Main St and River Tce, Kangaroo Point

Like the local councillor, Cr Jonathan Sri, we have concerns about Council’s plans to “upgrade” the intersection of Main St and River Terrace, Kangaroo Point. The plan will add a second dedicated right turn lane, providing 2 southbound lanes for through traffic, and 2 lanes for turning into River Terrace. One of the 3 northbound lanes will be removed to enable that.

KPplanNorth The project information page says work will include “widening the footpath on the western side of Main Street between River Terrace and Amesbury Street“. That footpath certainly needs improving, although it implies the trees and garden beds planted there less than 3 years ago will be removed again, which seems like poor planning.

We note that Main St is on the Principal Cycle Network Plan, and that it will become a key walking and cycling route to connect to the new Kangaroo Point to CBD bridge when that lands at Scott St. The path should therefore be upgraded to meet the minimum requirement for a shared path (3.0m), but preferably to provide separate facilities for walking and cycling/scooting. Even in its current state, this path is quite busy – and that’s before the new green bridge hopefully attracts many more people to walk and cycle. MinimumWidths

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KPintersection We’re also concerned that adding a turning lane in to River Terrace is just shifting the bottleneck. Cars already queue the length of this street and Leopard St during peak times, and trying to increase “flow” by stuffing more in doesn’t seem helpful. Congestion has never been solved by adding more capacity; that has been shown time and again to simply add more traffic.

River Terrace could be a beautiful area to walk, picnic, and enjoy the city views, but Council seems determined that it become a multi-lane suburban arterial. That seems like a backward step.

It’s also interesting to note that the plan includes “reducing on-street parking on the eastern side of River Terrace between Main Street and Paton Street and relocating a bus zone and loading zone.” If those changes were being made to create a bikelane, we can’t help feeling that aspect would have received more attention.

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We’re encouraging people to write to Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner asking that the Main Street and River Terrace intersection upgrade project be paused, and the plan reviewed in the context of Council’s Knowledge Corridors and Precincts vision (particularly for the Woolloongabba Precinct just a little further south along Main St), Active Transport plan, and Green Bridges strategy. You might like to emphasise that you don’t support the current proposed design, and believe that more space should be allowed for pedestrians and cyclists.

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