Please click here to sign our latest petition calling on Brisbane City Council to provide safe conditions for the many Brisbane residents who would like the option to ride a bike or e-scooter for regular trips like their journey to work. Our focus this time is asking for an off-road shared path along Sugarmill Road, Pinkenba.

Many people who currently drive would like to have the option to travel by bike – especially for the commute to work. Sugarmill Rd at Pinkenba is a key route for people who commute by bike via the Gateway Bridge to and from Brisbane’s northern suburbs, and to the hundreds of businesses in the Brisbane Airport Precinct and Australia Trade Coast. But the available road space for cycling is narrowed by informal kerbside parking on both sides of the road, and frequent use by heavy vehicles makes the Sugarmill Rd hazardous for people on bicycles. There is no footpath, so pedestrians, scooter and other micro-mobility users are practically excluded.

Some background: Back in May 2023, Airport BUG petitioned Brisbane City Council asking for bike and pedestrian infrastructure on Sugarmill Rd to make this route safer for everyone. You can read that petition (with 158 signatures in support) at this link.

Airport BUG didn’t specify how Brisbane City Council should make the road safer for cycling; we felt that should be left to their planning experts, and as always, weighed up against other constraints and uses of the road corridor. But we were concerned to read the draft response to that petition which gave the impression that land would need to be acquired from the Australian Government in order provide a shared path or separated cycleway.

Airport BUG quickly wrote to Transport Chair, Cr Ryan Murphy highlighting that there is in fact room for a protected bikeway plus two lanes of motor vehicle traffic and a row of on-road parking all within the current 12.8m paved roadway. Alternatively, we noted that there is ample room for a 2.4m shared path on either (or both) sides of Sugarmill Rd within Council’s road reserve.

We extended an invitation for Cr Murphy, or any of the other councillors who cared to be accurately informed, to meet us on site on Sugarmill Rd on the Tuesday morning before voting on the petition response. Needless to say, none of them showed up. (We took a few selfies while we waited!)

At least the discussion in Council’s meeting drew out the real reason, with Transport Chair Cr Ryan Murphy admitting “Council doesn’t support cycling on Sugarmill Rd”. In other words, the Council administration at that time did not want people to feel safe when riding a bike on Sugarmill Rd. They also did not support people being able to legally ride a scooter there!

We were upset and disappointed that the message was—by extension: Council do not want people to have the option to ride a bike or scooter to their workplace along Sugarmill Road or in one of the growing number of businesses in the Brisbane Airport industrial precinct. For people who need to access the Gateway Bridge Bikeway to or from the northern suburbs, Council wants to force you to use Nudgee Road even though they have refused our pleas to make that road safer too, and have been quick to remove any reminder of the tragic death of Phil Pawsey who was killed while cycling to work along Nudgee Road.

In their written response, Council argued that a connection between Schneider Road and Viola Place would help reduce some of the demand for cycling/scooting on Sugarmill Road. But we have been calling for the Viola Place connection for more than a decade, with many promises turning out to be false hope. The Viola Place connection could still be years away, and we have very little confidence in this Council’s commitment to actually deliver.

In their petition response, Council also noted “Sugarmill Road is deemed to be less suitable for cycling due to the speed and volumes of traffic using the roundabout at Lomandra Drive.” But since then, Brisbane Airport have completed a new shared path parallel to Lomandra Drive which connects to Sugarmill Road without requiring riders to navigate the roundabout in question!

So now it’s time to ask Brisbane City Council again do their job and provide a safe active travel connection along Sugarmill Road. We’ve pointed out that there’s plenty of room next to Sugarmill Road for a shared path in the road reserve – which is still publically owned land.

Before the closing date on Sunday 27 October 2024, please sign our latest petition calling on Council to provide safe conditions for the many Brisbane residents who would like the option to ride a bike or e-scooter for regular trips like their journey to work:

https://www.epetitions.brisbane.qld.gov.au/petition/view/pid/1365?