the two issues I've outlined here are quite concerning, and need to be reconsidered in the final designs.

I'll be providing these comments to the council. You can also give your feedback by emailing the project team on bikewayprojects@brisbane.qld.gov.au.

The State Government has finally released a bit more info about the proposed new public high school for Brisbane’s inner-south side.

I’ve written previously about overcrowding issues at Brisbane State High School, and late last year I wrote an update raising concerns about the lack of genuine consultation and possible flaws in the government’s process for deciding where the new school should go.

Recent disclosures by the State Government have showed my concerns were not unfounded. While different government sources initially provided somewhat-conflicting information via different forums, here’s some of what we’ve been told…

• the new high school will have a capacity of 1100 to 1400 students
• like Brisbane State High School, the new school may have a merit-based entry component, meaning students from outside the local area will be able to attend it
• the government’s preferred site is at Boggo Road/Dutton Park near the train station
• two other sites – one next to Davies Park, and the other at the northwest end of the Kurilpa Peninsula along Montague Rd – were briefly considered but deemed less viable
• the school is proposed to have exactly the same catchment boundaries as BSHS
• the new high school will have very little green space on site for student sport and recreation, but the government is currently negotiating with UQ for shared access to UQ sports fields on the north side

As a local councillor, it seems to me that the location, the catchment boundaries and the decision to include merit-based selective entry enrolments are all suboptimal, and that the State Government needs to completely reconsider its approach.

When you look at the government's Precinct Selection Report (particularly page 7 and 8) it's obvious that revoking or reducing BSHS's selective entry enrolment was left out of scope for this decision, so it was more-or-less taken for granted that the new school would also include merit-based selective entry. This necessarily influenced how the government evaluated each potential site, particularly in terms of transport and accessibility. It's obvious that the arbitrary deadline of wanting the school to be ready by 2021 also seriously influenced the decision, despite the fact that BSHS could accommodate more local students in the short-term if it tweaked its enrolment policy.

After months of unanswered questions, Brisbane City Council finally got back to me with more detail about how they’re proposing to address safety issues at the intersection of Montague Rd and Victoria St near the ALDI crossing. Frankly, their plans are a little bit underwhelming.

To apply political pressure for safe, separated bike lanes, West End residents will defy Brisbane City Council by creating their own temporary pop-up bike lane along part of Hardgrave Rd on Friday morning to coincide with West End State School's 'Bling Your Bike Day'.

 Witches hats, traffic markers and a chain of ‘human bollards’ will be used create a barrier-separated bike lane leading down Hardgrave Road towards West End State School.

 While pop-up bike lanes have been used in other cities around the world, this will be the first of its kind in Queensland.

 Residents are frustrated that the council has failed to invest sufficiently in separated bike lanes throughout West End and South Brisbane, so are taking matters into their own hands.

 Co-organiser Mitch Bright of Space for Cycling said “As well as the health and environmental benefits, protected bike lanes have been shown to improve turnover and increase economic activity for local businesses.”

 “Streets are safer and less stressful for everyone when there’s clear separation between pedestrians, bikes and cars,” Councillor Sri said. “Getting more people cycling for transport is a great way to reduce traffic congestion, but we need to give them their own space on the road.”

 “The slow roll-out of bike lanes in Brisbane is partly because council is reluctant to trial and experiment with temporary solutions, and instead spends millions on gold-plated infrastructure,” Councillor Sri said.

 “But rather than spending the big money up front, you can put out temporary barriers for a few months, see what kind of community support there is for the idea, and learn from the trial before making it permanent.”

 “A row of witches hats is still a lot safer than nothing at all.”

The pop-up bike lane protest will run from 8am to 9am on Friday, 8 September on Hardgrave Road, West End between Skinner Street and Vulture Street.

Best visuals will be between 8:20 and 8:45am, when we form a human chain to mark out an additional barrier between bikes and cars.

Interview contacts:

Councillor Jonathan Sri by mobile or on 3403 2165.

Mitch Bright from Space4Cycling on be contacted on 0418 767 709

John Parkinson (local resident who rides to school with his children) on 0426 447 294

Brisbane City Council has released more detailed designs for the Woolloongabba Bikeway Project, which will install separated bike lanes along Stanley Street and Annerley Road. 

While bike lanes like this are common in many cities around the world, this is the first big barrier-separated bike lane project of its kind in Brisbane, and a big step forward for a council that has historically been reluctant to fund complex and challenging bike lane projects in inner-city Brisbane. It will be important for the council to receive lots of positive feedback on this project so that it has the confidence to fund other separated bike lanes in different parts of the city.

Too many lives are lost in preventable road accidents. Too many people choose to drive because they don’t feel safe riding or walking. As the population of Brisbane’s inner-south side grows, we need to make our roads safer for all modes of transport, but particularly for pedestrians and cyclists.

Lowering speed limits will reduce the severity and frequency of car crashes, and make it easier and safer for vehicles to pull out of side-streets and driveways. Lower speed limits will encourage more residents to travel via active transport and public transport, thus reducing traffic congestion.

Reducing average vehicle speeds will also reduce noise and air pollution, improving pedestrian comfort and helping to shift suburbs like Woolloongabba and Kangaroo Point into walkable neighbourhoods with a vibrant street culture.

In built-up inner-city suburbs with narrow roads and high volumes of pedestrians, 50 and 60km/h speed limits are not safe or sustainable.

By trialling consistently lower speeds in such a large part of the inner-southside, Brisbane City Council can help reduce motorist confusion that arises when speed limits keep changing from one street to the next.

Hundreds of cyclists will stage a temporary die-in on Victoria Bridge tomorrow in response to a Brisbane City Council proposal to reduce cycling access over the Victoria Bridge.

As part of a mass bike ride through the city, residents will temporarily occupy the Victoria Bridge, closing it to general traffic but leaving it open to buses. Residents will hold a 1-minute silence for cyclists killed in car accidents, followed by the mass die-in. A die-in is where cyclists lie down with their bikes and mimic the carnage of a major accident, to symbolise how dangerous riding on roads without separated bike lanes can be.

Residents are concerned that council has failed to invest sufficiently in separated bike lanes throughout Brisbane, and are particularly frustrated that as part of the Brisbane Metro project, BCC is proposing to reduce bike access over the Victoria Bridge rather than increasing it.

“Council proposes to remove the existing on-road bike lanes, but is also removing the pedestrian crossing at the northern end of the shared footpath,” Jonathan Sri, Councillor for the Gabba Ward said. “These changes will force more cyclists onto narrow footpaths, increasing conflict between bikes and pedestrians.”

“Redirecting cyclists via the Kurilpa and Goodwill Bridges will result in more commuter cyclists mixing it with pedestrians along the South Bank riverfront and the footpaths of George Street in the CBD.”

“If we don’t get this bridge redesign right, we’ll end up spending a lot more money to redo it down the track as more Brisbane residents take up cycling,” Councillor Sri said.

“We’ve recommended a number of alternative design solutions to council and we’re keen to work constructively to achieve a better outcome.”

“Considering that council also supports another pedestrian-only bridge being built nearby to connect to the mega-casino, surely we can find more room for bikes on a redesigned Victoria Bridge.”

“Protesting like this is a last resort, but council has consistently ignored detailed submissions and large petitions from residents calling for safer cycling infrastructure in Brissie.”

Residents are also calling for lower speed limits and separated bike lanes on major roads throughout Brisbane.

Space4Cycling spokesperson Belinda Ward said that investing in pedestrian crossings and cycling infrastructure takes cars off the road and reduces traffic congestion.

“Other cities around Australia are striking a better balance between different modes of transport, but Brisbane lags behind and continues to deprioritise walking and cycling,” Ms Ward said.

“We’re not just frustrated about this one bridge. We’re concerned about poor outcomes and lost opportunities across Brisbane.”

Local resident Joanna Horton rides to work across Victoria Bridge via the on-road bike lanes and says it’s the shortest route between West End and her workplace in the Valley.

“Buses are still too expensive, and the alternative cycling routes are a lot longer, so reducing bike access over this bridge means people like me are more likely to drive via the Grey Street bridge.”

Councillor Sri says he hopes the turnout will remind council that there are hundreds of residents who would like to ride into the CBD if only it were safer to do so.

“It’s a mistake for council to focus only on current cyclist numbers. We need to think long-term and recognise that we can take hundreds of cars off the road if we make riding safer and more convenient.”

The protest ride will begin at 10:30am, Saturday, 22 July at the northern end of Russell Street near the South Bank ferris wheel. Cyclists will hold a 1-minute silence on the Victoria Bridge followed by the mass die-in between 10:45 and 11am. They will then ride through the city via Elizabeth, Creek and Adelaide Streets, ending at King George Square for another group photo opportunity.

For interviews, contact:

Jonathan Sri on 3403 2165

Belinda Ward on 0434 906 364