The plans for a new Bunnings Warehouse which has recently been approved for 73 Ipswich Rd, Woolloongabba show a new painted bike lane along the front of the property. Nice. Or is it??

Firstly, it’s a “green strip of death” – a painted on-road bikeway sandwiched between 60kph though traffic, and vehicles decelerating to turn into the warehouse. (You might expect both streams of traffic to include high numbers of wide vehicles, and vehicles with trailers…)

But worse: to be cycling on that section of Ipswich Rd, you would have had to have ridden through the narrow tunnel under the freeway. If not technically prohibited (the NO BICYCLES sign at the entrance arguably applies only to the motorway entrance to the right, rather than Ipswich Rd to the left), certainly all but the most daring cyclists would avoid it in favour of the nearby Veloway or using Logan Rd to Stanley St.

Meanwhile, heading south on Ipswich Rd—which is feasible and useful—the plan seems to indicate that that the current painted shoulder area will be converted to another lane of through traffic.

It’s also interesting that the Bunnings development will result in removal of a significant number of on-street parking spaces on Henry St. “Loss of parking” has been used as an argument against nearby bikeways which would help people travel safely, but apparently isn’t an issue here. Why?

Meanwhile, the application—which includes 336 car parking spaces on site—doesn’t appear to show a bike rack.

And what about the bus stop currently out the front of the site; Ipswich Road at Broadway, stop 10a? Where is that??

So, in typical style, the plans appears to make no provision at all for people who might want to arrive at the new store other than by car. Sure, there are certainly bulky items that people might not carry away from a hardware-house, but there are also a huge range of smaller items that people might happily carry home if they were walking, cycling, or catching the bus.

 

We’re with Jonathan Sri, Councillor for The Gabba on this: it’s a woefully car-centric plan for a site in the midst of high-density Woolloongabba, and adding a painted green strip to the road out the front doesn’t disguise that.

For more information, see the development application A004789857 on PD Online.